NARA Replies

If nothing else, I had an excellent phone call today.  An archivist from NARA (The National Archives and Records Administration, A.K.A. The National Archives) phoned to respond to my inquiry about Ansel Adams contract with Interior.

He doesn't have it.

However, we chatted for a bit about the missing elements in the Adams correspondence stream that I've been posting here.  He suggested that I try the Library of Congress and the Ickes archive there.

I did not know there was an Ickes archive at the Library of Congress -- until now.

Alternatively, he also suggested that if Ickes forwarded any of the correspondence to FDR, it might be housed in his presidential library & museum in Hyde Park, NY.

Ah, anyone out there planning an outing to the LofC or the FDR Museum? 

NARA Replies

Paying his Freight

So, when the Secretary of the Interior calls, Ansel Adams hops a train.  That much is plain from history.

But who pays?
The Secretary, or rather C.C. Davison, Acting Chief Clerk, paying from the Department's till, which I suppose means that my grandparents picked up the tab (or some tiny fraction of it, divided among the taxpaying public). 

They might have quibbled about Adams' claim of a big-time, luxury, Pullman, round-trip, sleeper-car fare from Lexington to DC; but they didn't know that the Mural Project images would be the eventual result.

One might note mention of plans of the Interior Building and the locations of existing murals.  I wonder where Adams imagined his murals might go, when he first saw the building plans.  In the entryway?  In personal offices?  Open bays?  The halls?

Paying his Freight