Art

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.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0328
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0328
Working on assignment, Henry Horenstein photographed EmmyLou Harris (b. 1947) at her home. In the 1970s, Harris represented the generation of musicians who were influenced by traditional country, rock, and folk music.
Description
Working on assignment, Henry Horenstein photographed EmmyLou Harris (b. 1947) at her home. In the 1970s, Harris represented the generation of musicians who were influenced by traditional country, rock, and folk music. Over the years, Harris has had a profound impact on contemporary popular and country music.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1980
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.034
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.034
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0321
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0321
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0325
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0325
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0329
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0329
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0324
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0324
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0330
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0330
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0326
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0326
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0319
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0319
The Johnson Mountain Boys was a traditional bluegrass band formed in the Washington, D.C. suburbs in the 1970s. Its members were vocalist, banjoist, and guitarist Dudley Connell, David McLauglin, fiddler Eddie Stubbs, and bassist Larry Robbins.
Description
The Johnson Mountain Boys was a traditional bluegrass band formed in the Washington, D.C. suburbs in the 1970s. Its members were vocalist, banjoist, and guitarist Dudley Connell, David McLauglin, fiddler Eddie Stubbs, and bassist Larry Robbins. Connell worked for Smithsonian Folkways for a time and Stubbs went on to host the Grand Ole Opry.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1981
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.030
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.030
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0317
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0317
David Lance Goines is known as a writer and lecturer as well as an illustrator and printer of both letterpress and offset lithography, his work much exhibited and collected throughout the country.
Description
David Lance Goines is known as a writer and lecturer as well as an illustrator and printer of both letterpress and offset lithography, his work much exhibited and collected throughout the country. But his Arts and Crafts influenced design is best known on his posters and in books. Goines was a recognized activist in Berkeley, associated with the Free Speech and Anti-War movements, and he did poster and book work for these movements.
Alice Waters, who founded the Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse, was a founding inspiration of the fresh, local, and organic food movement. She met David Goines in the Berkeley Free Speech movement. They began to collaborate on a column, “Alice’s Restaurant” for the local alternative paper. She wrote the recipes and he provided the artwork. He collected and printed each column as Thirty Recipes for Framing and the entire set and individual prints from the set began to appear on Berkeley walls and beyond, establishing him with enough profits to buy the Berkeley Free Press, rechristened the St. Hieronymus Press.
He issued his first Chez Panisse poster, "Red-Haired Lady," in 1972 and his most recent, "41st Anniversary," in 2012. In between is a series of anniversary posters, plus occasional others celebrating the restaurant's book releases, such as the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook, and other ventures. These works established his place as the primary artist associated with food and wine in the so-called Gourmet Ghetto. His early posters for Chez Panisse were soon followed by requests from other food and wine related sites and events, as well as from many other commercial entities.
The design for this 1987 poster by David Lance Goines was first commissioned as a bottle label by Corti Brothers Grocery in Sacramento to note the introduction of some of the first extra-virgin olive oil made in the United States. According to Corti, the labels were originally made for Antinori, the great Italian wine (and olive oil) producer, but a freeze knocked out the olive crop. Antinori returned the labels to Corti, whose grocery was to carry the Antinori oil. Corti got Goines to re-do the labels for the Pallido and Verdesco oils, “Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Spring Harvest Mission Olives,” simultaneously requesting a large number of the 4 color posters (unsigned, number130 in the Goines repertory) which he (Corti) could sell in the store. He also obtained the progressives from Goines, eventually giving the set of progressives and several of the posters to the National Museum of American History in 2012. The poster documents the arrival in the U.S. of the first wave of soon-to-be well known and much favored California-produced olive oils.
Many credit Darrell Corti for introducing chefs, food writers, and food critics to some of the high grades of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, American wines such as Zinfandel, and other foods that have become staples across America.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1987
maker
Goines, David Lance
ID Number
2011.0252.04
accession number
2011.0252
catalog number
2011.0252.04
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0318
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0318
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0323
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0323
George Jones (b.1931) is considered by many to be one of the best and most influential vocalists in country music history. His first hit was "Why Baby Why" in the summer of 1955.Currently not on view
Description
George Jones (b.1931) is considered by many to be one of the best and most influential vocalists in country music history. His first hit was "Why Baby Why" in the summer of 1955.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1981
print
2003
Associated Name
Jones, George
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.099
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.099
The "Queen of Country Music," Kitty Wells, (Ellen Muriel Deason, b. 1918) emerged in 1952 as the first female country vocalist to win and sustain major stardom.
Description
The "Queen of Country Music," Kitty Wells, (Ellen Muriel Deason, b. 1918) emerged in 1952 as the first female country vocalist to win and sustain major stardom. Her release, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,"--a lyrical response to Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life"--was a hit. Wells and her husband, Johnny Wright, continued to work a full schedule well into the 1990s.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1983
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.073
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.073
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0331
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0331
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1979 - 1980
associated date
1979-07-30
maker
Johnstone, Freda A.
ID Number
1988.0075.1
accession number
1988.0075
catalog number
1988.0075.1
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0327
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0327
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0314
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0314
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0320
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0320
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0315
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0315
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0322
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0322
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1983
maker
Colo, Papo
ID Number
2013.0327.0316
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0316

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