Art - Overview
The National Museum of American History is not an art museum. But works of art fill its collections and testify to the vital place of art in everyday American life. The ceramics collections hold hundreds of examples of American and European art glass and pottery. Fashion sketches, illustrations, and prints are part of the costume collections. Donations from ethnic and cultural communities include many homemade religious ornaments, paintings, and figures. The Harry T Peters "America on Stone" collection alone comprises some 1,700 color prints of scenes from the 1800s. The National Quilt Collection is art on fabric. And the tools of artists and artisans are part of the Museum's collections, too, in the form of printing plates, woodblock tools, photographic equipment, and potters' stamps, kilns, and wheels.
"Art - Overview" showing 381 items.
Page 1 of 39
Misc 1941[from enclosure] [black-and-white cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- Display of illustrations, small statues and small objects. "Agfa Safety Film" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1941
- 1940-1950
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Agfa
- Local number
- Box 618.04.122
- AC0618.004.0002129.tif (AC Scan)
- No Scurlock number
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Mrs. Hudson's paintings [acetate film photonegative, ca. 1930]
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- ca 1930
- 1930-1940
- photographer
- Scurlock, Addison N. 1883-1964
- Subject
- Hudson Mrs
- Local number
- Freezer box 20 *
- 618ns0178709-01ms.tif
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Mrs. Hudson's paintings: [acetate film photonegative, ca. 1930]
- Summary
- Exhibition installation photograph. Ink caption on negative edge. Defender Safety Base edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- ca 1930
- 1930-1940
- photographer
- Scurlock, Addison N. 1883-1964
- film manufacturer
- Defender
- Subject
- Hudson Mrs
- Local number
- Freezer box 21 *
- 1/0219 (Microfilm frame no.)
- 618ns0178715-01bp.tif (AC Scan No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Howard University Art Gallery--"Hand Holding Book" [acetate film photonegative, ca. 1940.]
- Summary
- Photographic copy of a drawing or painting signed Abraham John [?]
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1940
- ca 1940
- 1930-1940
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Subject
- Howard University
- Local number
- Freezer box 24 *
- 1/0373 (microfilm frame)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Porter Drawing [from enclosure] [black-and-white cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- Illustration of a either a cheetah or a leopard. No ink on negative. No visible edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1960
- N.d
- 20th century
- 1930-1960
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- artist
- Porter, James A. (James Amos) 1905-
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Local number
- Box 618.04.126
- AC0618.004.0002259.tif (AC Scan)
- 24493 (Scurlock No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Toluca Market
- Description
- This scene of the Toluca market was depicted by Alan Crane in 1946. Housed in the Graphic Arts Collection of the National Museum of American History, it is one of a series of lithographs of Mexican landscapes and genre scenes he printed during the 1940s. The growth of the tourist industry, rebounding after WWII, created a market for images of an idyllic Mexico—peaceful, scenic, and premodern. The elements of everyday life shown here—the densely packed stands of the ceramics vendors, the pulquería (a cantina that serves pulque, the fermented juice of the maguey plant), and the traditional dress of the marketeers—were as foreign to the urbanized Mexican American youth in Los Angeles, El Paso, and San Antonio as they were to American tourists seeking a memento of "Old Mexico." The generations of youths who grew up in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were fundamental in negotiating the language, aesthetics, and political vision that would constitute the contemporary culture of Mexican Americans. These young men and women, many of whom were war veterans as well as industrial and agricultural workers, created empowering images of Mexican Americans as they defined new roles for themselves as activists during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1946
- graphic artist
- Crane, Alan
- ID Number
- GA*23825
- catalog number
- 23825
- accession number
- 306563
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mariposas en Patyenaro
- Description
- With the lucrative growth of tourism in 20th century, stereotypical and processed images of Mexico have often been marketed to the American imagination. In them, "South of the Border" becomes a sunny pre-modern place of vacations, trinkets, and convenient lawlessness. But contrasting and complex images of Mexico have pervaded the American imagination since well before the Civil War. Mexico, itself defined by cultural and racial exchange, has historically represented a starkly different social order to most Americans. A country with cheap land and labor and bountiful mineral and agricultural resources offered economic opportunities to many Americans, from white financiers and mercenaries to black oil workers and baseball players. Mexico was also a refuge for many American artists, of Mexican descent or otherwise, who imagined Mexico in different ways. Some artists sought inspiration from its ancient history, and others came looking for a pristine and exotic landscape. This lithograph, titled Mariposas at Patyenaro was drawn by Alan Crane in 1943. It depicts the picturesque, butterfly-shaped nets of Mexican fisherman paddling their canoes on a lake. Alan Horton Crane (1901–1969) was a Brooklyn-born illustrator best known for his landscapes and genre scenes of life in Mexico and New England. Similar prints by Crane showing scenes of idyllic Mexico are housed in the Graphic Arts Collection of the National Museum of American History.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1943
- maker
- Crane, Alan
- ID Number
- GA*23830
- catalog number
- 23830
- accession number
- 306563
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mrs. Hampton's drawing exhibit [acetate film photonegative], 1935
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1935
- 1930-1940
- photographer
- Scurlock, Addison N. 1883-1964
- Local number
- Freezer box 20 *
- 618ns0178706-01sc.tif
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Mrs. Hampton's drawing exhibit [acetate film photonegative], 1935
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1935
- 1930-1940
- photographer
- Scurlock, Addison N. 1883-1964
- Subject
- Hampton Mrs
- Local number
- Freezer box 20 *
- 618ns0178708-01sc.tif
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Mrs. Hampton's drawing exhibit [acetate film photonegative, ca. 1930]
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- ca 1930
- 1930-1940
- photographer
- Scurlock, Addison N. 1883-1964
- Local number
- Freezer box 20 *
- 618ns0178710-01ms.tif
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
