Smithsonian Archives of American Art

Among the papers in the Archives of American Art are more than 150 collections pertaining to African American painters, sculptors, and printmakers from the late 19th century to the present. Included are Horace Pippin's illustrated memoir of his military service in France in World War I, Palmer Hayden's sketchbooks of his studies abroad, William H. Johnson's scrapbook of clippings, photographs of Alma Thomas, and the correspondence and writings of Henry Ossawa Tanner, Romare Bearden, and Charles White.

The Archives also has numerous recorded oral history interviews, from 1964 to the present, with such artists as Sargent Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Howardena Pindell, and Richard Hunt.

At the Archives of American Art the struggles, accomplishments, and contributions of African American artists are revealed in the records of galleries and organizations and in artists' papers. Such subjects as the expatriate experience, racial discrimination in the arts, the exploration of an ethnicity, mainstream success, and the impact of New Deal art patronage are well documented.

A version of this guide was initially created by the Archives in 1997; in 2006 it was updated and expanded with support from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

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