dispelling many myths in the process. The West Coast 

 Regional Center has conducted oral history interviews with 

 Peter Alexander, Larry Jordan, and Robert Cremean. In New 

 England, the Archives acquired interviews by Arthur S. Al- 

 berts (1910-1986), an American writer, with the following 

 eminent artists: Jean Arp (1888-1966), Andre Masson (1896— 

 1987), Man Ray (1890-1976), and Gino Sevenni (1883-1966). 

 Alberts s interviews will be of great interest to scholars re- 

 searching the lives and careers of these persons. 



Exhibitions 



In FY 1996, an exhibition entitled "Lilla Cabot Perry and the 

 First Professional Women Artists: Selections from the Ar- 

 chives Collections," was shown in the New York Regional 

 Center gallery space. On view were selections from the papers 

 of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Violet Oakley, Cecilia 

 Beaux, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, Ellen Emmet Rand, 

 and Mary Cassatt, including photographs, sketchbooks, 

 diaries, letters, newspaper clippings, and exhibition 

 catalogues. Complementing the material was a section of 

 eight Lilla Cabot Perry paintings and two sculptures: Yawning 

 Tiger by Anna Hyatt Huntington and Found by Gertrude 

 Vanderbilt Whitney. The show explored the reception of 

 women painters in the 19th and early 20th centuries in 

 American and how opportunities for them had expanded with 

 the growing women's movement after 1848. 



Lilla Cabot Perry was a close friend of Impressionist painter 

 Claude Monet and had a home next to his in Giverny. 

 Through her writing and patronage, Perry brought French Im- 

 pressionism to the attention of American audiences. 



Public Service and Outreach 



Throughout FY 1996, Archives staff strove to reach a wider 

 audience through public speaking engagements and publica- 

 tions. Examples include lectures entitled "Gertrude Stein is 

 not in the Back of the Coffee Shop:' the East Village Art Scene 

 in New York, 1981-86," "From Omaha to Abstract Expres- 

 sionism: Pollock, Rothko, and Others Respond to World War 

 II," "Creeping Toward Modernism, 1871-1945," and "Jean 

 Hugo: Drawings of the War Years, 1915— 19." 



Staff also participated in other outreach activities, such as 

 the program "Working at the Smithsonian, " presented at the 

 1996 Festival of American Folklife on the National Mall. A 

 staff member also served as faculty for the 1996 Latino 

 Graduate Training Seminar sponsored by the Smithsonian's 

 Center for Museum Studies and the Inter-University Program 

 for Latino Research. 



Publications 



In FY 1996, the Archives published Volume 54, numbers 2, 3 

 and 4 of the Archives of American An Journal. Also in FY 1996, 

 Paul J. Karlstrom, West Coast Regional Director of the Ar- 



chives of American Art, edited On the Edge of America: Califor- 

 nia Modernist Art. ipoo-ip;o (University of California Press). 

 Through this collection of essays runs the theme of an alterna- 

 tive culture that transformed modernism to suit its own 

 regional imperatives. Compelled by a sense of distance and 

 the need for reinvention, California artists created traditions 

 for a new cultural landscape and society. The Archives also 

 published a fully-indexed guide to 105 collections that con- 

 cern Latino and Latin American artists. 



Grants, Significant Donations, and Other Support 



In FY 1996, the Archives received generous support from a 

 variety of sources, including foundations and individual 

 donors. The Henry Luce Foundation provided a major grant 

 of $240,000 for processing three large collections: the Rock- 

 well Kent papers, the records of the Downtown Gallery, and 

 the records of the American Federation of Arts. The Judith 

 Rothschild Foundation gave $21,000 for the processing the 

 Abraham Rattner papers, and the Starr Foundation gave over 

 $18,000 to complete the Name Authority File Cataloging 

 Project. Other gifts came from the King and Jean Cummings 

 Charitable Trust, the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, 

 Nanette Laitman, and Karen Johnson Boyd, as well as other in- 

 dividual donors. Thanks to an award from the Women's Commit- 

 tee of the Smithsonian, the Archives presented an intensive, 

 one-day staff training workshop focusing on the preservation and 

 conservation of historical document collections. 



Staff Changes 



A significant personnel change occurred at the end of FY 1996 

 when Susan Hamilton, Deputy Director of the Archives, 

 retired. Susan had been at the Smithsonian for 27 years, 14 of 

 which were at the Archives. She was Acting Director of the 

 Archives for three years and is known for dedicated service 

 throughout her tenure. Another significant staff change was 

 the hiring of Valerie Komar as the Supervisory Archivist in 

 the New York Regional Center. She oversees collections 

 processing in New York and manages reference activities 

 there, including consulting with researchers. 



Conservation Analytical Laboratory 



Lambertus van Zelst. Director 



The Conservation Analytical Laboratory (CAL) is the 

 Smithsonian's specialized facility dedicated to research and 

 training in the area of conservation, analysis and technical 

 study of museum collection and related materials. Conserva- 

 tion and preservation research seeks to increase our under- 

 standing of the mechanisms that affect the preservation of 



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