#finding aid friday

Notebook of “Purple Mountain” in Sli Chorea Dhuibhne (The Dingle Way), 1999.  Jim Cohn Papers, Box 15, folder 3. University of Michigan Library, Special Collections Research Center. 

On this #FindingAidFriday, we are highlighting the recently processed papers of Jim Cohn, poet, writer, recording artist, editor, publisher, and curator of the online Museum of American Poetics. The Jim Cohn Papers (1953-2019) were donated in 2019 and encompass approximately fifteen linear feet of material documenting Cohn’s work across his several vocations through correspondence, research files and drafts, interviews by and of Cohn, published essays and poetry, journals, photographs, and audiovisual materials.

It’s ‪#‎FindingAidFriday‬. On Fridays, we highlight some of our staff’s favorite finding aids: ones in which we take particular pride.

Archivist Erin Kinhart cited the Finding Aid for the Oscar Bluemner papers as one of her favorites. According to Erin, “This collection was a challenge to process, but presents a rich collection of visually interesting notes and drawings, and takes you inside the mind of an artist.” It is an exemplary tool; it won the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC)’s Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award in 2008.

Items from Bluemner’s papers are currently on display in our gallery for Finding: Source Material from the Archives of American Art.

Oscar Bluemner., July 13, 1932 / The Modern Studio, photographer. John Davis Hatch papers, 1790-1995. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Notes on painting from Oscar Bluemner's Theory Diary,  Jan. 12. 1920. Oscar Bluemner papers, 1886-1939, 1960. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Oscar Bluemner study The dance of factory life, etc., etc., circa 1930. Oscar Bluemner papers, 1886-1939, 1960. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

It’s #Finding Aid Friday. On Fridays, we highlight some of our staff’s favorite finding aids: ones that we take particular pride in.

Meet Terence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905-1976). He was born in England and moved to the United States in 1930 after training in architecture at London University. He was a furniture and interior designer who lived and worked in New York City and Athens, Greece. 

Archivist Judy Ng processed this collection, one that had not been arranged and described at all. Her finding aid was the first time real access was given to to his papers. Processing this collection also presented challenges in terms of referencing the oversized (OV)  materials. Ng noted that Robsjohn-Gibbings was an organized professional whose collection already made sense perhaps in part because of his professional interior design practice. Processing of this collection was funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, 1939 or 1940 / unidentified photographer. Terence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings papers, 1898-1977, bulk 1915-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Leval apartment designed by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, circa 1937 / unidentified photographer. Terence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings papers, 1898-1977, bulk 1915-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.