SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

Smithsonian Institution, P. O. Box 37012, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director

The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds the nation’s oldest federal art collection, its history covering more than 160 years. Successively named the National Gallery of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts and the National Museum of American Art, the Museum collects art from all regions, cultures and traditions of the United States. Its emphasis on research, publications, exhibitions and public programs reflects its mission to promote the understanding and appreciation of American art. In addition to welcoming visitors to its historic landmark building in Washington, D.C., the Museum serves a broad national public through electronic outreach, traveling exhibitions and educational materials.

Resources and Facilities

The Museum has been located since 1968 in a monumental Greek revival building originally constructed in 1836-67 for the U.S. Patent Office. Almost demolished in the 1950s, the structure was renovated by the Smithsonian, receiving National Historic landmark status in 1973. The historic nineteenth-century building, which also houses the National Portrait Gallery, recently reopened to the public following a major renovation. New features include an expanded 95,000 square feet of exhibition space, a conservation laboratory and art storage area that are visible to the public and a 346-seat auditorium. The Museum’s office and research functions operate out of the nearby Victor Building at 750 Ninth Street, NW.

The Museum’s collection includes 40,000 works. Among the collection’s special strengths are 19th-century landscapes and American impressionist paintings, contemporary photography, folk art and African-American art. Recent exhibitions organized by the Museum include: “Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination;” “An Impressionist Sensibility: The Halff Collection;” “William H. Johnson’s World on Paper;” and “Passing Time: The Art of William Christenberry.” “George Catlin and His Indian Gallery” was exhibited at the Renwick Gallery and toured to Kansas City, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York in 2004 and 2005.

The Renwick Gallery, a curatorial department of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, opened in 1972 in the restored Second Empire building designed in 1859 by James Renwick for the original Corcoran Gallery of Art. The permanent collection of American crafts and decorative arts includes works in glass, clay, wood, fiber and metal. The Grand Salon and the Octagon Room feature paintings hung salon-style, creating the elegant setting of a nineteenth-century collector’s picture gallery. Complementing the acquisition program are exhibitions, fellowships and prizes for scholarly research in the modern craft movement. Special events related to the exhibitions include lectures, symposia, craft demonstrations and films. Recent exhibitions organized by the Renwick include: “Sam Maloof: Master Woodworker;” “The Renwick Invitational: Four Discoveries in Craft;” “Right at Home: American Studio Furniture;” and “High Fiber.”

The Museum, combining its own facilities with those available in and around the Washington area, constitutes an unparalleled center for the study of American art. Its extensive collections of art are supplemented by specialized research resources that include the Inventory of American Paintings Executed Before 1914, a computer listing of more than 290,000 works in public and private collections; the Inventory of American Sculpture, a database providing information on over 85,000 sculptures in public and private collections throughout the country, including outdoor monuments surveyed through the Save Outdoor Sculpture! Program; The Pre-1877 Art Exhibition Catalogue Index, an index of nearly 137,000 artworks shown in over 1,000 exhibitions in the United States and Canada through the centennial year; and the Photograph Archives, with over a quarter million photographs, negatives and slides. Scholars have access to a specialized branch library of 180,000 volumes and clipping files numbering upward of one million items, the Graphic Arts Study Center containing over 28,000 works on paper (prints, drawings, watercolors and photographs), the Joseph Cornell Study Center of source materials and studio effects, and the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, with its vast holdings of over sixteen million items.

Research Opportunities

A major advantage of study at the Smithsonian American Art Museum is the opportunity to work within a community of scholars actively engaged in research on history, conservation and criticism of American art and related topics. The research programs of the Museum are considered an essential part of its operation. The professional staff is concerned with exhibitions and educational programs as well as collections research and other curatorial duties. Facilities are provided for visiting scholars on all levels and for interns in museum training. Pre- and post-doctoral scholars are in residence each year. A regular series of lunchtime seminars, public lectures and reading discussion groups provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among area scholars. Publication opportunities are available through the Museum’s peer-reviewed journal American Art and through exhibition and collection-related books and catalogues. The Patricia and Phillip Frost Essay Award is presented annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American Art, and is made possible by the generous contribution of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Endowment. The Charles C. Eldredge Prize is awarded annually by the Museum’s support group, the American Art Forum, for outstanding scholarship in the field of American art.

RESEARCH STAFF

GURNEY, George, Deputy Chief Curator. B.A. (1962) Brown University; M.A. (1965) University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D. (1978) University of Delaware. Research specialties: American sculpture.

HARVEY, Eleanor Jones, Chief Curator. B.A. (1983) University of Virginia; M.A. (1985), M.Phil. (1987), Ph.D. (1998) Yale University. Research specialties: American Art; 19th century landscape painting; 20th century landscape art; Civil War and Reconstruction era art; Texas and Southwestern Regionalism.

JUROVICS, Toby, Curator of Photography. B.A. (1988) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; M.A. (1992) University of Delaware. Research specialties: American landscape photography; nineteenth and twentieth century photography of the American West.

MECKLENBURG, Virginia M., Senior Curator. B.A. (1968), M.A. (1970) University of Texas; Ph.D. (1983) University of Maryland. Research specialties: Twentieth-century American art: Ashcan art; New Deal and abstract art of the 1930s; art of the 1960s and 1970s; American Latino artists.

MILLS, Cynthia, Executive Editor, American Art, and Academic Advisor. B.A. (1968) University of Michigan; Ph.D. (1996) University of Maryland. Research specialties: American sculpture in the Gilded Age.

MILOSCH, Jane C., Curator, Renwick Gallery. B.A. (1987) Wheaton College; Fulbright Scholarship (1988) University of Munich and the Munich Art Academy: M.F.A. candidate Eastern Michigan University's School of Art. Research specialties: American craft, decorative arts, contemporary art.

MOSER, Joann G., Senior Curator. B.A. (1969) Smith College; M.A. (1972), Ph.D. (1976) University of Wisconsin, Madison. Research specialties: Twentieth-century American prints and drawings; the history of the monotype in America; twentieth-century American art.

TRUETTNER, William H., Senior Curator. B.A. (1957) Williams College; M.A. (1959) University of Michigan. Research specialties: Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American painting; George Catlin; art of the American West.

AFFILIATED RESEARCH STAFF

BROUN, Elizabeth, Margaret and Terry Stent Director. B.A. (1968), M.A. (1970), Ph.D. (1976) University of Kansas. Research specialties: Late nineteenth-century American art; graphic arts; contemporary art.

CREAGER, Ann M., Paintings Conservator. A.A. (1963) Georgetown Visitation College; B.A (1965) Marygrove College. Research specialties: Conservation treatment of paintings, nineteenth and early-mid twentieth century American paintings.

FINK, Lois Marie, Research Curator Emeritus. B.A. (1951) Capital University; M.A. (1955), Ph.D. (1970) University of Chicago. Research specialties: Nineteenth-and early twentieth-century American art; relationship of French art to American art; history of American art institutions, especially the National Academy of Design and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

HENNESSEY, Christine, Chief, Research and Scholars Center. B.A.E. (1974) Oklahoma State University; M.A. (1982), M.L.S. (1986) University of Maryland. Research specialties: Art research databases and documentation standards; reference sources for American painting and sculpture.

INGALLS, Helen B., Objects Conservator. B.A. (1975) Emory University; M.A. (1984) State University of New York College, Buffalo; Advanced Certificate in Art Conservation. Research specialties: Folk art; contemporary crafts; outdoor sculpture; 19th and 20th century American sculpture.

MAYNOR, Catherine I., Paper Conservator. B.A. (1978) University of Toronto; M.A. and certificate of advanced study (1983) Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, Cooperstown Graduate Programs. Research specialties: History of artists' materials, techniques; conservation materials and methods.

SCAFETTA, Stefano, Senior Conservator. B.A. (1965) Brooklyn College; M.A. (1968) Columbia University; Diploma in Conservation (1972)Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Research specialties: Conservation of paintings.

SHOCKEY, Hugh, Objects Conservator. B.A. (1996) Rhodes College; M.S. (2002) Winterthur / University of Delaware. Research specialties: Innovative treatment methods for traditional and modern sculptural materials; including CO2 snow ablation and aqueous and solvent gel technologies. Specializing in the treatment of composite materials, modern materials, and traditional sculpture materials. Specialist in exhibits conservation, case design, and mountmaking.

Introduction

Information for Applying to the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program, including the fields of research

Fellowship and Internship Opportunities

Research Assistance Programs

Smithsonian Research Staff and Affiliated Research Staff E-Mail Directory

Office of Research Training and Services Applications

• Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program
• Smithsonian Institution Latino Studies Fellowship Program
• Smithsonian Institution Molecular Evolution Fellowship Program
• Minority Internship Program
• James E. Webb Internship Program
• Native American Awards Program