Art

Panorama of the Army of the Cumberland

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.

Date: 1970s

Herb Vegetable Sauce

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1970
author
Waters, Alice
ID Number
2016.0085.11
accession number
2016.0085
catalog number
2016.0085.11

DeFord Bailey

Deford Bailey spent fifteen years as a regular member of the Grand Ole Opry (1926-1941). In that time he established himself as one of the show's most popular performers and an influential harmonica player.
Description
Deford Bailey spent fifteen years as a regular member of the Grand Ole Opry (1926-1941). In that time he established himself as one of the show's most popular performers and an influential harmonica player. As a master of blues, jazz, and old-time country, Bailey was a vital link between older and more modern music styles. In 1974, he returned to the Opry stage as part of the "Old Timers' Reunion." He is most well-known for "Pan American Blues," a harmonica piece that sounds like a passing locomotive.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1973
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.043
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.043

Painting - Problem of Delos Constructed from a Solution by Isaac Newton (Arithmetica Universalis)

Two paintings in the Crockett Johnson collection concern the ancient problem of doubling the volume of a given cube, or the problem of Delos.
Description
Two paintings in the Crockett Johnson collection concern the ancient problem of doubling the volume of a given cube, or the problem of Delos. Crockett Johnson wrote of this problem: "Plutarch mentions it, crediting as his source a now lost version of the legend written by the third century BC Alexandrian Greek astronomer Eratosthenes, who first measured the size of the Earth. Suffering from plague, Athens sent a delegation to Delos, Apollo’s birthplace, to consult its oracle. The oracle’s instruction to the Athenians, to double the size of their cubical altar stone, presented an impossible problem. . . ."(p. 99). Hence the reference to the problem of Delos in the title of the painting.
Isaac Newton suggested a solution to the problem in his book Arithmetica Universalis, first published in 1707. His construction served as the basis of the painting. Newton’s figure, as redrawn by Crockett Johnson, begins with a base (OA), bisected at a point (B), with an equilateral triangle (OCB) constructed on one of the halves of the base. Newton then extended the sides of this triangle through one vertex. Placing a marked straightedge at one end of the base (O), he rotated the rule so that the distance between the two lines extended equaled the sides of the triangle (in the figure, DE = OB = BA = OC = BC). If these line segments are of length one, one can show that the line segment OD is of length equal to the cube root of two, as desired.
In Crockett Johnson’s painting, the line OA slants across the bottom and the line ODE is vertical on the left. The four squares drawn from the upper left corner (point E) have sides of length 1, the cube root of 2, the cube root of 4, and two. The distance DE (1) represents the edge of the side and the volume of a unit cube, while the sides of three larger squares represent the edge (the cube root of 2), the side (the square of the cube root of 2) and the volume (the cube of the cube root of two) of the doubled cube.
This oil painting on masonite is #56 in the series and dates from 1970. The work is signed: CJ70. It is inscribed on the back: PROBLEM OF DELOS (/) CONSTRUCTED FROM A SOLUTION BY (/) ISAAC NEWTON (ARITHMETICA UNIVERSALIS) (/) Crockett Johnson 1970. The painting has a wood and metal frame. For related documentation see 1979.3083.04.06. See also painting number 85 (1979.1093.55), with the references given there.
Reference: Crockett Johnson, “On the Mathematics of Geometry in My Abstract Paintings,” Leonardo 5 (1972): pp. 98–9.
date made
1970
referenced
Newton, Isaac
painter
Johnson, Crockett
ID Number
1979.1093.36
catalog number
1979.1093.36
accession number
1979.1093

Fans with Carl and Pearl Butler

Carl and Pearl Butler pose for photographs with fans.Currently not on view
Description
Carl and Pearl Butler pose for photographs with fans.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1973
print
2003
Associated Name
Butler, Pearl
Butler, Carl
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.090
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.090

Chocolate Mousse

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1970
author
Waters, Alice
ID Number
2016.0085.10
accession number
2016.0085
catalog number
2016.0085.10

Accordian Player, Louisiana

The first accordion was built in Germany in 1822. It took close to one hundred years before it was introduced into country music.Currently not on view
Description
The first accordion was built in Germany in 1822. It took close to one hundred years before it was introduced into country music.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1977
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.027
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.027

Gathering of Yogi Bhajan's Yoga Students at the Law Farm

With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture.
Description
With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture. She recorded this unconventional time of Anti-War demonstrations in California, communes, Love-Ins, peace marches and concerts, as well as her family life as she became a wife and mother. The photographs were collected by William Yeingst and Shannon Perich in a cross-unit collecting collaboration. Together they selected over two hundred photographs relevant to photographic history, cultural history, domestic life and social history.
Law’s portraiture and concert photographs include Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Lovin Spoonful and Peter, Paul and Mary. She also took several of Janis Joplin and her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, including the photograph used to create the poster included in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum’s exhibition 1001 Days and Nights in American Art. Law and other members of the Hog Farm were involved in the logistics of setting up the well-known musical extravaganza, Woodstock. Her photographs include the teepee poles going into the hold of the plane, a few concert scenes and amenities like the kitchen and medical tent. Other photographs include peace rallies and concerts in Haight-Ashbury, Coretta Scott King speaking at an Anti-War protest and portraits of Allen Ginsburg and Timothy Leary. From her life in New Mexico the photographs include yoga sessions with Yogi Bhajan, bus races, parades and other public events. From life on the New Buffalo Commune, there are many pictures of her family and friends taken during meal preparation and eating, farming, building, playing, giving birth and caring for children.
Ms. Law did not realize how important her photographs were while she was taking them. It was not until after she divorced her husband, left the farm for Santa Fe and began a career as a photographer that she realized the depth of history she recorded. Today, she spends her time writing books, showing her photographs in museums all over the United States and making documentaries. In 1990, her video documentary, “Flashing on the Sixties,” won several awards.
A selection of photographs was featured in the exhibition A Visual Journey: Photographs by Lisa Law, 1964–1971, at the National Museum of American History October 1998-April 1999.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970
date printed
1998
maker
Law, Lisa Bachelis
ID Number
1998.0139.180
accession number
1998.0139
catalog number
1998.0139.180

Orange Duck

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1970
author
Waters, Alice
ID Number
2016.0085.16
accession number
2016.0085
catalog number
2016.0085.16

Women Artists Speak to Government

A 1979 poster, "Women Artists Speak to Government"Currently not on view
Description
A 1979 poster, "Women Artists Speak to Government"
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1979
associated date
January 28, 1979
ID Number
1982.3014.06

Painting - Heptagon from Its Seven Sides

Toward the end of his life, Crockett Johnson took up the problem of constructing a regular seven-sided polygon or heptagon. This construction, as Gauss had demonstrated, requires more than a straight edge and compass.
Description
Toward the end of his life, Crockett Johnson took up the problem of constructing a regular seven-sided polygon or heptagon. This construction, as Gauss had demonstrated, requires more than a straight edge and compass. Crockett Johnson used compass and a straight edge with a unit length marked on it. Archimedes and Newton had suggested that constructions of this sort could be used to trisect the angle and to find a cube with twice the volume of a given cube, and Crockett Johnson followed their example.
One may construct a heptagon given an angle of pi divided by seven. If an isosceles triangle with this vertex angle is inscribed in a circle, the base of the triangle will have the length of one side of a regular heptagon inscribed in that circle. According to Crockett Johnson's later account, in the fall of 1973, while having lunch in the city of Syracuse on Sicily during a tour of the Mediterranean, he toyed with seven toothpicks, arranging them in various patterns. Eventually he created an angle with his menu and wine list and arranged the seven toothpicks within the angle in crisscross patterns until his arrangement appeared as is shown in the painting.
Crockett Johnson realized that the vertex angle of the large isosceles triangle shown is exactly π/7 radians, as desired. The argument suggested by his diagram is more complex than what he later published. The numerical results shown in the figure suggest his willingness to carry out detailed calculations.
Heptagon from its Seven Sides, painted in 1973 and #107 in the series, shows a triangle with purple and white sections on a navy blue background. This oil or acrylic painting on masonite is signed on its back : HEPTAGON FROM (/) ITS SEVEN SIDES (/) (Color sketch for larger painting) (/) Crockett Johnson 1973. No larger painting on this pattern is at the Smithsonian.
Reference: Crockett Johnson, "A Construction for a Regular Heptagon," Mathematical Gazette, 1975, vol. 59, pp. 17–21.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1973
painter
Johnson, Crockett
ID Number
1979.1093.74
catalog number
1979.1093.74
accession number
1979.1093

"Hot Nuts" Fred's Lounge, Mamou, Louisiana

Fred's Lounge was a well-known honky-tonk in the heart of Cajun country. The bar opened at 7 a.m. on Saturday mornings to host the droves of visitors who came to hear the local bands that played from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.Currently not on view
Description
Fred's Lounge was a well-known honky-tonk in the heart of Cajun country. The bar opened at 7 a.m. on Saturday mornings to host the droves of visitors who came to hear the local bands that played from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1977
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.039
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.039

Tootsies' Bartender

Bartender Wanda Lohman, known as "Miss Wanda," worked at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge from 1960 to 1984. The walls of Tootsie's became a kind of community scrapbook. Tootsie, like her patrons, was a fan of country music.
Description
Bartender Wanda Lohman, known as "Miss Wanda," worked at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge from 1960 to 1984. The walls of Tootsie's became a kind of community scrapbook. Tootsie, like her patrons, was a fan of country music. She collected autographs, posters, record albums, and photographs. Patrons, family, and friends contributed their comments and added photos.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1974
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.107
catalog number
2003.0169.107
accession number
2003.0169

Ernest Tubb signing autographs

For much of his career, Ernest Tubb, the "Texas Troubadour" was considered the ultimate honky tonk vocalist and stylist. Inspired by Jimmie Rodgers in the 1920s, Tubb sustained a musical career that at times also branched into film and television.
Description
For much of his career, Ernest Tubb, the "Texas Troubadour" was considered the ultimate honky tonk vocalist and stylist. Inspired by Jimmie Rodgers in the 1920s, Tubb sustained a musical career that at times also branched into film and television. No artist toured as much, or for as long as Ernest Tubb, who worked 150 to 200 shows each year between the early 1960s and 1982. No artist was kinder to his fans, and no fans were more loyal to their star. Ernest Tubb had one national fan club with a single president for its entire existence between 1944 and its deactivation in the early 1990s.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1973
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.086
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.086

Henry Horenstein with Maybelle Carter

Photographer Henry Horenstein stands with Mother Maybelle Carter for photograph.Currently not on view
Description
Photographer Henry Horenstein stands with Mother Maybelle Carter for photograph.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1973
print
2003
Associated Name
Horenstein, Henry
Carter, Mother Maybelle
maker
Horenstein, Henry
Rosenburg, Lewis
ID Number
2003.0169.093
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.093

Moroccan Carrots

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1970
author
Waters, Alice
ID Number
2016.0085.15
accession number
2016.0085
catalog number
2016.0085.15

Statue of Louis Armstrong

This chalkware statue of American jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was made by Esco Products, Inc. in New York, circa 1972.
Description

This chalkware statue of American jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was made by Esco Products, Inc. in New York, circa 1972. The statue depicts Armstrong in a burgundy jacket with white shirt, black bowtie, pants and shoes, holding a trumpet in his right hand and a handkerchief in his left hand. As in many of Esco’s celebrity statues, the heads are exaggerated in size.

The statue was given to American jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald and is inscribed on the bottom of the statue, “FROM PHOEBE.”

Location
Currently not on view
manufacturing date
ca 1972
depicted
Armstrong, Louis
ID Number
1996.0342.062
accession number
1996.0342
catalog number
1996.0342.062

Painting - Squares of 1, 2, 3, 4 and Square Roots to 8

This painting reflects Crockett Johnson's enduring fascination with square roots and squaring.
Description
This painting reflects Crockett Johnson's enduring fascination with square roots and squaring. As the title suggests, it includes four squares whose areas are 1, 2, 3, and 4 square units, and seven line segments whose lengths are the square roots of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
One may construct these squares and square roots by alternate applications of the Pythagorean theorem to squares running along the diagonal of the painting, and to rectangles running across the top (not all the rectangles are shown). More specifically, assume that the light-colored square in the upper left corner of the painting has side of length 1 (which equals the square root of 1). Then the diagonal is the square root of two, and a quarter circle with this radius centered at upper left corner cuts the sides of the square extended to determine two sides of a second, larger square. The area of this square (shown in the painting) is the square of the square root of 2, or two.
One can then consider the rectangle with side one and base square root of two that is in the upper left of the painting. It will have sides one and the square root of 2, and hence diagonal of length equal to the square root of three. The diagonal is not shown, but an circular arc with this radius forms the second arc in the painting. It determines the sides of a square with side equal to the square root of three and area 3. It also forms a rectangle with sides of length one and the square root of 4 (or two). This gives the third arc and the largest square in the painting.
By continuing the construction (further squares and rectangles are not shown), Crockett Johnson arrived at portions of circular arcs that cut the diameter at distances of the square roots of 5, 6, 7, and 8. Only one point on the last arc is shown. It is at the lower right corner of the painting.
Crockett Johnson executed the work in various shades and tints from his starting point at the white and pale-blue triangle to darker blues at the opposite corner.
This oil painting on masonite is not signed and its date of completion is unknown. It is #97 in the series.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1970-1975
painter
Johnson, Crockett
ID Number
1979.1093.65
catalog number
1979.1093.65
accession number
1979.1093

Painting - Velocities and Right Triangles (Galileo)

This is the third painting by Crockett Johnson to represent the motion of bodies released from rest from a common point and moving along different inclined planes.
Description
This is the third painting by Crockett Johnson to represent the motion of bodies released from rest from a common point and moving along different inclined planes. In the Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (1638), Galileo argued that the points reached by the balls at a given time would lie on a circle. Two such circles and three inclined planes, as well as a vertical line of direct fall, are indicated in the painting. One circle has half the diameter of the other. Crockett Johnson also joins the base of points on the inclined planes to the base of the diameters of the circles, forming two sets of right triangles.
This oil painting on masonite is #96 in the series. It has a black background and a wooden and metal frame. It is signed on the back: VELOCITIES AND RIGHT TRIANGLES (GALILEO) (/) Crockett Johnson 1972. Compare to paintings #42 (1979.1093.30) and #71 (1979.1093.46), as well as the figure from Valens, The Attractive Universe: Gravity and the Shape of Space (1969), p. 135.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1972
referenced
Galilei, Galileo
painter
Johnson, Crockett
ID Number
1979.1093.64
catalog number
1979.1093.64
accession number
1979.1093

Anita Carter

The youngest of the three Carter Sisters, Anita began performing with Mother Maybelle and the Carter Family at age four. She performed with her mother and sisters throughout her career, though she found success of her own during the 1950s.
Description
The youngest of the three Carter Sisters, Anita began performing with Mother Maybelle and the Carter Family at age four. She performed with her mother and sisters throughout her career, though she found success of her own during the 1950s. Anita (1933-1999) was the first to record the song "Ring of Fire," written by her sister June (1929-2003). It later became a hit for her brother-in-law Johnny Cash.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1973
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.078
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.078

Painting - Heptagon 1:3:3 Triangle

This painting is part of Crockett Johnson's exploration of the properties of the heptagon, extended to include a 14-sided regular polygon. The design of the painting is shown in his figure, which includes many of the line segments in the painting.
Description
This painting is part of Crockett Johnson's exploration of the properties of the heptagon, extended to include a 14-sided regular polygon. The design of the painting is shown in his figure, which includes many of the line segments in the painting. Here Crockett Johnson argues that the triangle ABF in the figure is the one he sought, with angle FAB being one seventh of pi. Segment CD in the figure, which appears in the painting, is the length of the edge of a regular 14-sided figure inscribed in a portion of the larger circle shown.
The painting, of oil or acrylic on masonite, is number 105 in the series. It is drawn in shades of cream, blue, and purple on a light purple background. It has a metal frame and is unsigned.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1973
painter
Johnson, Crockett
ID Number
1979.1093.72
catalog number
1979.1093.72
accession number
1979.1093

Billy Bird

Billy Bird, seen here autographing a paper plate, played with Ernest Tubb (1920-2001) and was a pioneer of the electric guitar.Currently not on view
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
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.075
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.075

Painting - Euclidian Values of a Squared Circle

To "square" a figure, according to the classical Greek tradition, means to construct, with the aid of only straightedge and compass, a square equal in area to that of the figure. The Greeks could square numerous figures, but were unsuccessful in efforts to square a circle.
Description
To "square" a figure, according to the classical Greek tradition, means to construct, with the aid of only straightedge and compass, a square equal in area to that of the figure. The Greeks could square numerous figures, but were unsuccessful in efforts to square a circle. It was not until the 19th century that the impossibility of squaring a circle was demonstrated.
This painting is an original construction by Crockett Johnson. It begins with the assumprion that the circle has been squared. In this case, Crockett Johnson performed a sequence of constructions that produce several additional squares, rectangles, and circles whose areas are geometrically related to that of the original circle. These figures are produced using traditional Euclidean geometry, and require only straightedge and compass.
The painting on masonite is #102 in the series. It has a blue-black background and a metal frame. It shows various superimposed sections of circles, squares, and rectangles in shades of light blue, dark blue, purple, white and blue-black. It is unsigned. See 1979.3083.02.13.
References: Carl B. Boyer and Uta C. Merzbach, A History of Mathematics (1991), Chapter 5.
Crockett Johnson, "A Geometrical Look at the Square Root of Pi," Mathematical Gazette 54 (February, 1970): pp. 59–60.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1970
painter
Johnson, Crockett
ID Number
1979.1093.69
catalog number
1979.1093.69
accession number
1979.1093

Bryant’s New Showboat

Bryant’s New Showboat was built at Point Pleasant, W. Va., in 1917. Launched in 1918, it could seat around 880 people in its theater.
Description
Bryant’s New Showboat was built at Point Pleasant, W. Va., in 1917. Launched in 1918, it could seat around 880 people in its theater. Most of the shows put on for Bryant’s patrons in small towns along the Kanawha, Ohio, Monongahela, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers were vaudeville or follies productions.
The ornate stage of Bryant’s New Showboat was home to dozens of plays like Hamlet and Little Nell of the Ozarks, and even the antics of a trained bucking mule named January. Owner Billy Bryant offered $10 to anyone who could stay on the animal’s back, but he had to retract that offer in mining towns, as the miners were strong enough to stay on.
The vessel was sold to new owners in 1945, at the end of World War II. Movie theaters, personal automobiles and other developments had gradually ended the colorful showboat era on America’s rivers.
Date made
1976
ID Number
TR.335568
catalog number
335568
accession number
1977.0630

Correspondence and Drawings of Crockett Johnson

These materials are Intermixed correspondence and drawings of Crockett Johnson relating to his mathematical paintings from the period 1973-1974. . Correspondents include G.
Description
These materials are Intermixed correspondence and drawings of Crockett Johnson relating to his mathematical paintings from the period 1973-1974. . Correspondents include G. Stanley Smith, Douglas Quadling, and Harley Flanders.
For related transaction, see 1979.1093.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1973-1974
maker
Johnson, Crockett
ID Number
1979.3083.05
catalog number
1979.3083.05
nonaccession number
1979.3083

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