Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection Archive
Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum
National Air and Space Archives
National Anthropological Archives
National Museum of the American Indian Archives
Peale Family Papers, National Portrait Gallery
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Smithsonian American Art Museum Slide and Photo Archives
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Smithsonian Photographic Services
Affiliated Organization: National Gallery of Art
George Inness in his studio, Peter A. Juley & Son Collection.
Research and Scholars Center
Smithsonian American Art Museum
750 9th Street, NW
Suite
3100
Washington, DC 20013-4505
Mailing
Address:
Photograph Archives
Research and Scholars Center
Smithsonian American Art Museum
P.O. Box 37012 MRC 970
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
202.633.8390
202.633-8373 fax
sapa@si.edu
http://americanart.si.edu/
art_info/photoarchives.cfm
http://americanart.si.edu/
search/search_data.cfm
Hours
Monday – Friday
10am to 5pm
Appointment Required
Metro Stop: Gallery Place
The Photograph Archives of the Smithsonian American Art Museum contains over a quarter million photographs, negatives, and slides documenting American art. As a research and study collection, the Archives constitutes a unique visual record of American art, sometimes providing the only visual documentation of an altered, damaged or lost original.
Peter A. Juley & Son Collection
The Peter A. Juley & Son Collection comprises 127,000 black & white photographic negatives documenting the work of more than 11,000 American artists and some 4,700 photographic portraits of artists. Peter A. Juley (1862-1937) and his son Paul P. Juley (1890-1975) headed the largest and most respected fine arts photography firm in New York from 1907 to 1975. Their clients included museums, galleries, schools, art dealers, private collectors and nearly ever major artist of the period. During their seventy years in business, Peter and Paul Juley covered American art from realism to impressionism to abstraction. The firm also acquired valuable negatives from other fine arts photographers, including A. B. Bogart, Walter Russell and De Witt Ward, to broaden its holdings.
Walter Rosenblum Collection
The Walter Roseblum Collection contains 7,500 black & white photographic negatives covering American and European art. An accomplished photographer and teacher, Walter Rosenblum (1919-2006) supplemented his income by doing freelance work for major New York galleries, artists and collectors from 1945 to 1970. Among Rosenblum’s clients were ACA Galleries, Graham Gallery, Matisse, New Gallery and The Contemporaries. Reflective of the period, the collection is particularly strong in American and European avant-garde, surreal and abstract works.
Bernie Cleff Collection
The Bernie Cleff Collection contains 1,300 black and white photographic negatives documenting sixteen of Daniel Chester French’s outdoor monuments. Bernie Cleff (1927-), a noted Philadelphia photographer, was hired in 1975 to document French’s monuments and models for a major retrospective exhibition of the sculptor’s works.
The Photograph Archives also hold several other specialized collections including the American Sculpture Photograph Study Collection of photographs and photomechanical reproductions of American sculpture from the late 1890s to 1940, the Library of Congress Copyright Deposit Collection, which represent a broad range of nineteenth and twentieth century American art through photomechanical reproductions. The Museum Exhibition Archives, which are a repository for visual documentation of previous Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery exhibition installations and the NEA Artists Archive documenting the National Endowment for the Arts’ Artists Fellowship Program. More information can be obtained by contacting our Image Collections Coordinator.