Smithsonian's Archives of American Art

08/28/2026

Have you ever wondered how a curator puts together an exhibit? We asked Gilbert and Ann Kinney New York Collector Jacob Proctor 3 questions about his exhibition “Best Laid Plans: Unrealized Projects from the Archives of American Art”. What would you ask Jacob?

Best Laid Plans is on view through October 18, 2026. Plan your visit on our website: https://www.aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/best-laid-plans.

08/27/2026

08/25/2026

As author Katherine Howe notes, “this new cache of never-before-seen primary sources affords a poignant glimpse of Gertrude’s life—and, by proxy, society in the Gilded Age—seen through her daughter’s eyes.”

What does a new trove of documents reveal about the most famous Gilded Age stars? They’re just like us.

08/24/2026

Hate Mondays, but love animals?

Travel back to 1959 in this photograph, and take in the magnificent landscape of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at the Monday animal art class with Paul Bransom.

Learn more about wildlife illustrator, painter, and cartoonist Paul Bransom on our website: s.si.edu/4xTdDUX.

Image:
Jim Elder. The Monday animal art class conducted by Paul Bransom, 1959. Paul Bransom papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

08/21/2026

In 1966, a devastating fire destroyed painter and filmmaker Alfred Leslie’s studio. In the aftermath of the fire, Leslie managed to recover a few documents in the rubble, but most of his original papers were lost. Fortunately, he had lent his papers to the Archives of American Art for microfilming the year before. In 2023, Leslie’s estate donated the remainder of his papers to the Archives.

The collection is robust in photographic material, especially works of art including Leslie’s series The Killing Cycle, which looks at the accidental death of his close friend poet Frank O’Hara. Notable among the Leslie’s papers are documents and audiovisual materials surrounding his film work, including a draft script outline for the short film, “Pull My Daisy,” which he co-directed with Robert Frank, and which was likely written by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg who starred in the film.

Learn more about the Alfred Leslie papers on our blog: s.si.edu/4qrTZwQ.

08/14/2026

Calling all Archives of American Art researchers! 📣

The priority deadline for publication consideration in the 2028 volume of the Archives of American Art Journal is October 15, 2026.

We publish scholarship that meaningfully engages with materials in our collection to tell new and innovative histories about art in relation to the United States. Feature-length articles run 5,000-7,000 words, including notes, and we can reproduce up to 15 images, which the journal secures and pays for. Submissions benefit from a double-anonymous peer review process.

Journal submission guidelines and instructions can be found on our website: s.si.edu/4wZa53n

Image:
Paul Vanderbilt, head of photo collection section, examines photos, 1956. Paul Vanderbilt papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

08/13/2026

Big things are happening at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art 2026 Gala. Join us in New York city on September 17 to honor Martin Puryear, Ann Temkin, and The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s unique contributions to American art. Purchase tickets on our website. www.aaa.si.edu/support/gala

08/10/2026

Hey, . . . you make 180 look good! The Archives of American Art joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1970 and shares its mandate of the increase and diffusion of knowledge. To celebrate today, why not:

• Blow out some birthday candles
• Eat a slice of cake (or pie)
• Have a party and play the accordion for your friends
• Browse thousands of images of primary source material, digitized from the 30 million items in our holdings: s.si.edu/4wiO66w
• Do a deep dive into one of our 425 fully digitized collections: s.si.edu/45NVoEu
• Learn about an artist in their own words by reading a transcript of an oral history interview (nearly 2,000 of our 2,600 interviews are available online): s.si.edu/45PpYxt

Happy Birthday, Smithsonian! 🎂 🍰

Images:
All, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
1. 180 Composite: 1- Robert Burns Motherwell. Robert Motherwell holiday card to Joseph Cornell, 1946 (detail). Joseph Cornell papers; 8-8 Artists exhibition announcement, 1969. Charles Ronald Bechtle Jr. papers; 0-Washington Gallery of Modern Art (Washington, D.C.). Mary Meyer exhibition announcement, 1966. Washington Gallery of Modern Art records
2. Helen Treadwell presenting Julien Levy with a birthday cake, 197-. Helen Treadwell papers
3. Ray Yoshida. Storefront sign in Chicago, between 1972 and 1981. Ray Yoshida papers
4. Walter Gropius's 80th birthday, 1963. Marcel Breuer papers

07/31/2026

Look into the world of installation artist Connie Zehr through a new window with the finding aid to her papers, now online. Zehr’s work used sand, clay, and sculptural elements. She was active in the LA feminist community in the 1960s and was a founding member of Womanspace. The collection includes sketchbooks and project material, photographs and Zehr and artwork, biographical material, exhibition and professional files, writings, and unprocessed AV and born digital material.

Explore the finding aid on our website: s.si.edu/4yQsn8j.

Images:
All Connie Zehr papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
1. Connie Zehr. Selection from collection book of feathers (detail), 1976.
2. Connie Zehr. Selection from sketchbook for pedestals at Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, 2016.
3. Connie Zehr, circa 1980s.

07/30/2026

In her 1997–98 oral history interview, art dealer Joan Ankrum reminisced about how moving her nephew Morris Broderson’s work was for his admirers: “[His paintings] were all so expressionistic but they also were lyrical. They had a poetry, and I think that this reached people without their really being conscious of what it was that was getting to them.” In this quote, she refers to his recurring series “Sound of Flowers,” where a figure leans over a flower to “listen.”

This Disability Pride Month, we're spotlighting Morris Broderson (1928–2011), a painter and printmaker who worked in several mediums. Deaf from birth, he attended the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, where he taught himself to draw. His aunt, Joan Ankrum, noticed his creativity and helped further his talent by connecting him with his mentor, Francis DeErdeley, from the Pasadena Art Institute. Broderson eventually left junior high early to attend the University of Southern California, where DeErdeley also worked.

In his own oral history interview conducted for the Archives of American Art in 1998, Broderson recalled: “Some people ask me why I paint. Is it because of my deafness, that I like to paint. I say, no, it has nothing to do with being deaf—just from my heart, that I care for art very much.”

Read the transcript of Broderson’s oral history on our website, in which he elaborates on his favorite themes and subjects and why he used them: s.si.edu/4h280yL.

Images:
All, Ankrum Gallery records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
1. Morris Broderson with a painting from the “Sound of Flowers” series, undated.
2. Morris Broderson as a young boy, January 1941.
3. Morris Broderson, undated.