Academic literature on the topic 'Smithsonian Institution. Archives of American Art'

ZusammenfassungEdgar Breitenbach war von 1953 bis 1955 als Vertreter der Library of Congress beratend für den Bau der Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek in Berlin tätig. Als einer der Volontäre des ersten Jahrgangs des neu begründeten bibliothekswissenschaftlichen Ausbildungswegs an der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität und der Preußischen Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin im Studienjahr 1928/1929 gelangte er auf einen Berufsweg, auf dem er zu einem Wegbereiter neuer Entwicklungen wurde. Der Beitrag untersucht, welche Rolle sein engagierter Förderer Aby Warburg sowie Netzwerke und Empfehlungsschreiben von Bibliotheksdirektoren für den Beginn der Bibliothekskarriere Edgar Breitenbachs in der ausgehenden Weimarer Republik spielten. Zur Rekonstruktion der bibliothekarischen Entwicklungen dienen Erinnerungen, Korrespondenzen und Personalakten aus der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, dem Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt, der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, der New York Public Library, der Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Washington D.C. und dem Warburg Institute London. Am Rande gestreift werden die Karrieren zweier Volontärinnen, Katharina Meyer und Gisela von Busse, die gemeinsam mit Breitenbach 1929 an der Preußischen Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin ihre Prüfung absolvierten.

In the article, the current situation and future prospects of transcribing, editing, interpreting, and preparing Isaac Newton’s manuscripts for publication are studied. The author investigates manuscripts from the following Newton’s archives: (1) Portsmouth’s archive (Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK); (2) Yahuda collection (National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel); (3) Keynes collection (King’s College Library, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK); (4) Trinity College archive (Trinity College Library, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK); (5) Oxford archive (New’s College Library, Oxford University, Oxford, UK); (6) Mint, economic and financial papers (National Archives in Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey, UK); (7) Bodmer’s collection (Martin Bodmer Society Library, Cologny, Switzerland); (8) Sotheby’s Auction House archive (London, UK); (9) James White collection (James White Library, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, US); (10) St Andrews collection (University of St Andrews Library, St Andrews, UK); (11) Bodleian collection (Bodleian Library, Oxford University, Oxford, UK); (12) Grace K. Babson collection (Huntington Library, San Marino, California, US); (13) Stanford collection (Stanford University Library, Palo Alto, California, US); (14) Massachusetts collection (Massachusetts Technological Institute Library, Boston, Massachusetts, US); (15) Texas archive (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre, University of Texas Library, Austin, Texas, US); (16) Morgan archive (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, US); (17) Fitzwilliam collection (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK); (18) Royal Society collection (Royal Society Library, London, UK): (19) Dibner collection (Dibner Library, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., US); (20) Philadelphia archive (Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US). There is a great discrepancy between what Newton wrote (approx. 350 volumes) and what was published thus far (five works). It is accounted for by a number of reasons: (a) ongoing inheritance litigations involving Newton’s archives; (b) dispersing Newton’s manuscripts in countries with different legal systems, consequently, dissimilar copyright and ownership branches of civil law; (c) disappearance of nearly 15 per cent of Newton works; (d) lack of accordance of views among Newton’s researchers; (e) problems with arranging Newton’s ideas in his possible Collected Works to be published; (f) Newton’s incompliance with the official Anglican doctrine; (g) Newton’s unwillingness to disclose his compositions to the broad public. The problems of transcribing, editing, interpreting, and pre-print preparing Newton’s works, are as follows: (a) Newton’s complicated handwriting, negligence in spelling, frequent misspellings and errors; (b) constant deletion, crossing out, and palimpsest; (c) careless insertion of figures, tables in formulas in the text, with many of them being intersected; (d) the presence of glosses situated at different angles to the main text and even over it; (e) encrypting his meanings, Newton’s strict adherence to prisca sapientia tradition. Despite the obstacles described, transcribing Newton’s manuscripts allows us to understand Sir Newton’s thought better in the unity of his mathematical, philosophical, physical, historical, theological and social ideas.

The Smithsonian Institution, a public organisation established in 1846 “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge”, includes ten museums and several research bureaux. Most but not all of the associated libraries are linked through the Smithsonian Institution Libraries; they include several art libraries which contribute significantly to the overall provision of art library service to the American people but do not of themselves constitute a “national art library”. Most of the Smithsonian’s libraries enter their records in a database (SIBIS) which is accessible online via OCLC. Co-ordinated collection development has been pursued since 1984. In two areas in particular, American and African art, Smithsonian libraries aim to provide a national service.

Billedet "The Library" (1960) af den afroamerikanske maler Jacob Lawrence hænger på Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) i USA. Billedet er bragt i REVY med tilladelse fra SAAM og Scala Archives, Firenze.

The mission of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian is to affirm to Native communities and the non-Native public the historical and contemporary culture and cultural achievements of the Natives of the Western Hemisphere by advancing, in consultations, collaboration and cooperation with them, a knowledge and understanding of their cultures, including art, history and language, and by recognizing the Museum's special responsibility, through innovative public programming, research and collections, to protect, support and enhance the development, maintenance and perpetuation of Native culture and community. Adopted 1990.

During the 1960s, US and Soviet space efforts engaged in a surrogate space race at international expositions, displaying real and replica space hardware as a way of demonstrating their celestial achievements to an earthbound public. The following decade saw an uneasy détente between the Cold War superpowers that prompted a new rhetorical emphasis on space cooperation rather than competition that spilled over into transnational collaborations and exchanges between the curators of American and Soviet space exhibitions. Drawing on documents from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Smithsonian Institution archives in Washington, DC, this article reveals how competitive displays of space technology were reconfigured to sell US–Soviet space cooperation. Official government-sponsored cooperative exhibits were spectacular and bombastic, but détente also fostered a quieter, transnational process of exchange between Soviet and American curators. American curators at the Smithsonian’s newly opened National Air and Space Museum were eager to build ties with their Soviet counterparts. However, the collaborations that resulted from these ties often ended up reinforcing their museum’s nationalistic narrative rather than subverting it. The 1970s saw the emergence of a transnational community of professional space curators dedicated to memorializing the early space age, but 1970s space exhibitions continued to reflect the previous decade’s nationalistic competition.