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 75 items.
Page 5 of 8
Tex Ritter and Fans
- Description
- Henry Horenstein's photograph of this multigenerational crowd shows that fans of country music are not defined by age, but rather by choice of performers and styles of country music. Although Tex Ritter (Woodward Maurice Ritter, 1905-1975) attained most of his fame as a Hollywood singing cowboy in the 1930s and 1940s, he still performed into the 1970s. Ritter won an Academy Award in 1953 for the best theme song, "High Noon," for the movie of the same name.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1978
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.063
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.063
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tex Ritter and Fans
- Description
- A Tex Ritter fan holds a 45 RPM record as Ritter signs a photograph.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1973
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.064
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.064
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tex Ritter and Fans
- Description
- Fans stand in line waiting for Tex Ritter's autograph.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1973
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.065
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.065
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tex Ritter and Fans
- Description
- A man sells Tex Ritter photographs to fans waiting for his autograph.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1973
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.066
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.066
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patron
- Description
- A man listens to music at the Hillbilly Ranch bar.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1972
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.067
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.067
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Photograph of Joe Val
- Description
- In the 1970s and 1980s, photographer Henry Horenstein documented the lives and performances of country and bluegrass musicians. The time marked the end of an era of less commercialism and closer relationships between fans and musicians. It was a time when the casual atmosphere of outdoor venues was popular, and the music fans could often meet their favorite musicians in the parking lots or other areas of the grounds. In this image, taken in 1972 at Indian Ranch in Webster, Massachusetts, bluegrass musician and singer Joe Val (1926-1985) plays a Gibson mandolin in a picnic area. He is accompanied by other guitarists and is being watched by fans. Val (born Joseph Valiante) was an accomplished mandolinist and guitarist who played both traditional and progressive bluegrass in his band, the New England Bluegrass Boys.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1972
- 2003
- negative
- 1972
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.072
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.072
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kitty Wells
- 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
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.073
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.073
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hank Williams, Jr.
- Description
- Henry Horenstein photographed Hank Williams Jr., the son of legendary singer Hank Williams, leaving his tour bus. Williams Jr. (b. 1949) spent his early career singing his father's songs in his own style. After a 1974 suicide attempt and a mountain climbing accident in 1975, he revamped his own image, modeling it after rowdy southern rockers. Later he was considered part of the Outlaw Country Movement.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1973
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.074
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.074
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Billy Bird
- Description
- Billy Bird, seen here autographing a paper plate, played with Ernest Tubb (1920-2001) and was a pioneer of the electric guitar.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1973
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.075
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.075
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Carl and Pearl Butler
- Description
- Pearl Butler accepts a song request from a young fan. Pearl (1927-1998) and Carl Butler (1927-1992) were part of the honky-tonk and bluegrass music movements before World War II. After their 1962 hit, "Don't Let Me Cross Over," the Butlers became one of the most popular male-female vocal teams in country music.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1973
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.076
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.076
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center