National Museum of American History
http://americanhistory.si.edu/

Organization Overview:
The National Museum of American History dedicates its collections and scholarship to inspiring a broader understanding of our nation and its many peoples. We create learning opportunities, stimulate imaginations, and present challenging ideas about our country’s past.

The Museum’s Archives Center houses a remarkable array of American history in documents, photographs, and other works. These include the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, advertising histories of major U.S. corporations, and the Duke Ellington Collection—sheet music, correspondence, and photographs related to the life and career of the great composer and jazz musician.

Projects:

Julie Pepera began a pilot project to reformat selected AC finding aids into new template.  She analyzed existing finding aid text to determine how it should best be placed within the new format and identified changes needed to bring descriptive content into compliance with DACS.   Julie assessed the level of effort needed for reformatting and identified descriptive elements in which further local level standardization is needed.  She also had the opportunity to do further research into the content of the collection and the collection files.

Anne Cnockaert worked with the Jacques Francais Stringed Instrument Photo Archive. She rehoused materials in the extensive Francais photographic archives.  Anne removed photographs and negatives from acidic sleeves and rehoused them in proper archival housing.  She also photocopied the information from each sleeve onto acid free paper and housed this information with the pertinent photos and negatives.

Jason Nargis worked with the Dr. Anthony W. Pendergast Collection. He was responsible for arranging, rehousing and describing the materials in this collection. The collection contains papers relating to Dr. Pendergast’s interest in and work with cigar store Indians.  Included in the papers are correspondence; photographs of the figures; books on the subject of cigar store Indians; articles and clippings about Pendergast, his collection and about cigar store figures; and a scrapbook of photographs of figures.

What Students Had to Say:

“I loved my mentor and all the staff working in the archives. Everyone was so nice and enjoyed discussing their work, and their enthusiasm was catching. Really, it was just awesome to spend a week behind the scenes of an actual archive; I saw parts of the NMAH that I didn't even know existed.”

“I'm glad I participated in ASB, because I know that archival work is the right career path for me. Everyone at my institution does the most interesting work and I loved hearing about it (I can't wait to get into the field myself).”

"I loved everyone I worked with. My official mentor was only part-time, so I had multiple
people to look to for help. This ended up being great as it gave me a chance to meet lots
of new people."

"I felt very confident in my decisions [academic and career plans] by the end of the
trip."

"[ASB gave me the chance to] be involved with a prestigous institution I would never have
been able to volunteer with otherwise. "

See what past ASB students did at the National Museum of American History in 2005.

Original Projects:

Projects:

1) Finding Aids Project
Intern will begin pilot project to reformat selected AC finding aids into new template.  Intern will analyze existing finding aid text to determine how it should best be placed within the new format. Intern will identify changes needed to bring descriptive content into compliance with DACS.   In addition to cutting and pasting text, project may require further research into the content of the collection and the collection files. Project will assess the level of effort needed for reformatting and identify descriptive elements in which further local level standardization is needed. 

Skills:  Student must have basic skills in word processing, knowledge of the content and structure of archival finding aids, and an understanding of DACS. 

Supervisor: John Fleckner

2) Jacques Francais Stringed Instrument Photo Archive
Jacques Francais (?-2004) was a French-American who established a worldwide reputation among string instrument dealers in the heart of New York City a few steps away from Carnegie Hall.  Over the five decades of his career he brokered sales of many of the most valuable violins and maintained instrument for prominent violinists such as Issac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, and Yehudi Menuhin.  He had encyclopedic knowledge of violins and was an esteemed authenticator of instruments.

This purpose of this project is to rehouse materials in the Francais extensive photographic archives.  The intern will remove photographs and negatives from acidic sleeves and rehouse them in proper archival housing.  The intern will be required to photocopy the information from each sleeve onto acid free paper and house it with the pertinent photos and negatives.

Supervisor: Frank Robinson

3) Dr. Anthony W. Pendergast Collection
A Fairbury, Illinois optometrist, Dr. Anthony W. Pendergast, (1879-    ) was a collector, author, antiquarian and authority on the subject of cigar store Indians.  As a newsboy in his youth, Pendergast was fascinated by the cigar store Indians he saw all around the streets of his home town.  In his book on the cigar store Indian, Pendergast and co-author W. Porter Ware state that the earliest evidence of cigar store figures dates them to as early as 1600 in the city of Amsterdam, where a tobacconist’s shop had a figure of an American black slave as his sign, because of the association between slaves and tobacco.  The tradition was continued in England and began to take on more of the appearance of American Indians, usually with feathered headdresses, often holding a pipe or a roll of tobacco leaves.  Not all the figures were of Indians or of slaves, as their popularity spread.  Figures such as Turks, Moors, Scotsmen, jockeys, Roman figures, mythological figures, and others were used.  Antiquarian John L. Morrison, cited by Pendergast in his 1953 book Cigar Store Figures, states that the first appearance of a cigar store Indian in America was in 1770  in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  By the latter half of the 19th Century the cigar store Indian was as much a symbol of the tobacco trade as was the barber pole to barber shops.  Pendergast owned at least 200 figures during his lifetime.

The collection contains papers relating to Dr. Pendergast’s interest in and work with cigar store Indians.  Included in the papers are correspondence; photographs of the figures; books on the subject of cigar store Indians; articles and clippings about Pendergast, his collection and about cigar store figures; and a scrapbook of photographs of figures.

The student will be responsible for arranging, rehousing and describing the materials in this collection.

Supervisor: Vanessa Broussard Simmons