Includes images of excavations in Nevada, including images of Lake Tahoe, the ghost town of St. Thomas, and Pueblo Grande de Nevada, known as Nevada's "Lost City."
Scope and Contents:
The Schellbach collection consists primarily of negatives, photographs, and lantern slides made from 1924 to 1929 on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation by Schellbach. The bulk of the materials depict various Museum excavations in Nevada, particuarly at Pueblo Grande de Nevada (known as Nevada's "Lost City') but also St. Thomas, Virginia City, and Mesa House. Related to this body of work are photographs of exhumed antiquities, etc. from Pueblo Grande. The Museum and the state of Nevada apparently co-sponsored these excavations. The collection also includes photographs Schellbach made in 1922 in Guatemala; in 1929 in Idaho, again on behalf of the Musuem, along the Snake River of both the landscape and various petroglyphs he encountered; and in 1930 of Pinckney's Hummock archaeological site. In addition the collection includes several photographs made by Schellbach on September 23, 1923, of Northern Inunaina (Arapaho) men from the Wind River Reservation visiting the Musuem on their way to London.
Arrangement note:
Lantern slides: organized in boxes; arranged by L number
Negatives: organized in envelopes; arranged by negative number
Prints: organized in folders; arranged by print number
Biographical/Historical note:
Born in New York in 1887, Louis Schellbach is primarily remembered as the Grand Canyon's chief park naturalist, a position he held from 1941 to 1957. Prior to joining the Grand Canyon staff in 1937, Schellbach worked for the state of Nevada (as state archaeologist), the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, the Western Museum Laboratory in Berkeley, Aztec Ruins National Monument, and the Department of the Interior Museum. Schellbach died in Tucson, Arizona, in 1971.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Louis Schellbach collection of negatives, photographs and lantern slides, 1922-1930. National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number)
