COLLECTIONS HIGHLIGHTS

OCTOBER 2021
LUCE-FUNDED AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLECTING INITIATIVE

In 2017, the Archives of American Art (“AAA”) received a grant of $575,000 from the Henry Luce Foundation 

for a three-year African American Collecting Initiative. The grant has three components: 1.) collecting the 

papers of African American artists; 2.) processing and producing finding aids for collections documenting 

African American art; and 3.) overseeing three professional development internships. The pandemic slowed 

progress in 2020, however AAA sought and received a no-cost extension through 2021.

For this project, AAA’s Luce-funded collector, Erin Gilbert and subsequently Uchenna Itam, acquired the 

papers of Emma Amos, Renee Cox, Maren Hassinger, Nanette Carter, Joyce Scott, EJ Montgomery, Lowery 

Stokes Sims, Arthur Monroe, Charles W. White letters and photographs to Melvin Williamson, Sylvia Snowden, 

Howardena Pindell, Oliver Lee Jackson, Allan R Freelon, Ed Clark, Beverly Buchanan, Chakaia Booker, and Ruth 

Jett. Additions are expected for many of these collections. The project archivist, Rayna Andrews, processed 

and produced online finding aids for 24 collections including the papers of Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Hale 

Woodruff, Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, Ed Clark, Charles W. White, Ruth Jett, Senga Nengudi, 

Renee Cox, Beverly Buchanan, and others. As a result, these collections now have an online, fully searchable 

finding aid, which increases their accessibility and provides details for researchers worldwide. Three 

extraordinary interns helped move this project forward. The last, in the summer of 2021, worked remotely.

An important note on this initiative: AAA does not intend to hire permanent subject specialists in any 

particular area of study, however special initiatives such as the African American Collecting Initiative funded 

by the Luce Foundation, focused exclusively on acquiring primary sources for the study of African American 

art, enable us to make great strides in building and strengthening the collection. This short-term effort 

provides fertile ground for generations of scholars, students, art enthusiasts, and Smithsonian research staff to 

deepen their understanding of African American art and culture and also plants the seeds for future gifts to 

the Archives for years to come. Since its first African American acquisition in 1956—Horace Pippin’s 

unpublished memoirs—the Archives has acquired a critical mass of extraordinary material, and continues to 

build these resources. To understand this current initiative in the context of the Archives’ decades-long 

commitment to African American collecting, AAA published an online guide to its holdings for the study of 

African American art in 2020, with more updates to come.

Image: Photograph of Ed Clark, Herbert 

Gentry, Jacob Lawrence, Alexander 

"Skunder" Boghossian, and Vincent 

Smith, circa 1989 / unidentified 

photographer. Ed Clark papers, 1923-

2017, 1950s-2000s. Archives of 

American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
SUITLAND COLLECTIONS CENTER MASTER PLAN COMPLETED

Building on the success of the Smithsonian’s Collections Space Framework Plan (“CSFP”), the Smithsonian 

Facilities’ Office of Planning, Design, and Construction and the National Collections Program recently completed 

the Suitland Collections Center Master Plan (“SCCMP”). The Suitland Collections Center is a 110-acre campus 

in Prince George’s County, Maryland, that currently serves as the Smithsonian’s principal offsite collections 

storage and conservation facility. The SCCMP serves as a 40-year road map for developing a more sustainable 

and integrated campus at Suitland with shared operations, staffing, and spaces to strengthen the stewardship 

of Smithsonian collections. As the Secretary’s foreword to the Executive Summary indicates, the Master Plan 

sounds “an urgent call to action.” 

The plan culminates a multi-year, highly collaborative, and interdisciplinary planning effort conducted by 

collections and facilities staff, serving as a model of advancing the One Smithsonian strategic priority. Many 

stakeholders from across the Institution contributed to the Master Plan through interviews, workshops, and 

reviews, including senior leadership, unit directors, and unit representatives. Through the planning process, the 

team conducted a thorough review of existing physical and operational conditions and requirements for the 

Suitland site; validated current and projected collections space needs over 40 years; and developed a twocampus program and site development strategies for the Suitland and Dulles campuses. The CSFP and the 

SCCMP both support concurrent development of the Suitland and Dulles campuses to address the Smithsonian’s 

intermediate and long-term collections space needs.

Aerial rendering of proposed Suitland campus from southwest.
FOUR MILLION BOTANICAL SPECIMENS – THE FIRST TO BE FULLY DIGITIZED

After five years of operations, the Smithsonian’s Digitization 

Program Office mass digitization project with the National 

Museum of Natural History’s Department of Botany is 

nearing completion with four million botanical specimens 

digitized. Once completed in December 2021, the 

Smithsonian’s Department of Botany will be the first major 

US herbarium to be fully digitized! Each specimen now has a 

high-resolution, research-level digital image showing detail

visible down to 45 microns as well as individual digital 

database records transcribed from the specimen sheet’s 

handwritten data labels.

Using the specimen’s digital images, morphological traits can 

be used in phylogenetic and evolutionary studies. By 

employing machine learning on this vast collection of digital 

specimens, researchers have already trained artificial 

intelligence to identify specific species. With digitized label 

data describing the time and location a specimen was 

collected, simple database queries will enable researchers to 

easily track distributions over time to monitor invasive and 

endangered species. These distribution data may also be 

used to chart the effects of climate change or human 

interactions on natural populations and ecosystems.

The once insurmountable task of making millions of specimens accessible via digitization is suddenly a reality! 

With well-defined and refined digitization workflows and processes in place, funding is the only limitation with 

regard to what we can achieve with a completely digitized Smithsonian collection. Watch a video of the 

project here: https://youtu.be/SmHG73Ph8sY

 
STEMMING THE TIDE:

GLOBAL STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINING CULTURAL HERITAGE THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE

Proceedings of the Stemming the Tide symposium were recently

published online through the Smithsonian Scholarly Press (“SISP”), 

which includes an inspirational foreword by Secretary Lonnie G. 

Bunch III. In early March 2020, just days before the pandemic shut 

down the nation, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the 

National Collections Program hosted an informative, motivational, 

and action-oriented symposium titled Stemming the Tide: Global 

Strategies for Sustaining Cultural Heritage through Climate 

Change. The symposium included a series of presentations and 

breakout discussions, concluding with a public program, that 

explored the intersection of cultural heritage and climate 

change. In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, the 

event was part of the Smithsonian’s 2020 Earth Optimism 

programming.

The two-day event addressed the impact of climate change on cultural heritage and communities worldwide, 

discussed the responsibilities of stewards of cultural heritage in fostering innovative solutions, addressed 

urgent questions of equity and inclusion, and identified strategies that leverage cultural heritage for climate 

action. With 250 registrants and 1,100 live web stream viewers representing 33 states and 25 countries, 

ranging from the United Kingdom, Spain, and Greece to Canada, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago, the 

symposium empowered cultural heritage authorities, managers, and advocates to pursue more ambitious 

engagement and collaborative approaches to the climate crisis.

The symposium’s discussions provide a framework from which the Smithsonian may consider future national 

and international programming and new Institutional initiatives toward greater sustainability of cultural 

heritage and the natural environment. The volume is part of Smithsonian Open access and available to read 

and download, at no cost, from SISP's online portal. Recorded presentations from the event are also available: 

https://americanart.si.edu/research/symposia/2020/stemming-the-tide.
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN 

REPATRIATES TWO OBJECTS TO THE SIKSIKA NATION

The National Museum of the American Indian (“NMAI”) 

repatriated a Prairie Chicken Society Headdress and a 

Weather Dance Robe tothe Siksika Nation. The ceremony 

took place at the museum’s Cultural Resources Center in 

Suitland, Maryland, on July 7, 2021.

Siksika Nation, which is located in Alberta, Canada, maintains 

a network of societies that provide a foundation for their 

cultural and religious practices. The Prairie Chicken Society is 

unique to the Siksika, and the headdress once belonged to 

the society’s leader. It was accessioned into the Museum of 

the American Indian—the predecessor museum to the 

current National Museum of the American Indian—in 1908. 

The collector is unknown.

The Weather Dance Robe is associated with the functions of 

a Weather Dancer—a medicine man who maintains a divine 

connection with the sun. The primary function of a Weather 

Dancer is the control of the weather during ceremonial 

occasions, such as the Sundance. The Weather Dancer 

ceremonial obligations also include providing blessings for 

community members when requested. The Weather Dance 

Robe in the museum’s collection was acquired by William Wildschut in 1924 from Yellow Old Woman, the 

robe’s maker and a noted Siksika Weather Dancer. Upon its return to Siksika Nation, it will be prepared for the 

Sundance Ceremony by Herman Yellow Old Woman, a current Weather Dancer and the great-grandson of the 

robe’s maker.

“Repatriation has always been one of the highest priorities for the National Museum of the American Indian,”

said Machel Monenerkit, the museum’s acting director. “Our repatriation policy embodies our mission and 

vision, and we are proud to have worked with Siksika Nation to ensure the return of these objects.”

Siksika Nation Chief and Council Representative Kent Ayoungman and Ceremonial Elder Herman Old Yellow 

Woman attended the ceremony at the museum and were delegated to collect the Natowa’piists (sacred 

items) on behalf of Siksika Nation.

Weather Dance Robe. Image courtesy of the 

National Museum of the American Indian 

(13/2384)