- unitid
-
{"value"=>"21882", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Sc MG 599", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b14955779", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1974-1994", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1974/1994"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research records"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"4 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"3.25 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"The Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research was established in February 1974, by theater historian Helen Armstead-Johnson, for the purpose of collecting, preserving, documenting, and exhibiting the history of African American contributions to the American stage. The Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research records document the activities of the Foundation including administration, research requests, exhibition planning, and collection development."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research", "type"=>"corpname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research was established in February 1974, by theater historian Helen Armstead-Johnson, for the purpose of collecting, preserving, documenting, and exhibiting the history of African American contributions to the American stage. The governing body of the Armstead-Johnson Foundation, the Board of Sponsors, included John Bubbles, Carmen DeLavallade, Owen Dodson, Geoffrey Holder, Joe Franklin, John Houseman, Walter Kerr, and Ulysses S. Thompson. The committees included Executive, Finance, Acquisitions, Production Benefits, and Volunteers.</p> <p>Johnson, the Foundation's director, began conducting research into African American theater following a chance meeting in 1966 with Noble Sissle (1889-1975), musician, band conductor and show business partner of composer Eubie Blake. An English professor at York College in Queens, New York, at the time, Johnson turned to theatrical research, adapting to it the discipline and research techniques of her previous specialty, eighteenth-century English literature. Her research and other activities for the Foundation to her across the United States, most of Europe, Africa (including Egypt), South America, and Australia. Throughout this time, she continued to combine full-time teaching with her research and other duties for the Foundation.</p> <p>Among the materials which Johnson collected were scripts, programs and playbills, books and pamphlets, posters, broadsides, clothing worn by performers, costume designs, musical instruments, memorabilia, photographs, phonograph records, taped interviews with well-known entertainers, magazine and newspaper clippings, trophies, and plaques. Johnson attempted to document Black people's role in theatrical history from slavery through the 1980s. Most of the items in the Foundation's collections were acquired through donations, such as the bequest of the Elliot Carpenter Papers and the gift of the A. Lincoln Harris Scrapbook. Some materials were purchased, such as the Bill Robinson Collection of artifacts. She also gathered contemporary articles to supplement older material and document modern day performers. The Foundation was housed adjacent to Johnson's apartment in the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan where she put together a small museum, in 1975. for the display of some of the objects she had collected.</p> <p>Initially, the space was open to the public by appointment, however after several years, security and space considerations forced her to close the museum. Because the Foundation was unable to open to the public on a regular basis, major grants of public funds were unavailable to it. Instead, the Foundation sought and received a number of small grants from foundations and corporations such as the New York Foundation for the Arts, IBM, the CBS Foundation, Exxon, and other modest private donations to help support acquisitions, cataloging of the collections, and mounting exhibitions. The bulk of the expenses, however, to support the Foundation was borne by Johnson through a combination of her university salary, lecture fees, and exhibition fees. Additionally, in November 1980, the Foundation initiated its Spotlight Awards \"for the pursuit of excellence on stage\"; they also served as a fund raiser. The first two recipients were ninety-two year old U. S. \"Fleet of Feet\" Thompson, a retired international entertainer, and the artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company, Douglas Turner Ward. This performance benefit also included entertainment and a silent auction of mementos.</p> <p>Following the closing of the museum, the Foundation's public service was rendered primarily through exhibitions based solely on its collections for which rental fees were charged to the host institution. The collections were also utilized in the making of a film and filmstrip and for publications. On irregular occasions Johnson granted access to the artifactual and archival collections.</p> <p>The Foundation was honored with several awards: the AUDELCO Board of Directors's award for \"superior contributions toward preserving black cultural heritage\"; a 1981 Proclamation for the Junior Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas, for \"endeavors to expose and preserve the \"Black Cultural Heritage nationally and internationally\"; and a Proclamation from the mayor of New York City in 1982.</p> <p>The Foundation continued to function through 1994, primarily through the exhibits planned by Johnson, and some collection development. In 1996, due to Johnson's ill health, the Foundation ceased functioning and that same year Johnson donated the entire Armstead-Johnson collection to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research Records document the activities of the Foundation including the administration, collection development, exhibition planning, and research requests. The material includes, among others, exhibition lists, budgets, fact sheets, press packets, correspondence, loan agreements, guest books for exhibitions, and donation solicitation letters.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research records are arranged in four series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/21882#c1316058'>Administration</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1974-1989</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 linear foot</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists of a trust document establishing the Foundation; membership list for the board of sponsors; minutes of board meetings; and correspondence with the board members. There are also press packets, a fact sheet, a list of exhibitions sponsored by the Foundation, biographical information about Dr. Johnson, complimentary letters, news clippings, invitations, and other printed material. Additionally, these files contain financial records such as budgets and fund raising correspondence with the few foundations and private organizations which donated monies to the Foundation; the balance consists of letters of declination from corporations responding to the Foundation's solicitations for financial support. A benefit performance which included a Spotlight Award event and silent auction are also documented. There is information outlining a proposed affiliation between the Foundation and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, undated, and correspondence and legal documents discussing the proposed donation of the Foundation's collections to the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and to the Schomburg Center.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/21882#c1316092'>Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1974-1993</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.2 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The many topics discussed in this series include Dr. Johnson's television and radio appearances (1975-1983); requests for assistance from researchers in African American theater history; complimentary letters; speaking engagements; the donation of sheet music to the Library of the Performing Arts of the New York Public Library; requests to lend traveling exhibits to universities and public places; requests for loans of items to be displayed at exhibitions sponsored by other institutions; and finally, correspondence with theatrical people who donated collections to the Foundation, such as Elliot Carpenter.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/21882#c1316101'>Exhibitions</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1974-1994</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 linear foot</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series documents the numerous exhibitions which the Foundation sponsored along the eastern seaboard and in Vienna beginning with a 1975 group show in Washington, D. C. and continuing to November 1993, with an exhibition held at the Queens Borough Public Library. Among the types of documents to be found in this series are correspondence and memoranda planning the exhibitions, budgets, grant proposals and fund raising letters, letters requesting loans and agreements, layouts for exhibitions, design production information, lists of materials exhibited, and in isolated instances, insurance papers, research information, and notes. Other items include label text, invitations, press releases, press previews, guest books, news clippings, manuscripts for catalogs, and the published catalogs. Additionally, there is correspondence regarding requests and negotiations for the exhibition to travel to European cities other than Vienna as well as to American institutions, posters advertising the exhibitions, and lists of materials displayed in the Foundation museum at the Hotel Chelsea.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/21882#c1316160'>Collections</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1974-1990</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.2 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series documents the manner in which Dr. Johnson acquired collections for the Foundation, either by soliciting donations or by negotiating the purchase of items. There are also lists of materials, including photographs, owned by the Foundation in 1975.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>Collection organized into four series: I. Administration; II. Correspondence; III. Exhibitions; and IV. Collections</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Gift of Helen Armstead-Johnson, December 1996.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Transferred to the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division: audio materials. For more information, please contact the division at schomburgaudiovisual@nypl.org or 212-491-2270.</p> <p>Transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division: photographs</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Janice Quinter, May 2000.</p><p>Processed as part of the \"Blacks on Stage: African- American Theater Arts Collection Project\". Funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the City and State of New York.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>The following collections, all donated by Helen Armstead-Johnson, are located in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Sc MG 599, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture:</p> <p>A. Lincoln Harris scrapbook</p> <p>Edith Spencer scrapbook</p> <p>Elliot Carpenter papers</p> <p>Florence Mills collection</p> <p>Flournoy Miller collection</p> <p>Glenn and Jenkins scrapbook</p> <p>Helen Armstead-Johnson miscellaneous theater collections</p> <p> Helen Armstead-Johnson papers</p> <p>Opal Cooper collection</p> <p>Sidney Easton papers</p>"}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"The necessary staff and supplies for the \"Blacks on Stage: African-American Theater Arts Collections Projec\"t were made available through a combination of funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the City and State of New York."}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark.", "date"=>"2020 December 17"}
- date_start
-
1974
- keydate
-
1974
- date_end
-
1994
- date_inclusive_start
-
1974
- date_inclusive_end
-
1994
- extent_statement
-
3.25 linear feet (4 boxes)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"[Item], Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research records, Sc MG 599, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library"}