National Museum of History and Technology. Division of Cultural History Search this
Extent:
0.5 cu. ft. (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Date:
1952-1967 and undated
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.
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.
