Anacostia Community Museum Archives
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection Archive
National Air and Space Archives
National Anthropological Archives
National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Research & Scholars Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Charles Frost (on camel) in Egypt, February 1913
Human
Studies Film Archives
Museum Support Center
4210 Silver Hill Road
Suitland, Maryland 20746
301.238.1330
301.238.2883 fax
hsfa@si.edu
www.nmnh.si.edu/naa
Hours
Monday – Friday
9:30am to 4:30pm
Appointment Required
Metro Stop: Suitland
The Human
Studies Film Archives is an internationally recognized center devoted
to collecting, preserving, documenting and disseminating a broad range
of historical and contemporary ethnographic and anthropological moving
image materials. The HSFA also collects related documentation including
sound recordings, photographs, manuscripts and other associated texts,
field notes, camera and sound logs and production logs. Whenever possible,
synchronous audio commentaries (annotations) are obtained from the creator,
other persons associated with the material, or from an individual with
knowledge of the contents. Materials are available for duplication on
a case-by-case basis depending on restrictions and other archival issues.
Highlights: Among the highlights are seminal works of many well known
ethnographic filmmakers, including John Marshall's Ju/'hoan Bushman films,
Timothy Asch and Napoleon Chagnon's Yanomami film project, David and Judith
MacDougall's Turkana Trilogy, portions of the American University Field Staff Faces of Change
Series, and Jorge Preloran's ethnobiography films. Films and footage also include unique historical materials such
as Joseph Dixon's footage of the Crow Indians (Montana, 1908s); Matthew
Stirling's footage used for By Aeroplane to Pygmyland (West Irian, 1927);
Melville J. Herskovits' footage shot in Dahomey, the Gold Coast, and Haiti
(1931 and 1934); Aloha Baker's footage of the Bororos (Mato Grosso, Brazil,
1930-1931); and Robert Zingg's footage on the Huichol and Tarahumara (northern
Mexico, 1933). Of particular interest is an extensive collection of amateur
and professional travel and expedition films which reveal much about both
the filmmaker and the subject. The collection also contains a wide range
of educational films, documentaries, television broadcasts, and outtakes.