Reports of the Museums and Research Institutes 



Archives of American Art 



Richard J. Wattenmaker, Director 



The Archives of American Art (AAA) is the world's largest 

 repository of primary source documentation on the history of 

 the visual arts and culture in America. For nearly 50 years, 

 the Archives has collected, preserved, and made available to 

 the public for study such diverse materials as letters and di- 

 aries of artists and craft persons; manuscripts of critics and 

 scholars; records of museums, galleries, and schools; photo- 

 graphs; works of art on paper; and recorded oral and video 

 interviews. More than 14.6 million documents constitute an 

 indispensable resource for researchers, who, in addition to 

 consulting original papers at AAA's Washington, D.C., 

 headquarters, may access selected holdings on microfilm 

 worldwide through interlibrary loan or at Archives' reference 

 centers in Washington, New York, and San Marino, Califor- 

 nia, and affiliated facilities in Boston and San Francisco. 

 Through its Web site and automated catalog, the Archives 

 provides Internet access to on-line exhibitions, oral histories, 

 finding aids and guides, selected digital images, and visitor 

 services, including inquiries by e-mail and photo orders. 



In FY 2000, AAA continued to meet its goals of increas- 

 ing accessibility to its unique collections through a vatiety of 

 means, including enhancing user services through the Inter- 

 net, preparing finding aids to the collections and using 

 digital technology to make the aids more searchable, dis- 

 playing original materials in exhibitions and on-line, 

 conserving and processing documents, and disseminating in- 

 formation about the collections through varied educational 

 methods, including talks, lectutes, publications, and intern- 

 ship/fellowship programs. 



Educational Services 



In FY 2000, the Archives received inquiries from every state 

 in the Union as well as many foreign countries, with Canada, 

 England, France, Germany, and Switzerland being the most 

 frequent foreign users. AAA's Reference Services staff experi- 

 enced unprecedented increases in the number of inquiries 

 made via e-mail, telephone, or regular mail; research visits 

 to the manuscript reading room to use original documents 

 doubled in FY 2000. Archives' Interlibrary Loan distributed 

 2,605 reels of microfilm worldwide; researchers in Califor- 

 nia, New York, and Pennsylvania submitted the most 

 requests, while users in Canada, England, and Germany led 

 the list internationally. In FY 2000, the Archives added an- 

 other 70 oral history transcripts to its Web site, bringing the 

 total number of transcripts available on-line to 173. Of the 

 oral histories, among the most frequently consulted ate in- 

 terviews with Louise Boutgeois, Alexander Calder, Edith 

 Halpert, Jacob Lawtence, and Kenzo Okada. In FY 2000, 

 the Archives accomplished the conversion to encoded 

 archival description (EAD) of a selected group of Archives' 

 finding aids; EAD is a type of digital encoding specifically 

 designed to make archival finding aids searchable on-line to 

 researchers worldwide. Encoded finding aids are contributed 

 to the Research Libraries Group Archival Resources, provid- 

 ing even greater accessibility to the Archives' rich holdings. 

 Throughout FY 2000 were lectures, talks, and workshops 

 designed to increase the visibility of the Archives and em- 

 phasize its availability and accessibility as a rich source of 

 unique documentation on art in America. Notable among 

 these was "Aft in America: a Conversation on Archival Col- 

 lecting," a major three-day conference cosponsored by the 

 Archives of American Art with the Getty Research Institute, 

 at which more than 20 major art archival institutions in the 



