**REGISTRATION FOR THIS TOUR IS FULL** (4/25/2014)The nearby
Archives of American Art was begun in 1954 to serve as a microfilm repository of papers housed in other institutions. This mission expanded to collecting and preserving original material and, in 1970, the Archives joined the Smithsonian Institution, sharing the Institution’s mandate—the increase and diffusion of knowledge. Today the Archives is the world’s pre-eminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America. The collections consist of more than 20 million letters, diaries and scrapbooks of artists, dealers, and collectors; manuscripts of critics and scholars; business and financial records of museums, galleries, schools, and associations; photographs, sketches and sketchbooks; rare printed material; film, audio and video recordings; and the largest collection of oral histories anywhere on the subject of art.
This tour to the Archives of American Art will showcase three units within the AAA. Reference archivist Elizabeth Botten will give a sneak peek of the exhibition she curated,
Artists and their Models; Head of Information Systems Karen Weiss will give a tour of digitization equipment and workflow within the Archives, and Archivist Erin Kinhart will talk about collections processing practices.
Maximum Participants: 45
Fee: Free
Accessibility: Walking and standing.
Transportation: The group will walk around the corner to the Archives of American Art, leaving at 1:45pm. Please meet the tour shepherd near the shoe shine stand in the hotel lobby 15 minutes before departure.
Note: You must bring a
photo ID with you to sign in at the front desk in the lobby and receive a visitor's sticker before proceeding to the second floor. The Archives of American Art is in Suite 2200.
