Anthropology’s Neighboring Fields: New Virtual Finding Aids for Three NAA Collections

The National Anthropological Archives (NAA) primarily contains the papers of anthropologists, archaeologists, and anthropological societies and institutions. However, there are other disciplines that are connected to anthropology and its work, and these disciplines are also reflected in the NAA’s collections. Today I want to highlight the collections of a geologist (Richard LeRoy Hay), a paleobotanist (C. Earle Smith Jr.), and an animal behaviorist (Richard Lynch Garner).

Richard LeRoy Hay (1926-2006)

Richard LeRoy Hay was a geologist who was best known for his contributions to the fields of sedimentary petrography and archaeological geology. Hay worked with Mary Leakey, a celebrated paleontologist, and her husband, Louis Leakey, on their excavations at Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli in Tanzania. The geological framework that he provided for their excavations helped to place their discoveries into a chronological context.

Annotated photographs of Olduvai. The Richard L. Hay papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Hay earned his B.S. and M.S. in geology from Northwestern University and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. He served in the US Army Corps of Engineers (1952-1954) and worked for the US Geological Survey (1954-1955) prior to moving into academia. He then taught at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge (1955-1957); the University of California, Berkeley (1957-1983); the University of Illinois, Urbana (1983-1997), where he was the Ralph E. Grim Professor of Geology; and the University of Arizona, Tucson (1998-2006). He made his first trip to Olduvai Gorge in 1962, when he was at the University of California, Berkeley.

Though he performed geological fieldwork in many other locations, he is best known for his work at Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli because of the paleontological importance of the finds at these locations. Olduvai Gorge has provided the longest continuous known record of human evolution and the development of stone-tool industries.¹ In Laetoli, Hay performed a geological analysis of the tuff where a trail of roughly 70 footprints were found. The footprints are believed to have been made by Australopithecus afarensis and provide evidence of the evolution of humans by providing information about the shape of the foot and the development of bipedal movement.²

Annotated photographs of Olduvai. The Richard L. Hay papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Hay published frequently on Olduvai Gorge, and his detailed study of the geologic history of Olduvai, Geology of the Olduvai Gorge (1976), was his most significant publication. He also published on his work at Laetoli, coauthoring “Pliocene Footprints in the Laetoli Beds at Laetoli, Northern Tanzania” (1979) and “The Fossil Footprints of Laetoli” (1982) with Mary Leakey.

Hay was a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the California Academy of Sciences. His work was celebrated in his lifetime, earning him the Geological Society of America’s Kirk Bryan Award in 1978, the Rip Rapp Archeological Geology Award in 2000, and the Leakey Foundation’s Leakey Prize, for intellectual achievement in the field of human evolution, in 2001. His collection is of moderate size, comprised of 25 boxes, and contains correspondence, field notebooks, maps, photographs, data, and documentation of geological specimens.

C. Earle Smith Jr. (1922-1987)

C. Earle Smith Jr. trained in economic botany, which is the study of the relationship between plants and people, at Harvard University, earning his B.A. in 1949, his M.A. in 1951, and his Ph.D. in 1953. He went on to study this relationship between people and plants in an archaeological context, becoming one of the founders of the modern field of archaeobotany.

His research focused on archaeologically recovered plant remains and their usage by humans, studying the early domestication and distribution of corn, cotton, avocado, and beans. His first discovery in this field occurred while he was still an undergraduate, when he discovered the earliest remains of corn found to that point with fellow student Herbert Dick at Bat Cave, New Mexico, in 1948. He continued to pursue his archaeobotanical studies by serving as the botanist at archaeological excavations in Latin America, working primarily in Mexico and Peru.

Photograph of botanical samples from Tehuacan. The C. Earle Smith Jr. papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

In addition to his ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Yucatán, Panama, the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and Australia, Smith worked at a variety of institutions throughout the United States. He was an assistant curator of botany at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and acting director of the Taylor Memorial Arboretum (1953-1958); a curator of botany at the Field Museum of Natural History (1959-1961); the Senior Research Botanist for the Agricultural Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1962-1969); on the faculty in anthropology and biology departments at the University of Alabama (1970-1987), serving as the acting chair of anthropology department (1981-1986); and the President of the Society for Economic Botany (1979). His collection is comprised of 21 boxes and contains correspondence, research notes, data, manuscripts, publications, and photographs.

Richard Lynch Garner (1848-1920)

Richard Lynch Garner was a self-taught zoologist from southwest Virginia. He studied primate behavior, analyzing the vocal communication of apes. He made sound recordings in zoos starting in 1884, moving on to study apes in their natural habitat in the Ogawai River region in 1892. He asserted that he was able to understand the languages of apes and that he could teach them to speak human languages.³ He brought apes back to America to exhibit them in a travelling show, claiming that he was able to communicate with a chimpanzee named Susie.

Richard Lynch Garner performing studies with a child and a chimpanzee. Richard Lynch Garner papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Garner expanded his studies to observe general primate behavior, spending time in an elevated cage within an area inhabited by chimpanzees and gorillas. His collection also contains his observations about the local people and their customs which he made during his trips to Africa. Garner “saw himself as a defender of paternal southern views of race from northerners and from Christian missionaries”⁴ and the observations he made in Gabon reflect this perspective.

Garner is a slightly different kettle of fish than Hay and Smith, as his studies did not meet modern standards or methods and many of his conclusions have proven false. Even during his lifetime, he was denigrated by the professional scientific community.⁵ However, his papers provide a glimpse into early evolutionary study and the colonialist and racially biased outlook which influenced scientific thinkers of his time. Garner’s influence on the academic community is evidenced by the route through which his papers reached the NAA. They were originally in the possession of J. P. Harrington, a noted linguist, whose interest in Garner’s work prompted him to write a biography of the scientist. The collection is quite small, consisting of only five boxes, and contains a diary, correspondence, manuscripts, poetry, data, financial and legal records, maps, biographical material, artwork, and photographs.

 

Katherine Christensen

Contract Archivist, National Anthropological Archives

_____________________________

¹ “Olduvai Gorge,” Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed November 5, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/place/Olduvai-Gorge

² “Laetoli Footprint Trails,” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, accessed November 5, 2020, https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/footprints/laetoli-footprint-trails

³ “Missing Links,” University of Georgia Press, accessed November 18, 2020, https://ugapress.org/book/9780820340609/missing-links/

⁴ Rich, Jeremy. “Heresy Is the Only True Religion: Richard Lynch Garner (1848–1920), A Southern Freethinker in Africa and America.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 12, No. 1 (January 2013): 65-94.

⁵ “Missing Links,” University of Georgia Press, accessed November 18, 2020, https://ugapress.org/book/9780820340609/missing-links/

Letting the Cat out of the Archives

October, according to National Today, is a month with not one, not two, but four cat-related holidays! There was both Global Cat Day and National Feral Cat Day on October 16, National Black Cat Day on October 27, and National Cat Day on the day that this is scheduled to be posted, October 29. Therefore, it seems only logical that I write a post fit for the occasion.

I simply needed to search “cats” on SOVA – the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives – to find a veritable plethora of cat-related content, containing everything from family photos to paper dolls. The largest clowder of cats appeared to be in the “Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Animals Series,” so that’s where I started. I looked through a few folders until I came across one which contained two old books with intriguing titles and covers: The Cat Doctor, by Dr. A.C. Daniels (date unknown) and Christopher Cricket on Cats, by Anthony Euwer (1909). The former is an old cat-care guide with a deceptively cute cover – causing me to initially assume it was a children’s story about a cat with a medical degree. The book contains fascinating advertisements for such items as “Cat Crumbs” and “Dog Bread,” as well as some rather… unusual advice for cat-owners. It is definitely worth looking through, but for the sake of not writing a ten-page blog post, I’ll be sticking with the latter.

AC0060-0005049-01. Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Above: the spooky cover of Christopher Cricket on Cats, depicting the nine lives of a cat who has just died:  Anthony Henderson Euwer, with Introduction by Wallace Irwin. Christopher Cricket on Cats: with Observations and Deductions for the Enlightenment of the Human Race from Infancy to Maturity and Even Old Age. 2nd ed., the Little Book Concern, 1909.

AC0060-0005049-02. Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Above: a portrait of the fictional narrator, Christopher Cricket, also surrounded by nine cats in various positions.

Christopher Cricket on Cats is a book of “observations and deductions for the enlightenment of the human race from infancy to maturity and even old age.” What this means is that it is a wonderfully strange book. For those familiar with Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, by T.S. Eliot – from which we have the musical, and soon-to-be movie, Cats – this book is comparable and was published thirty years earlier. Written from the point of view of a child, but intended most likely for an adult audience, Euwer’s book contains poems, limericks, “observations,” and a lovely selection of his illustrations – varying from highly realistic to truly cartoonish.

Part of the humor of his writings is in the spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and obvious misinterpretations of common words and phrases that are attributed to the author’s age and meant to be charmingly incorrect. For example, the worship of “Sack-red” cats by ancient Egyptians, the use of nine-tailed cats as weapons against transgressors, or the assumption that when it rained cats and dogs, “they wuz only ghosts,” since no animals could be found once the rain had cleared.

AC0060-0005049-03. Archives Center, National Museum of American History

 Above: a rather exhausting number of puns on the left, and one of the most disturbing illustrations of a cat on the right with the caption, “Cataleapsy.”

These mistakes often rely on one literary device which fully saturates every page of this book: the pun. From the list of “Principle Dizeezes” and products above, to the explanations of the names of “Different Breeds” below, there is no escaping the cat-related puns. Any chance that Euwer had to add in a “cat”-anything, he used it. The owner of this book seems to have appreciated these puns, since they tried their own hand at punning on the very last page of the book: “A cat had a fit and it died – another cat had a fit and it lived [Result:] Survival of the fittest.” However, for those – like myself – who start to go a bit crazy at hearing too many of the same type of pun, there are plenty of other acceptable jokes:

“Some comes and rubs against you which, / Means you will scratch them where they itch, – / While others is so mean all through / They like lots better scratchin you.”
– “Cats and Humans – All the Same”
“Cats has been known to save hundreds of dollars’ worth of things frum bein robbed, by lettin Burglars stumble over them in the dark and wakin up the house-hold.”
– “Uses of Cats”
“Cats dont bark cause they’re afraid they might be taken for Dogs,– which would be very humiliatin.”
– “Reasons for Different Things”

It’s basically the original book of cat memes.

AC0060-0005049-04. Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Above: more puns, with the names of cat breeds transformed into illustrations of “The Angorrie Cat,” “The Magnifie Cat,” and “The Maltease Cat” on the left, and a cat on the right with the caption, “Cats with deep feelins is called Feline Cats.” Underneath this “Feline Cat,” an amusing observation on the “Uses of Cats.”

Much like the creators of cat memes, Anthony Euwer may have made all these jokes about cats, but he clearly loved and admired them. Even the fact that he capitalizes the “C” in every variation on “Cat” implies a deep respect for these feline companions. In the very same section as the first quote of the previous paragraph, Christopher Cricket lists many positive qualities to balance and even outweigh the negative, the entire time showing that “Cats and Humans [are] all the same.” Later on, in a story about the “Cumpuss Cat,” he praises cats’ ability to always land on their feet. More touching, however, is his last sentence of this section. Speaking about cats who run away, Christopher says, “Bet I’d never come back if I wuz some Cats that live some places I know, but Cats is wonderful good-hearted that way and dont seem to mind nothin.” However, you don’t even need to read this far into the book to sense Euwer’s affection for cats; simply open the book and read his “Deadication”:

To all the Cats that ever meowed
On this or any other sphere,–
From the beginning of all time
Unto this present year;

To all the Cats that’s still to come
And to all those that lives,
And to their ghosts,– each countin nine,
And to their relatives;

And to each one who likes some sort
Of Cat, no matter what,–
I deadicat this little book
With kind and lovin thought.

AC0060-0005049-05. Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Above: an illustration of a more scruffy-looking cat with the contemplative and uncharacteristically solemn short poem/caption, “Oh what’s the use of anything / In this life anyhow – / Won’t nothin matter much I guess / A hundred years from now.”

Contrary to what the caption on the image above states, over one hundred years after Christopher Cricket on Cats was published, I at least can still benefit from Euwer’s humor! However, if I had not looked through the collection myself, I would never have known that this book existed. When I first searched for cats, it simply never showed up. The SOVA entry – at the time that I am writing this – moves straight from folder 5 to folders 8-13 in box 5, completely skipping folder 7 in which these items are contained. The Warshaw Collection is vast, and so it only makes sense that the online finding aid would need continual addition, and that even when complete not every item would be listed. So, there’s a moral to this story: don’t be shy, and don’t be lazy; look through the archive collections for yourself!

Even if it’s a small collection that you’re interested in, with every single item listed and categorized online – a somewhat rare occurrence – you cannot possibly obtain the same feel, smell, and sight of the object from a screen alone. Even if there are images online, you could miss a scrawled note, a fingerprint, or even a hair (not always pleasant, but still). The only way to truly explore the archives is to find a collection, make an appointment, and come in ready to soak up information through all your senses. After all, why else would we be keeping all this stuff?

AC0060-0005049-06. Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Above: on the left, several witches ride cats above the caption, “The Whitches they used to beat em with the broom switches that they had.” On the right, a single witch and cat above the caption, “With great big eyes like fire in the dark.”

Side note: there are a handful of witches in this book, so it’s entirely appropriate for Hallowe'en!

To learn more about the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, or view any number of our collections yourself, please visit our website and make an appointment today!


Kira Leinwand
Intern, Fall 2019
Archives Center
National Museum of American History

Snake Hunter with a Microphone

Arthur M. Greenhall, ca. 1948. Photograph by Bob Smallman, PIX Incorporated. Arthur M. Greenhall Collection, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.

 Arthur “Art” Greenhall was a zoologist; but even more importantly, he was an adventurer and an explorer. Paul Greenhall describes his father as, “a true 20th Century pioneer with his fervent desire to explore, observe and document.”  Art travelled the world collecting and studying animals that many people have only seen in books or on TV. He put out a record, wrote multiple books, was interviewed for magazines and newspapers, and became one of the foremost zoologists of his generation.

Art grew up in New York City where he spent his teenage years chasing snakes around Central Park and removing them from people’s homes for extra pocket money. During his time collecting snakes he found that some had tiny spurs near the end of their tails and concluded that “snakes have hips!” He shared his findings with Ripley’s Believe it or Not! and received $100 for his submission (about $1400 today!).

Arthur M. Greenhall recording tortoises at the Detroit Zoo, ca. 1948. Photograph by Bob Smallman, PIX Incorporated. Arthur M. Greenhall Collection, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.

While still a teenager, Art found a mentor in the famous herpetologist, Dr. Raymond Ditmars (herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians, for those who were wondering). Ditmars spent much of his life travelling the world collecting animals and reptiles for the Bronx Zoo and Art wanted to be just like Ditmars when he grew up.  After high school, Art attended the University of Michigan and, by the early 1930s, earned a Bachelors, Masters, and PhD in zoology.  Following his time at university, his adventures truly began as he traveled to Cuba to work on a cattle ranch where he became fluent in Spanish. He was in Havana at the outbreak of the Cuban Revolution of 1933 and hid in his hotel room as explosions and gunfire erupted in the street below.

After returning to New York, Art went to work with Ditmars and accompanied him on trips throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean. Art acted as the contact point for the team and was particularly good with finding animals for sale in the market and making friends with the locals who could help them find a particular animal. His work earned him the nickname “Snake Hunter” among the locals whose help he enlisted.

Arthur M. Greenhall recording a tiger at the Detroit Zoo, ca. 1948. Photograph by Bob Smallman, PIX Incorporated. Arthur M. Greenhall Collection, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.

On one such trip, Art and Ditmars made their way to Trinidad, where Art managed to capture the first photograph of a vampire bat feeding. Ditmars went on to write the book Snake Hunters’ Holiday, published in 1935, about their time in Trinidad and Art used the book to lure his future wife Elizabeth into joining him on his adventures.

After he and Elizabeth were married they moved to Portland where Art was appointed the Director of the Portland Zoo. They spent 4 years in Oregon and after the birth of their children, Alice in 1943 and Paul in 1946, they moved to Michigan where Art became the Director of the Detroit Zoo.

While in Detroit, Art acquired an audio recorder and, at first, used it to play tricks on his family. He also used the recorder on multiple occasions to record his family and friends in a candid setting.  Once the novelty wore off, Art saw the scientific advantage of the recorder. He took it with him to work at the Detroit Zoo and spent many hours recording some of the 4,000 animals in the zoo. These recordings later caught the ear of Moses Asch and in 1954 the album Sounds of Animals: Audible Communication of Zoo and Farm Animals (FX 6124) with Art’s narration was released by Folkways Records (You can listen to samples from the album and his narration here). In the album, Art talks about the different sounds the animals make to exhibit different emotions.  It is easy to hear how the animal’s calls change with their mood and surroundings. His narration almost makes me wonder if translation of animal sounds might one day be possible.

Arthur M. Greenhall recording a flamingo at the Detroit Zoo, ca. 1948. Photograph by Bob Smallman, PIX Incorporated. Arthur M. Greenhall Collection, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.

His work recording animals drew the attention of Science Illustrated and they interviewed him on his work for the December 1948 edition of the magazine. The pictures seen throughout this post were taken during this interview.

Art hated the cold weather in Michigan and his taste for travel and adventure were far from gone. He applied for a position with the Trinidadian government and in 1953 was appointed Zoologist of the West Indian British Colony. The family spent 10 years in Trinidad where Art worked simultaneously as Zoologist Curator of the National Museum and Art Gallery (formerly the Royal Victoria Institute and Art Gallery) and Director of the Emperor Valley Zoo. He also worked as Consultant Zoologist at the Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory investigating vampire bats and their effect on rabies outbreaks. He also spent time collecting animals for the National Museum and Art Gallery, the American Natural History Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

After the family’s return to the United States in 1963, Art was sent to Mexico by the United Nations to study vampire bats and rabies. He grew to become one of the world’s foremost leaders in the study of vampire bats and their effect on the spread of rabies, publishing multiple books and articles on the subject.

Arthur M. Greenhall recording grizzly bears at the Detroit Zoo, ca. 1948. Photograph by Bob Smallman, PIX Incorporated. Arthur M. Greenhall Collection, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.

Art was a lover of animals and nature and that is reflected in almost every aspect of his life. He even had a hand in creating the Asa Wright Nature Centre in an effort to preserve the land of one of his close Trinidadian friends. Art took advantage of every opportunity to see the world and expand his knowledge of zoology and other cultures. The adventures Art took and the places and people he got to see throughout his life are truly enviable.

Kenna Howat, Intern
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections

The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections recently acquired a small collection of materials relating to Arthur M. Greenhall. The collection has been processed and described, thanks to Fall 2014 interns Jessica Coffin and Kenna Howat. To access the finding aid, or make an appointment to view these materials, please email rinzlerarchives@si.edu.

April is National Poetry Month

Miami-Dade Public Library bookmobile, ca. 1976 / Lowell Nesbitt, photographer. Lowell Nesbitt papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Did you know that the month of April is dedicated to the art of poetry? Although my job centers on the visual arts, I thought I might bring together the visual and the literary and attempt a haiku about one of my favorite items from the Archives of American Art collections, this slide of a bookmobile decorated by the painter Lowell Nesbitt.

Artful bookmobile

Stirs this Librarian's heart

Serving books in style

Wishing you a poetical month,

Bettina Smith, Digital Projects Librarian

Archives of American Art

2014: Year of the Horse

This coming Friday (January 31st) marks the Chinese New Year. 2014 in the Chinese zodiac is the year of the Horse, which gives me a good excuse to round up (no pun intended) some equine materials from the collections of the Archives of American Art.

Paul Bransom with 'The Skeleton Horse', 1962 / unidentified photographer. Paul Bransom papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Paul Bransom was a wildlife painter who grew up right here in DC, and trained himself by sketching animals at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Later he acquired a summer home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he taught art classes for Teton Artists Associated. He is pictured here in Wyoming with a patient steed that assisted him in his classes, with a skeleton drawn on its hide to teach budding artists about a horse's anatomy.

Ray Johnson mail art to David Bourdon, not before 1962. David Bourdon papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Ray Johnson was a mail artist and collagist who founded a mail art collaborative known as the New York Correspondence School. Here he uses the silhouette of a horse to advertise the Correspondence School with very interesting anatomy--it's labeled parts are all names of famous artists, architects, actors, and other celebrities (Hugh Hefner occupies the front left leg while Petula Clark takes up the left flank).

Page 4 of Angelica Archipenko's photograph album documenting travels through the United States and Canada, 1925. Alexander Archipenko papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

I saved the best for last. Sculptor Angelica Archipenko compiled a photo album of her travels with her husband (fellow sculptor Alexander Archipenko) through the U.S. and Canada. In Iowa she encountered this teeny-tiny foal, conveniently standing next to a full-grown horse for scale (photo is annotated "Landwirtschaftl. Hochschule [Agricultural college]; Ames, Iowa, Juni 1925"). It is one of my dearest ambitions to get my friend Tiny Horse into the pantheon of Internet animals, right alongside Boo, the world's cutest dog, and Grumpy Cat. 

For more equestrian materials in the Smithsonian's vast collections, try the Collections Search Center.

Bettina Smith
Archives of American Art

Proto-Surrealism and Fantasy in Early Advertising Art

Advertising card for Soapine, manufactured by Kendall Manufacturing Co.
From the Soap series, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Among the sources, progenitors, and inspirations for the Surrealist movement in twentieth-century art and literature were the art of children and the paintings and drawings of "naive" artists who lacked formal training. Their visual and verbal fantasies appealed to the creators of Surrealist theory, who sought to demonstrate the prevalence of dream imagery and its connection to the subconscious in our everyday lives in the "real" world. While viewing examples of advertising illustration from the 19th century and early 20th century, as found in the Warshaw Collection of Business American in the NMAH Archives Center, I have often been struck by the proto-surrealist sensibility of commercial advertisers and their illustrators from this period. Frequently based on simple verbal and visual puns calculated to capture the attention and amusement of the average unsophisticated American consumer, this imagery utilized fantasy and humor to help imbed product names in consumers' brains, and mental associations with bizarre illustrations and texts helped make products memorable to the shopper. Nowadays many television commercials seem to recall elements from early print advertising in their sheer wackiness. At times early advertisements also relied on popular racial, ethnic, and even occupational prejudices, represented in bizarre forms, to attract the attention of consumers.


Advertising card for American Soap Co.
From the Soap series, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Soap advertising was particularly rich with fantastic imagery, thanks to the implicit notion that a successful soap should be able to clean and "whiten" anything, including surfaces which weren't actually dirty: think spots on a leopard, for example, and beyond. Some of these ads were cruelly explicit in utilizing racist humor, while others were cleverly disguised. Here are a few examples of more benign soap advertisements from the Warshaw Collection to intrigue you: these clearly equate cleanliness with beauty and innocence. While social and cultural historians have studied such materials avidly for decades, I hope more art historians explore them as well.

Advertising card for American Soap Co.
From the Soap series, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

David Haberstich
Curator of Photography
Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Artists, Authors and Cats

After being forwarded another adorable cat video from a friend, I wondered what past generations would think of the 21^st century’s seemingly unending fascination with all things feline. Writer Ernest Hemingway’s appreciation of the six-toed cats that now populate Key West first comes to mind. I also found this great blog post that features photographs of authors with their cats. 

Of course, writers weren't the only admirers. A quick search through our photograph archives reveals portraits of artists and their feline companions.

From the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection:

Jose de Creeft in his studio with cat

      

Agnes Tait and Cat

And though artist Peggy Bacon may be more well-known for her satirical illustrations and caricatures of modern city life, the first book she wrote and illustrated was about cats, “The True Philosopher and Other Cat Tales.” She was also fond of depicting the Manhattan alley cats she often saw in her neighborhood. Below are a few of my favorites, some of which would have been perfect for meme-style captioning:

Cat on Pillow

The Weekend, 1939

                

   

You can find more portraits of artists and their cats (and dogs) in the Juley Collection here.

Rachel Brooks 
Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

A Bookplate for the Birds

Plate illustrating Swann's Synopsis of the Accipitres

The Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History has a number of rare volumes formerly owned by naturalists. Some of the books have autographs or inscriptions attesting to their provenance. Occasionally, a book may have a special binding design or stamp to honor its former owner. However, my favorite symbol of ownership happens to be the custom bookplate, and the book featured this week has a particularly elegant example.

The book, recently acquired by the Cullman Library, is A Synopsis of the Accipitres (Diurnal Birds of Prey), by H. Kirke Swann (isn't that a great name for the author of a bird book!). A noted ornithologist, Swann (1871-1926) worked for the natural history bookseller, Wheldon & Wesley, in Great Britain. Swann's research on the Accipitres was based on his own collection of bird eggs and skins, as well as the fabulous collections at the British Museum.

This copy of Swann's Synopsis of the Accipitres is from the second revised and corrected edition, privately printed for the author on large paper during the years 1921 and 1922. Only twenty-eight copies were printed in this edition. The text includes twenty-two leaves of colored plates illustrating eggs from the species featured in Swann's book. A smaller, octavo-sized version of the second edition, lacking the colored plates, was also issued in 1921-1922.

Bookplate of John Colebrook-Robjent

The Cullman Library's copy of the Synopsis of the Accipitres has a handsome bookplate identifying its former owner, Major John Frederick Robert Colebrook-Robjent. An accomplished ornithologist who lived on a farm in Zambia and specialized in the study of wild birds' eggs, Major Colebrook-Robjent commissioned this bookplate which reflected his interest in birds. The design features a Hoopoe, an Old World bird with a dashing feather headdress that resembles a crown, which sits atop a heraldic device with the Latin motto "Servato Fidem" (meaning "Keep Faith").

Swann, H. Kirke, 1871-1926. A Synopsis of the Accipitres (Diurnal Birds of Prey), Comprising Species and Subspecies Described up to 1920, with their Characters and Distribution. 2nd edition, revised and corrected throughout. London: Privately Printed for the Author, 1921-1922.

Call number: qQL 696.A2S97 1921a SCNHRB Cullman Library

Diane Shaw, Special Collections Cataloger
Smithsonian Libraries

Sneak Peek from the Stacks: Four-legged Heroes

Balto, Frederick G. R. Roth, cast 1925

January 27th marks the anniversary of the start of the 1925 Serum Run, in which over a dozen dogsled teams risked their lives to transport a much needed serum to the town of Nome, Alaska. Cases of misdiagnosed tonsillitis were first brought to the attention of the town doctor in late December 1924; by the end of January, Nome was in the middle of a diphtheria epidemic. Given the winter travel conditions, restocking the town's supply of antitoxin before the entire population was infected appeared hopeless. Airmail within Alaska was in its infancy and flying in below freezing temperatures was deemed too dangerous. Instead it was suggested that the serum be transported using a relay of mushers and their dogs. The first team was to leave Nenana, Alaska on January 27th, in the hopes that the serum would make it to Nome by the beginning of February. The teams exceeded expectations and the antitoxin was delivered to Nome on February 2nd.

The statue above was cast in the likeness of Balto, the lead dog from the final team. The monument was commissioned to recognize all the participating dogs, many of which lost their lives in the relay. The accompanying plaque reads, "Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925."

Commemorated in December 1925, Balto now stands watch in New York's Central Park near the Children's Zoo.

-Rachel Brooks, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Photograph Archives

Can Cute Children and Clever Cats Sell Coffee? Yes, Indeed!

Front Cover

As the Special Collections Cataloger for the Smithsonian Libraries, it seems I'm always coming across something wonderful or surprising in my cataloging backlog. While I spend my time creating and upgrading records for historically significant publications on science, technology, and the decorative arts to support research on artifacts in the Smithsonian's collections, they're not all serious scholarly works bound in leather with gilt-lettered spines.

Recently I was amused to find this adorable eight-page booklet, Baby's Letter, published by Raphael Tuck & Sons of London, Paris, and New York, dating probably from the 1890s. Beautifully designed, the booklet features chromolithographed illustrations and a cursive text in the form of a rebus, substituting pictures instead of spelling out some of the words, as a little child might do.



Example of the rebus-style text in Baby's Letter



Baby's Letter is written in the voice of a little girl vacationing at the seaside to her pet cat back home, together with the cat's response. Anonymously written and illustrated, the booklet ("no. 1027") was designed at Raphael Tuck & Sons' studios in England and printed at the Fine Art Works in Germany.



Back cover

This particular copy of Baby's Letter was given away as an advertising promotion. Inside the front cover, an ink-stamped notice reads, "These books given with AAAA Coffee and one pound can Unrivaled Baking Powder. Sprague, Warner & Company, Chicago." One of the largest wholesale grocery firms in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, Sprague, Warner & Company offered a number of premium items like this booklet to help promote sales of its household goods. Inexpensive little publications like Baby's Letter, and similar printed advertisements and promotional items originally intended to be kept around for a short time before being discarded,  are known as ephemera. 

Ink-stamp on p. [2] of cover

Raphael Tuck & Sons, a British firm which flourished from 1866 until the 1950s, issued an astonishing variety and number of illustrated postcards, greeting cards, and other printed souvenirs that are highly popular collectibles today. Surviving examples of many items published by Raphael Tuck & Sons can be browsed online in the crowdsourced databases TuckDB and TuckDB Ephemera.

Baby's Letter. London ; Paris ; New York : Raphael Tuck & Sons, [189-?].
Call number: PZ7 .B339 1890z CHMRB Cooper Hewitt National Design Library

--Diane Shaw, Special Collections Cataloger, Smithsonian Libraries

Smithsonian Celebrates 40th Anniversary UNESCO World Heritage Convention

The Smithsonian Institution and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) joined to celebrate the World Heritage Convention convened in 1972.  A mobile app and website produced by the Smithsonian showcases the Institution's archival and research collections that enhance knowledge of ten selected cultural and natural heritage sites around the world.  Moving images from the Human Studies Film Archives and still images and drawings from the National Anthropological Archives enrich several of these heritage sites including: 

Portrait of Alice Osceola, Mikasuki Seminole, Wife of
William McKinley Osceola, with their son
Photograph Frank A. Robinson, 1917
OPPS NEG 45838H

Everglades, United States, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2010.

Photograph is from the National Anthropological Archives

Film clip from the Human Studies Film Archives, Seminole, (1950) is by Ethel Cutler Freeman.
Ms. Freeman was a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. Her papers are housed at the National Anthropological Archives.

Film clip from the Human Studies Film Archives, With Notebook in Hand (ca. 1959) is by Frank Kreznar.
This charming amateur film is structured around a family trip to Florida. The young daughter receives permission from her teacher to go with her family as long as she takes notes of her trip in order to tell the class on her return.  The daughter narrates the film and this clip shows the family camping in the newly opened Flamingo Campground and viewing wildlife in the Everglades.

Taos Pueblo Lady by Eloisa Benal, Eloisa 1937
NAA INV 08789000

Taos Pueblo, United States, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1992.

This drawing is from the National Anthropological Archives.

This Human Studies Film Archives film, Indian Rhythm (1939) is by Ernest Knee. Ernest Knee, a photographer of the southwest, was commissioned by the state of New Mexico to make this film.  The original sound track is no longer known to exist.

The homepage of the website also features a link to the Smithsonian Collections Search Center.

Blogs across the Smithsonian will give an inside look at the Institution’s archival collections and practices during a month long blogathon in celebration of October’s American Archives Month. See additional posts from our other participating blogs, as well as related events and resources, on the Smithsonian’s Archives Month website.