Series 2489 documents Paul Vanderbilt's administrative responsibilities as head of the Iconographic Section. This part of his professional life is also documented by Series 1829 (Iconography Correspondence, 1952-1982) and by several, separately catalogued oral history projects. The majority of the papers relating to Vanderbilt's earlier career, his post-SHSW career, and his personal life are available at the Archives of American Art except that the State Historical Society holds a small body of unprocessed personal papers accessioned as a manuscript collection. Numerous photographs, photo exhibits, and films produced by Vanderbilt as head of Iconography are available in the Visual Materials Archive.
While the overall content of Series 2489 is administrative, researchers will also find in it information that is helpful to understanding the creative side of Vanderbilt's personality and his view of visual imagery. Only a small quantity of material in Series 2489 relates directly to Vanderbilt's personal photography or the exhibition of his landscape work, although there are several files on the development and display of his thematic panels and pairings and an exhibit at the Chicago Institute of Art. A few files document Vanderbilt's relationships with friends and other professionals and his reputation as a nationally-recognized photographer. These include exchanges with
George Talbot of TransAction magazine, who succeeded Vanderbilt as head of Iconography; a file about Roy Stryker, director of the Farm Security Administration project, and the effort by Franklin Wallick of the United Automobile Workers to develop a similar project; and correspondence with Ansel Adams.
Vanderbilt's subject files are arranged as part of a complex numerical classification scheme that is similar to the classified file he established to enhance access to topical photographs. In this system, files were first arranged into related subject groups and then individual files within each of these groupings were assigned classification numbers up to five digits long. In Vanderbilt's scheme two digit numbers denote the most general subjects, while additional digits placed to the right of the original numbers indicate a successive refinement of the original subject concept. For example, File 6605 “Microfilming tests and procedures” is a subfile of File 66 “Microfilming.” Unfortunately, some files appear to have little in common with the files with which the system suggests they are hierarchically related. Thus, File 663 “Restoration of Photographs” appears to have little relation to its superior, File 66 “Microfilming”. This problem impedes access to the series based on subject hierarchies. Also complicating use is the fact that some files contained little information while others had been retired from use. (Vanderbilt sometimes used the series to manage original photo collections and other materials while he was working on them. All such misfiled original material has been removed from the files to its proper location in the general Visual Materials holdings.) A final problem for access is that some material was unfoldered or never assigned classification numbers. This material has been interfiled or filed alphabetically at the end of the series. To aid research use, an alphabetical index to Vanderbilt's file descriptions follows the container list as an appendix. Cardex cards which listed all active and inactive file numbers are filed in Box 1.
The most important material in the series relates to administration of the newly-created photograph section; the determination of general policy and procedures; and the care, arrangement, description, and promotion of the collections. In files 172 and 175 there are incoming and outgoing memoranda to and from Society administrators such as Leslie J. Fishel Jr., J.W. Jenkins, Clifford Lord, and Don McNeil, and in files 19,
194, and 72 there are annual reports, field reports, and other special reports. While the administrative memoranda are incomplete for Vanderbilt's entire tenure as head of the section, the coverage is fortunately best for the early years of Vanderbilt's work when most policy was being developed. In addition to purely administrative material, this section includes book reviews, columns, ideas for books and publications, and other short writings by Vanderbilt.
A substantial group of material relates to the operation of the Iconographic Section and to Vanderbilt's special projects and exhibits. In this category there is material as diverse as correspondence regarding circulating exhibits, film screenings, and loans; background research and captions for exhibits; and cut lists and notes for SHSW promotional films.
A third type of record has been retained primarily for its evidence of the section's operations. Here one will find microfilm test strips, samples of paper and folder stock, a detailed inventory of photographic equipment, correspondence regarding new equipment and techniques, and cataloging manuals
Finally, Vanderbilt classified a large quantity of secondary reference material such as equipment catalogs, newspaper clippings, lists of Wisconsin material in other repositories, and information on topics that was simply interesting to him such as jokes or other uses of the name Iconography. The majority of the secondary information has been separated from the subject files and discarded.
