Open House for Smithsonian American Art Resource Centers

Attending the American Library Association conference in
June? Come join us on Monday, June 28, from 2-4 PM for an informal open house
of the Smithsonian’s resources for American art research— just two blocks away
from the Washington, D.C. Convention Center in the Victor Building (750 9^th
Street NW). 

Please RSVP via email Christine Hennessey at artref[at]si.edu by Friday, June 25.
 

Four units for research will be opening their doors:
 

The Smithsonian American Art Museum and National
Portrait Gallery Library (AA/PG)

The AA/PG Library is one of twenty within the Smithsonian Libraries. The largest of five Smithsonian art
libraries, the AA/PG Library houses over 180,000 books, exhibition catalogs,
catalogues raisonnés, serials and dissertations. Its collection is concentrated
in the area of American art, history, and biography with supportive materials
on European art. The AA/PG Library also contains artists’ books, auction
catalogs, scrapbooks, and microforms and also includes over 500 vertical files
drawers of ephemeral materials on art, artists, art institutions, collectors, and
special subjects.
   

Research and Scholars Center, Smithsonian American Art
Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the home of the
largest collection of American art in the world. Its holdings–42,000 artworks
in all media spanning more than three centuries—tell the story of America
through the visual arts. The museum’s scope extends far beyond its exhibition
spaces. With its specialized art databases of a half-million records, extensive
image collections, and knowledgeable Ask Joan of Art® reference staff, the museum
is a leader in supporting research in American art. 
 

Meet the reference librarians who manage the Ask Joan of
Art® question-and-answer reference service, which was awarded the American
Library Association’s 2005 Thomson Gale Award for Excellence in Reference
and Adult Library Services. Learn about the Museum’s efforts to
document America’s cultural heritage through the comprehensive the Inventories
of American Painting and Sculpture databases and Save Outdoor Sculpture!
project . View selections from the museum’s extensive Photograph
Archives, comprised of over a half million images documenting American art from
Colonial to Contemporary times.
 

The Center for
Electronic Research and Outreach Services (CEROS)

CEROS comprises
reference and online programs for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
(NPG). Services available for the public include the NPG Collections
Information System, the Catalog of American Portraits (CAP), an archives
documenting nearly 200,000 portraits in the United States and abroad, and the
NPG website collection search program for NPG/CAP collections. NPG/CEROS Open House staff will be available to provide
an overview of our public research service. Portrait archival materials
and photographs will be set out on the tables and a laptop with the NPG Collections
Information System will be on display. 
 

The Archives for American Art

For more than 50 years, the Archives of American Art has
provided researchers worldwide with access to the largest collection of primary
source materials documenting the history of the visual arts in America. A unit of the Smithsonian Institution since
1970, the Archives has played a pivotal role in fostering scholarship and illuminating
the history of art for the benefit of future generations. Among the collection’s 15 million items are
letters and diaries of artists and collectors, papers of critics and scholars,
records of museums, galleries, and schools, photographs of art-world figures
and events, sketchbooks and preparatory studies, oral history interviews, and
rare printed materials.

—Doug Litts 

Image:

The Art work of Louis C. Tiffany., 1914