Timothy Asch was an anthropologist and ethnographic film maker who devoted his professional life to using film as a recording and teaching medium. His papers cover the period from 1966 until his premature death in 1994 and reflect his active career in the field. A large portion of the files relates to his work among the Yanomami people of Venezuela and to his concern with bias in film making.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Timothy Asch document his career as an anthropologist, educator,
photographer and filmmaker through correspondence, photographs, research files
(articles and notes), and teaching materials (course information and lecture notes). The
files relating to Asch's film projects include articles, field notes, and reviews. The major
correspondents in this collection are Patsy Asch, Tom Beidelman, Napoleon Chagnon,
James Fox, Robert Gardner, Douglas Lewis, Peter Loizos, David & Olga Sapir, and
Minor White.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into the following 13 series:
Series 1) Correspondence (1953-1994)
Series 2) College and graduate School (1955-1965)
Series 3) Teaching materials (1964-1993)
Series 4) Film projects (1964-1991)
Series 5) Articles and reviews (1972-1994)
Series 6) Alpha-Subject (1955-1989)
Series 7) Conferences, film festivals, and film organizations (1963-1993)
Series 8) Grants (1962-1993)
Series 9) Other people's work (1952-1995)
Series 10) Personal and family (1951-1994)
Series 11) Photographs (1947-1991)
Series 12) Sound recordings (bulk 1960s-1970s)
Series 13) Note slips, rolodexes, and business cards (1987, undated)
Biographical note:
Asch studied photography at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. While serving in the United States Army in Japan from 1951-55 he spent his off-duty hours photographing rice production and household activities in remote Japanese villages. After his military service, he enrolled in Columbia University graduating in 1959 with an undergraduate degree in Anthropology. After graduation, he went to work at the Peabody Museum at Harvard as an assistant editor to John Marshall on the Kung Bushmen film project. In 1964, he received a Masters Degree in Anthropology from Boston University where he studied in the African Studies Progam and read Anthropology with T.O. Beidelman at Harvard. In 1968, Asch and Marshall founded Documentary Educational Resources, a film distribution company. Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon approached Asch in 1968 to film among the Yanomammmi people of Venezuela. This collaboration led to a major project resulting in over thirty films.
Chronology
1950-1951 -- California School of Fine Arts and Apprenticeships with photographers Minor White, Edward Weston and Ansel Adams
1953-1954 -- Military Service in Korea
1959 -- B.S. in Anthropology Columbia University
1959-1962 -- Ethnographic film consultant, Harvard University's Peabody Museum
1964 -- M.A. in Anthropology Harvard University
1965-1966 -- Curriculum Consultant, Ethnographic studies and the Bushmen Social Studies Curriculum Project (initially Educational Services, Inc., later called Educational Development Center)
1966-1968 -- Lecturer in Anthropology and Theater Arts, Brandeis University
1966-1968 -- Anthropology Curriculum and Media Consultant to the Newton Public Schools
1967-1994 -- Co-Founder and Director of Documentary Educational Resources, Watertown, Massachusetts, a non-profit curriculum development corporation distributing educational media
1968-1970 -- Visiting Assistant Professor, Anthropology Department, New York University
1969-1973 -- Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University
1973-1979 -- Research Fellow in Ethnographic film, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
1974-1976 -- Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University
1975 -- Research Cinematographer, National Anthropological Film Center, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1976-1981 -- Senior Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Institute of Advanced Studies, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
1982 -- Visiting Research Scholar, Department of Anthropology at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
1983-1994 -- Director, Center for Visual Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Southern California
Related Materials:
The Human Studies Film Archives holds 93,000 feet (43 hours) of original film footage and the accompanying sound as well as the edited films from the 1968 and 1971 film projects by Timothy Asch and Napoleon Chagnon documenting the Yanomamo Indians of southern Venezuela and northern Brazil (between the Negro and Upper Orinoco rivers).
Provenance:
Donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Patsy Asch in 1996.
Ripley, S. Dillon (Sidney Dillon) 1913-2001 Search this
National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Search this
Smithsonian Institution Office of Public Affairs Search this
Physical description:
8 x 10;
Type:
Black-and-white photographs
Date:
1975
October 2, 1975
Local number:
SIA RU000371 [75-12071-A02]
Restrictions & Rights:
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
Photographs relating to a ceremony and reception honoring Mr. and Mrs. Donald C. Beatty with a James Smithson Society membership and medal for their donation of a Jivaro collection. The event took place in the office of the director of the National Museum of Natural History on October 12, 1979. The photographs were probably made by the Department of Anthropology Chairman's office.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 80-51, NAA Photo Lot 80-16
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Photo Lot 80-16 has been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 80-51. These photographs were also made by the Department of Anthropology at the same event and form part of this collection.
Material relating to Beatty's Latin American Expedition can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 7124, MS 7315, MS 7551, and Photo Lot 82-43.
The Jivaro collection donated by Beatty can be found in the Department of Anthropology in accession 341779.
Photo lot 80-51, Photographs of National Museum of Natural History reception honoring Donald C. Beatty, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs depicting James Mello, Assistant Director of the National Museum of Natural History, giving an award for exceptional service to David Yong, a museum technician in the Department of Anthropology. The photographs were made by a Smithsonian Institution photographer on February 28, 1974.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 76-127
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs of awards presented to Department of Anthropology staff can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 77-52 and Photo Lot 79-51.
Photographs depicting some of the masks in the Donald Cordry collection of Mexican masks, as well as an exhibit of the collection entitled "Dance Masks of Mexico," taken on February 22, 1979. Depicted individuals in the include several members of the Department of Anthropology, including Robert Laughlin, William Sturtevant, Porter Kier, and James Mello. The photographs were probably made by a Smithsonian photographer.
Biographical/Historical note:
Donald Bush Cordry (1907-1978) was an artist and photographer who studied the art of Mexican Indians. In 1931, Cordry made his first trip to Guerrero, Mexico, where he became fascinated by contemporary mask making. In 1934, Cordry moved to New York to work as a marionette designer for puppeteer Tony Sarg. While there, he contacted George G. Heye to learn more about Indigenous Mexican art. This led to a series of collecting expeditions from 1935 to 1938, during which Cordry collected Mexican masks and other artifacts for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 80-3, NAA ACC 82-50
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The masks which formed the basis of the exhibit pictured can be found in the Department of Anthropology in accession 355867.
Cordry's photographs can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 82-14 and Photo Lot 87-38.
Donald Cordry and his wife, Dorothy Mann Cordry, also donated clothing and musical instruments from Mexico to the Department of Anthropology in accessions 361232 and 355866.
The National Museum of the American Indian Archives holds the Donald Bush Cordry collection of photographs and negatives, 1933-1940, as well as artifacts collected by Cordry.
The University of Texas at Austin holds the Donald Cordry Collection Relating to Mexican Masks, 1931-1978.
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu