#archivesmonth2013

[smithsonianavarchivists]

Panama Canal at the Pacific Ocean entrance with a demonstration of opening a canal lock is from Thayer Soule's 1958 silent travelogue, Rainbow Lands of Central America, archived in the Human Studies Film Archives.  For information on Thayer Soule see Smithsonian collections blog post Promenade Home: Happy Fourth of July and for more clips on the Panama Canal see Smithsonian collections blog post Journey Through the Panama Canal.

[smithsonianavarchivists]

One sunny day around 1974, a school bus full of artists, art dealers, and friends led by Holly Solomon, took a field trip to a site-specific work of Gordon Matta-Clark in Englewood, NJ called Splitting. Someone picked up a portapak video camera and shot this home movie of the whole thing, and we're so glad they did.

We're pretty sure that's William Wegman with his famous dog, Faye. We hear Holly Solomon's voice loud and clear but don't see much of her, so it may be her shooting the video, although we don't know for sure. Skip to 9:55 for their arrival at the house.

Today we share this unique document of an extraordinary work of art with you in celebration of UNESCO's World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. Can you help us identify others in the video?

From the Holly Solomon Gallery records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

[usnatarchives]

What's the best thing about being an archivist?

There are two best things about being an archivist. First of all, it’s like achieving Introvert Nirvana on a daily basis. You could practically spend the entire day without interacting with anyone, if you so chose. I’m not that bad, but some days you just want to put your head down and work, and you can do that here. No one thinks it’s weird.

The other thing is that, as an archivist, you are a fly on the wall of history. You get to see everything in its unpreserved and raw form, and a lot of the time you are the first person to view this material since the responsible staffer put it in the box. It’s awe-inspiring to me.

To read more about Kim Coryat and her work as an archivist at the Clinton Presidential Library--and learn if she is Team Buddy or Team Socks--go the Pieces of History blog.

[smithsonianavarchivists]

National Museum of African American History and Culture

“Shot Down in WWII” 2011

This clip from NMAAHC features Tuskegee Airman Alexander Jefferson sharing his memories of being shot down while on a mission to destroy radar stations on the coast of southern France during World War II.  Jefferson was one of 32 Tuskegee Airmen to be shot down during WWII while fighting for a country that considered African Americans to be second class citizens.

To see more excerpts from NMAAHC interviews with Tuskegee Airmen, visit the Smithsonian Collections Search Center or NMAAHC’s YouTube channel.

[smithsonianavarchivists]

Human Studies Film Archives

Film clip from Argentine-American Jorge Preloran's 1965 ethnographic film, "Trapiches Caseros," captures traditional methods for making molasses with wooden mills introduced by Jesuits during the colonial era. The film focuses on the family of Salomon Escobar, of Macio, Tucuman Province, Argentina.

Learn more about Jorge Preloran, ethnographic film and moving image preservation by visiting HSFA's web exhibit on Preloran and Smithsonian collection blog posts by Karma Foley, Filming Imagination and Preservation of the Jorge Preloran Collection.

[usnatarchives]

An archivist's job isn't all glamor (see this post about pulling out pounds of fasteners), but sometimes best-selling authors are inspired by archivists!

Brad Meltzer (right) based the main character in his novel The Inner Circle on archivist Trevor Plante (left). And when Meltzer came to talk to staff at the National Archives in 2011, he was presented with a stack coat just like the ones archivists wear.

Meltzer enjoyed his experience doing research at the National Archives so much that he came back for more in his latest book Decoded. The newly published book has a thank you to our staff--and encourages everyone to visit the National Archives!

But you don't need to be a published author to do research at the National Archives. Anyone interested in history can come to a research room at our facilities across the country and get help from an archivist. (And maybe you will be inspired to write a book!)

[smithsonianavarchivists]

The Sperryville Documentation Project is an audiovisual collection documenting the Sperryville, VA community. It contains video interviews with historian James D. Russell (1921-2011) about his work preserving the history of the community, his family, and particularly his great grandmother Sister Caroline Terry, who was born into slavery in Rappahannock County, VA. 

The original miniDV tapes in this collection, which is housed in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives (ACMA), were recently migrated to digital file formats for preservation and access purposes. This video is the newly transferred James D. Russell Interview, Part 1 (Note that the first part of the video is B-roll footage of the area. The interview begins at 00:14:37).

For more on this collection, see this blog post by Taylor McBride on the Smithsonian Collections Blog. To view more videos from ACMA, visit the Anacostia Community Museum's YouTube Channel.

[smithsonianavarchivists]

Welcome back to our Tumblr!

With the government back open, the Smithsonian AV Archivists' Archives Month celebration tumblr is already in full swing.

In this post-shutdown feelin'-good-about-the-USA spirit, we share a classic, patriotic educational film about modern art in America, originally called "Art Discovers America."

This film is from the papers of its director, Alfredo Valente, at the Archives of American Art. Strangely, it was never released as it is shown here. Instead it was sold to a distributor, who re-edited and released under the new and improved (?) title "Grandpa Called It Art."