Reference Request
Finding Aids to Official Records of the Smithsonian Institution Archives
Record Unit 258
National Museum of History and Technology. Division of Cultural History
Records, 1952-1967 and undated
Historical Note
Prior to the creation of the Division of Cultural History in 1957, the cultural history collections were the curatorial responsibility of the Division of Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology. With the establishment of the Museum of History and Technology (MHT) in 1957, the Division of Cultural History became part of the newly formed Department of Civil History in the Museum. Musical instruments, which formed part of the collections of the Division of Cultural History, became a separate division in 1967.
C. Malcolm Watkins, who joined the Smithsonian as an Associate Curator of Ethnology in 1948, was appointed Curator of Cultural History in 1957. Other curators of the cultural history collections included G. Carroll Lindsay, Assistant Curator, 1956-1957, and Associate Curator, 1958; Rodris C. Roth, Assistant Curator, 1957-1959, and Associate Curator, 1960-1967; John D. Shortridge, Associate Curator, 1959-1960; John N. Pearce, Assistant Curator, 1960-1963, and Associate Curator, 1964; Cynthia A. Hoover, Assistant Curator, 1961-1963, and Associate Curator, 1964-1966; Anthony N. Hathaway, Junior Curator, 1961, and Assistant Curator, 1962-1963; Howard Mayer Brown, Associate Curator, 1965; Richard E. Ahlborn, Associate Curator, 1966-1967, and John T. Fesperman, Jr., Concert Director, 1966.
Descriptive Entry
These records consist of the administrative files of the Division of Cultural History as well as records from the Division of Ethnology relating to cultural history activities. Included are annual reports of these divisions; budget estimates and plans of operations of the Division of Cultural History, including estimates and plans for the Division before it underwent an administrative reorganization in 1969; newspaper clippings concerning an exhibit on life in early America; research progress reports of curators and research associates; correspondence relating to and lists of objects borrowed by the United States Department of Agriculture for an exhibit in Hamburg, Germany; and related materials.
Index Terms
This collection is indexed under the following access terms. These are links to collections with related topics, persons or places.
Name
- Ahlborn, Richard E.
- Brown, Howard Mayer
- Fesperman, John T.
- Hathaway, Anthony N.
- Hoover, Cynthia A. (Cynthia Adams)
- Lindsay, G. Carroll
- National Museum of History and Technology (U.S.). Department of Civil History
- Pearce, John N.
- Roth, Rodris
- Shortridge, John D.
- United States National Museum. Department of Anthropology
- United States National Museum. Division of Ethnology
- United States. Department of Agriculture
- Watkins, C. Malcolm
Subject
Physical Characteristics of Materials in the Collection
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 258, National Museum of History and Technology. Division of Cultural History, Records