Sources of light : contemporary American luminism, Martha Alf, Roger Brown, April Gornik, Alfred Leslie, Norman Lundin, Ed Paschke / essay by Harvey West ; biographies by Chris Bruce
The papers of ceramicist and sculptor Patti Warashina (b. 1940) date from circa 1900 and 1957 through 1991, bulk 1970-1989. The collection consists of 4.8 linear feet of correspondence and printed material reflecting the many ceramic and craft exhibitions and other projects Warashina participated in throughout the United States, and her associations with other ceramicists. Also included are biographical documents, writings, art works, several photographs, and a video.
Scope and Content Note:
The Patti Warashina papers measure 4.8 linear feet and date from circa 1900 and 1957 through 1991 (bulk 1970-1989). The collection documents the artistic and teaching career of Seattle-based sculptor and ceramicist Patti Warashina predominantly through correspondence and printed material reflecting the many ceramic and craft exhibitions and other projects Warashina participated in throughout the United States, and her associations with other ceramicists. Also included are biographical documents, writings, art works, several photographs, and a video.
Biographical material includes family trees, diplomas, awards, and documents relating to Warashina's family Japanese internment during WWII. Correspondence, 1968-1991, relating to exhibitions and other projects, is with galleries, museums, purchasers, publishers, and others, among them the Lee Nordness Gallery (N.Y.), Morgan Gallery (Kansas City), and Theo Portney Gallery (Seattle). Additional correspondence files contain letters received, 1977-1990, many addressed to Warashina and her husband Bob (Robert Sperry), from friends, colleagues, former students and family members, including Nancy Carmen, Anne Currier, Deborah Horrell, Matthew Kangas, Howard Kottler, Marvin Lipofsky, Michael Lucero, and others.
Ten photographs, circa 1900-1944, are portraits of Warashina's relatives and family, and several snapshots, circa 1970s, are of former students and works of art. Printed material, 1961-1990, includes newspaper and magazine clippings, programs, journals, newsletters, exhibition announcements, exhibition catalogs, and workshop announcements for Warashina's various sculpture and ceramic lectures. Writings include both published and unpublished works by Warashina, including an artist's statement for a possible lecture at the 1986 conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). Also found here are handwritten notes on a panel discussion titled Cultural and Racial Heritage: Sources and Imagery in which Warashina was a participant along with artists Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, María Brito Avellana, and Indira Johnson. Art work consists of blue line drawings for her sculpture "Red Earth," 1986 as well as a pen and ink sketch of Warashina by an unidentified artist. A videocassette, 1987, is of the television program "The Big A: Different Ways of Seeing", in which Warashina appears briefly.
Arrangement:
The Patti Warashina papers are arranged as seven series based primarily on type of material. The correspondence in Series 2 is arranged chronologically for exhibitions and projects and general letters received. Additional letters received are arranged by name of author.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1974-1991, undated (Box 1; 3 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1957, 1967-1991, undated (Boxes 1-3; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 3: Photographs, circa 1900- circa 1959, 1971, undated (Box 3; 3 folders)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1961-1990, undated (Boxes 3-6, OV 7; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 5: Writings and Notes, 1984, 1986, 1989, undated (Box 6; 4 folders)
Series 6: Artwork, 1986, undated (Box 6; 2 folders)
Series 7: Miscellany, 1987, undated (Box 6; 2 folders)
Biographical Note:
Ceramicist and sculptor Patti Warashina was born in 1940 as Masae Patricia Warashina in Spokane, Washington to third generation Japanese emigrants. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, Seattle, where she studied with sculptors Robert Sperry, Harold Myers, Rudy Autio, Shoji Hamada, Shinsaku Hamada, and Ruth Penington. She received her first solo exhibition in 1962 at the Phoenix Art Gallery in Seattle the same year she graduated with an M.F.A. from the University of Washington. Warashina later married fellow student Fred Bauer and from 1964 to 1970 exhibited as Patti Bauer.
Influences in Warashina's art include California funk and sculptural ceramics. Her work is best known for its whimsical themes expressed through low-fire highly colored figurative images. Together with fellow artists Robert Sperry, Howard Kottler and Fred Bauer, she brought national recognition to the department of ceramics at the University of Washington's School of Art beginning in the 1980s.
Patti Warashina is a recipient of several awards for achievements in the field of crafts, most recently the Twining Humber Award granted by Seattle's Artists Trust in 2002. She received the Governor's Award of Special Commendation for the Arts in 1980 in addition to grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in both 1975 and 1986. In 1978, Warashina was awarded a World Craft Council Travel Grant which allowed her to conduct research on the ceramic arts process in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Bali and the Philippines. Warashina's teaching career spans over 30 years and includes positions at the University of Wisconsin, Eastern Michigan University, and at her alma mater where she has taught for over 25 years. Her work is featured in several museum collections in both the U.S. and abroad including the American Craft Museum in New York, the Seattle Art Museum and Henry Art Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery (Washington, DC), the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and the Ichon World Ceramic Center in Korea. Since her marriage to ceramicist Robert Sperry in 1976, she has used Patti Warashina as her professional name. Patti Warashina is a resident of Seattle, Washington.
Provenance:
The Patti Warashina papers were donated by the artist to the Archives of American Art in 1991.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Patti Warashina papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Women sculptors -- Washington (State) -- Seattle Search this
Women artists -- Washington (State) -- Seattle Search this
The papers of photographer and teacher Imogen Cunningham, date from 1903 to 1991. The collection measures 5.9 feet of material, including correspondence, business and financial records, writings, printed matter, and photographs, and provides a good overview of Cunningham's life and career.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of photographer and teacher Imogen Cunningham, date from 1903 to 1991. The collection measures 5.9 feet of material, including correspondence, business and financial records, writings, printed matter, and photographs, and provides a good overview of Cunningham's life and career. 3.6 linear feet of correspondence comprise the bulk of the collection.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into ten series according to material type:
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1907-1981, undated (box 1; 4 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1909-1991, undated (boxes 1-4; 3.6 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal Business Records, 1944-1976 (box 4; 15 folders)
Series 4: Notes, 1959-1968 (box 4; 10 folders)
Series 5: Teaching Files, 1964-1971 (box 5; 4 folders)
Series 6: Writings, circa 1910-1976 (box 5; 21 folders)
Series 7: Interview Transcripts, 1951, undated (box 5; 2 folders)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1903-1991 (boxes 5-7; 1.2 linear feet)
Series 9: Photographs, 1916-1976 (box 7; 12 folders)
Series 10: Oversized Material, 1947-1948, 1967, undated
Biographical Note:
Born in Portland, Oregon on April 12, 1883, Cunningham's family moved to Seattle in 1889. Inspired by Gertrude Kasebier's work, she purchased her first camera in 1901. After studying chemistry and botany at the University of Washington, she worked for the Edward S. Curtis Studio, Seattle, from 1907 to 1909. Receiving a scholarship, Cunningham studied for a year at the Technische Hochschule, Dresden.
Upon her return to Seattle in 1910, she opened a studio and had the first major exhibition of her work at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1912.
In 1915, Cunningham married printmaker Roi Partridge and gave birth to her first son, Gryffyd. Two years later, her family moved to California, where she gave birth to twin sons, Padraic and Rondal. In 1920, the family moved to Oakland, where her husband taught at Mills College. During the 1920s, she exhibited her art work and began photographing plant forms.
Along with Ansel Adams, John Paul Edwards, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke, and Edward Weston, Cunningham formed the f/64 Group, a society of purist photographers in 1932. During the same year she began working for Vanity Fair and other magazines and began a career as a portrait photographer, including Martha Graham, Cary Grant, Morris Graves, Alfred Stieglitz, and Spencer Tracy as her subjects. She divorced her husband in 1934.
In 1947, Cunningham established a studio in her San Francisco home, and continued to exhibit extensively until her death on June 24, 1976.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives of American Art by Imogen Cunningham in 1974 and 1976, and by her son, Gryffyd Partridge, in 1991.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Rights:
The Imogen Cunningham papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The scattered personal papers of Seattle area painter Kamekichi Tokita (1897-1948) measure 1.5 linear feet and date from circa 1900 to circa 2010 with the bulk of the material dating from circa 1910 to 1948. The papers include biographical materials, including documents about the closing of the War Relocation Authority's Minidoka Camp in Idaho; correspondence; three diaries written in Japanese documenting Tokita's war time experiences and relocation to Minidoka, two earlier notebooks, also written in Japanese, and scattered notes; a few personal business records; printed materials; one scrapbook; sketches; and one family photograph album.
Scope and Contents:
The scattered personal papers of Seattle area painter Kamekichi Tokita (1897-1948) measure 1.5 linear feet and date from circa 1900 to circa 2010 with the bulk of the material dating from circa 1910 to 1948. The papers include biographical materials, including documents about the closing of the War Relocation Authority's Minidoka Camp in Idaho; correspondence; three diaries written in Japanese documenting Tokita's war time experiences and relocation to Minidoka, two earlier notebooks, also written in Japanese, and scattered notes; a few personal business records; printed materials; one scrapbook; sketches; and one family photograph album.
Biographical materials include a file on the Public Works of Art Project, a file on the War Relocation Authority and the closing of the Minidoka internment camp, an immigration document, and an essay on Tokita written by Shokichi and Elsie Tokita.
Correspondence is primarily professional in nature and concerns exhibitions at the Seattle Museum of Art (previously the Art Institute of Seattle) and other topics. Correspondents include Burt Brown Baker, Roy Boynton, Kenneth Callahan, Henry Gallery, the Seattle Art Museum, and others.
Tokita's writings consist of three diaries, two notebooks, and scattered general writings, most of which are in Japanese. The diaries were kept during World War II and document the family's confinement at the Minidoka Relocation Camp in Idaho. Included is a transcript of the diaries which were translated from prewar to modern Japanese by Haruo Takasugi and from modern Japanese to English by Naomi Kusunoki-Martin.
Scattered business records include a patent application, records from the Cadillac Hotel, and a claim filed through the Department of Justice. A few published books in English and Japanese are about art and religion. Also found are exhibition catalogs for shows in which Tokita participated and clippings. There is one mixed media scrapbook about Tokita's exhibitions.
Artwork consists of unsigned pencil and watercolor sketches by Tokita. There is also a family photo album containing snapshots and portraits of the Tokita family and friends.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1934-1985 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1920-1944 (Box 1; 6 folders)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1923-circa 1950 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, 1928-1950 (Box 1; 3 folders)
Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1910-1940 (Box 1-3; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Scrapbook, 1929-1933 (Box 2-3; 0.1 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1910-1940s (Box 2-3; 0.1 linear feet)
Series 8: Photograph Album, circa 1900-1930 (Box 2; 0.2 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Kamekichi Tokita (1897-1948) was a painter and businessman who emigrated from Japan in 1919 and settled in Seattle, Washington. Tokita was a member of the Seattle area progressive artists' collective known as the "Group of Twelve" and widely exhibited his artwork throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Kamekichi Tokita was born in Shizouka City, Japan and immigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-two. He settled in the Japantown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington where he opened the Noto Sign Company with business partner Kenjiro Nomura. Nomura was also an artist and encouraged Tokita's interest in oil painting. They both used the sign shop as their studio after-hours. In 1936, the Noto Sign Company closed and Tokita took over management of the Cadillac Hotel, although he continued to paint commercial signs. Tokita married Haruko Suzuki in 1932 and together they had eight children.
As a child in Japan, Tokita studied calligraphy in China. Although he attended a few art school classes in in the U.S. and went on weekend painting trips with Nomura and other Seattle artists, Tokita is considered to be a largely self-trained artist. Support and recognition came from Dorothy V. Morrison of the Henry Gallery at the University of Washington who wrote to Tokita to inquire whether a "group of Japanese artists in the city" would be interested in exhibiting their work. Although the exhibition of Japanese artists did not happen, Tokita later loaned paintings to the gallery for inclusion in an exhibition sponsored by the American Federation of Arts. Throughout the late 1920s and 1930s Tokita exhibited widely in the Seattle area. In 1935, the Seattle Daily Times touted the work of Tokita and other painters in the "Group of Twelve" that also included Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, Walter F. Isaacs, and Ambrose and Viola Patterson, among others.
In 1942, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Kamekichi Tokita and his family (five children at the time), along with the 110,000 – 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-American citizens living on the West Coast, were ordered under President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 to relocate to one of several confinement camps. For the first six months of their confinement, the family lived at a temporary Civilian Assembly Center in Puyallup, Washington. They were transferred to the Minidoka Relocation Camp in Hunt, Idaho where they remained until their release in 1945. The confinement camps were organized much like communes and independent cities (fenced and guarded) where the residents were self-reliant for most of their basic necessities, including schooling. While interned in Minidoka, Tokita worked as a sign painter and continued to privately paint, using whatever materials he could find, including beaver board. His work was featured in art shows at the camp. Many of his camp scenes are now lost or were given away.
At the end of World War II, Tokita and his family (now seven children) moved back to the Seattle-area. Unable to find housing, the Tokitas lived at a Japanese language school until Tokita was able to re-establish his business. During this period he painted very little. In 1946 Tokita and his wife purchased the New Lucky Hotel in the Chinatown area of Seattle. Shortly thereafter, Tokita fell ill and died in 1948. Many of his works are believed to have been destroyed or lost. Some of his work remains, however, and is among the permanent collections of the Seattle Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum.
Note: Much of this biographical note was taken from "A Biographical Resume" written by Shokichi and Elsie Y. Tokita.
Separated Materials:
A watercolor painting on paper by Kamekichi Tokita, Untitled (Still Life), 9 x 12 in. was transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2012.
Provenance:
The Kamekichi Tokita papers were donated by his son, Shokichi Tokita in 1990. He donated a third and final diary in 2017. They were collected as part of the Archives of American Art Northwest Asian American project in Seattle, Washington.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Kamekichi Tokita papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Occupation:
Painters -- Washington (State) -- Seattle Search this
The Betty Parsons Gallery records and personal papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Betty Parsons Gallery records and personal papers, circa 1920-1991, bulk 1946-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by Terra Foundation for American Art.
This photograph was taken by Dr. Simon Ottenberg at the Oje Ogwu ceremony presented on the eke day of 3 January 1960 in the main common of Ukpa Village. Dr. Ottenberg was conducting field research at Afikpo village-group, southeastern Nigeria, from September 1959 to December 1960.
Original caption reads, "Oje Ogwu ceremony at Ukpa Village. Note the different styles of dresses. String netted masks. Musicians wearing the same, some with dry leaves, some with fresh ones, some with feathers, some without. Some use porcupine quills. Ebi is what dress called if wear porcupine quills, okpu ebuba (hat-feather) is what call other musicians with feathers in hats." [Ottenberg field research notes, September 1959-December 1960, Part I].
"Oje Ogwu is a play performed in only a few common villages each year. It is a net-masked dance of about thirty players accompanied by musicians also wearing net face coverings. Most of the Ezi Akane secret society members from the age group of boys and young men took part in the actual rehearsals and performances. The Oje Ogwu dance is simpler than the Okumkpa play or the Njenji masked parade. It takes a short period of time to perform and is based on only a few contrastive elements. There are the three types of costumes, each of which has special movements and activities associated with it. The Oje Ogwu is not particularly associated with a specific festival, but rather with a season." [ Ottenberg, 1975: Masked rituals of Afikpo, the context of an African art; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975].
The photograph depicts erewe player, having brought "dashes" to the musicians. The erewe players are the better and generally older dancers who perform individually as well as in the group. Their characteristic headgear consists of long, black feathers pointing out in different directions from the top of the head, which move about with some freedom. Interspersed with them are shorter feathers dyed a bright pink.
Local Numbers:
297/1959-1960
EEPA 2000-070513
General:
Title source: Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Other Archival Materials:
Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Collection Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
This photograph was taken by Dr. Simon Ottenberg at the Oje Ogwu ceremony presented on the eke day of 3 January 1960 in the main common of Ukpa Village. Dr. Ottenberg was conducting field research at Afikpo village-group, southeastern Nigeria, from September 1959 to December 1960.
Original caption reads, "Oje Ogwu ceremony at Ukpa Village. Note the different styles of dresses. String netted masks. Musicians wearing the same, some with dry leaves, some with fresh ones, some with feathers, some without. Some use porcupine quills. Ebi is what dress called if wear porcupine quills, okpu ebuba (hat-feather) is what call other musicians with feathers in hats. Costume called ebulu." [Ottenberg field research notes, September 1959-December 1960, Part I].
Publication title reads, "Ebulu player at Ukpa oje ogwu dance."
"Oje Ogwu is a play performed in only a few common villages each year. It is a net-masked dance of about thirty players accompanied by musicians also wearing net face coverings. Most of the Ezi Akane secret society members from the age group of boys and young men took part in the actual rehearsals and performances. The Oje Ogwu dance is simpler than the Okumkpa play or the Njenji masked parade. It takes a short period of time to perform and is based on only a few contrastive elements. There are the three types of costumes, each of which has special movements and activities associated with it. The Oje Ogwu is not particularly associated with a specific festival, but rather with a season." [ Ottenberg, 1975: Masked rituals of Afikpo, the context of an African art; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975].
The photograph depicts ebulu player wearing net mask and headgear. The ebulu players are the poorer and generally younger dancers who move only as a dancing group. Their costumes involve a similar body costume and net mask to the erewe, but the headpiece differs. On the head is worn a red cloth, which is peaked and surrounded by feathers, more vertically oriented.
Local Numbers:
312/1959-1960
EEPA 2000-070528
General:
Title source: Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Other Archival Materials:
Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Collection Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
This photograph was taken by Dr. Simon Ottenberg while conducting field research at Afikpo village-group, southeastern Nigeria, from September 1959 to December 1960.
Original caption reads, "Uninitiated boys into men's secret society emulate adult otero masquerade by wearing their own to perform. Ezi Ume compound, Mgbom Village. Just play, chase girls. For initiated male doing otero they can punish wrongs, as if given soup to prepare for a title and do not do it or do it right they will come and flog you and tear down your home. Boys can be punished by adult otero as well." [Ottenberg field research notes, September 1959-December 1960, Part I].
"There are two classes of masquerades in which direct physical action plays an important role. One of these includes masks and costumes used for social control. The other is a sport contest. Otero, the second form of the masked costumes, is seen during the dry season on nonfarming days, aho and eke, and on feast days, such as Mbe and during the Njenji parade.The uninitiated boys' otero is somewhat similar to the secret society form, except that instead of a red hat and a net mask he wears a raffia headdress that completely covers the head and face." [ Ottenberg, 1975: Masked rituals of Afikpo, the context of an African art; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975].
Local Numbers:
313/1959-1960
EEPA 2000-070529
General:
Title source: Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Other Archival Materials:
Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Collection Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
This photograph was taken by Dr. Simon Ottenberg while conducting field research at Afikpo village-group, southeastern Nigeria, from September 1959 to December 1960.
Original caption reads, "Uninitiated boys into men's secret society emulate adult otero masquerade by wearing their own to perform. Ezi Ume compound, Mgbom Village. Just play, chase girls. For initiated male doing otero they can punish wrongs, as if given soup to prepare for a title and do not do it or do it right they will come and flog you and tear down your home. Boys can be punished by adult otero as well." [Ottenberg field research notes, September 1959-December 1960, Part I].
"There are two classes of masquerades in which direct physical action plays an important role. One of these includes masks and costumes used for social control. The other is a sport contest. Otero, the second form of the masked costumes, is seen during the dry season on nonfarming days, aho and eke, and on feast days, such as Mbe and during the Njenji parade.The uninitiated boys' otero is somewhat similar to the secret society form, except that instead of a red hat and a net mask he wears a raffia headdress that completely covers the head and face." [ Ottenberg, 1975: Masked rituals of Afikpo, the context of an African art; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975].
Local Numbers:
314/1959-1960
EEPA 2000-070530
General:
Title source: Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Other Archival Materials:
Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Collection Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
This photograph was taken by Dr. Simon Ottenberg while conducting field research at Afikpo village-group, southeastern Nigeria, from September 1959 to December 1960.
Original caption reads, "Uninitiated boys into men's secret society emulate adult otero masquerade by wearing their own to perform. Ezi Ume compound, Mgbom Village. Just play, chase girls. For initiated male doing otero they can punish wrongs, as if given soup to prepare for a title and do not do it or do it right they will come and flog you and tear down your home. Boys can be punished by adult otero as well." [Ottenberg field research notes, September 1959-December 1960, Part I].
"There are two classes of masquerades in which direct physical action plays an important role. One of these includes masks and costumes used for social control. The other is a sport contest. Otero, the second form of the masked costumes, is seen during the dry season on nonfarming days, aho and eke, and on feast days, such as Mbe and during the Njenji parade.The uninitiated boys' otero is somewhat similar to the secret society form, except that instead of a red hat and a net mask he wears a raffia headdress that completely covers the head and face." [ Ottenberg, 1975: Masked rituals of Afikpo, the context of an African art; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975].
Local Numbers:
315/1959-1960
EEPA 2000-070531
General:
Title source: Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Other Archival Materials:
Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Collection Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
This photograph was taken by Dr. Simon Ottenberg while conducting field research at Afikpo village-group, southeastern Nigeria, from September 1959 to December 1960.
Original caption reads, "Isiji initiation, apparently at amuro Village, Afikpo. The initiation into the village men's secret society of a man's eldest son. Other sons do a different initiation form as a rule. At this stage in the initiation the boys have been in the bush behind the tower-like structure for some days. They appear in public for the first time in decorated calabash masks and raffia dress to dance about as well. This indicates that they are alive and well and have survived the rigors of the initiation bush is here, typical of Afikpo, rather than at some distance. The tower-like structure publicly marks the initiation bush. Before entering the bush the boys are led to believe that they will have to climb it, but in fact they enter the bush at its base." [Ottenberg field research notes, September 1959-December 1960, Part II].
Publication title reads, "Isiji players at the initiation of first sons in Ukpa Village."
Local Numbers:
681/1959-1960
EEPA 2000-070873
General:
Title source: Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Other Archival Materials:
Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Collection Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
This photograph was taken by Dr. Simon Ottenberg while conducting field research at Afikpo village-group, southeastern Nigeria, from September 1959 to December 1960.
Original caption reads, "Njenje masked parade, which occurs in various villages, those of each community parading in their own and also in other villages. The rainy season festival day, iko okoci. They parade by age, generally, with some exceptions, from older to younger males by grades. Njenje is general term for this masquerade, and particularly for those who dress as women. at Ndibe village, Ezi Nwachi compound. Ekpo atam (chest cloth-bell). The one on the right has the red chest cloth with bell at the back. The tall ones from the age that wears these dress this way, wearing beke (white man) or mma ubi (knife-farm) also mma ji (knife-yam) masks." [Ottenberg field research notes, September 1959-December 1960, Part I].
"The most elaborate masquerade, njenji, presented as part of the four-day Dry Season Festival, Iko Okoci, is a parade of the young adult members through many of the communities of afikpo. The masked paraders walk in a line, arranged in an order of descending age. Many players are dressed in costumes that make them appear as females. Some walk side by side as couples, dressed as man and wife, frequently in European-style dress. Other paraders are costumed as scholars, priests, or as Muslims. The players are arranged by the type of wooden mask they wear. Accompanying the masked line are small groups of net-masked dancers in various raffia and costumes who dance and prance about." [ Ottenberg, 1975: Masked rituals of Afikpo, the context of an African art; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975].
Local Numbers:
180/1959-1960
EEPA 2000-070402
General:
Title source: Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Other Archival Materials:
Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Collection Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
This photograph was taken by Dr. Simon Ottenberg while conducting field research at Afikpo village-group, southeastern Nigeria, from September 1959 to December 1960.
Original caption reads, "Otero masqueraders in Ezi Nwachi compound, Ndibe Village. Dried banana leaves, net fiber face mask, ikpo metal bell, akpoto rope tied around waist, ashes or charcoal rubbed on their bodies, a stick, which use in chasing girls and women. Not part of Njenje masked parade but appearing about the same time." [Ottenberg field research notes, September 1959-December 1960, Part I].
Publication caption reads, "Otero of the secret society moving through a compound."
"There are two classes of masquerades in which direct physical action plays an important role. One of these includes masks and costumes used for social control. The other is a sport contest. Otero, the second form of the masked costumes, is seen during the dry season on nonfarming days, aho and eke, and on feast days, such as Mbe and during the Njenji parade." [ Ottenberg, 1975: Masked rituals of Afikpo, the context of an African art; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975].
Local Numbers:
200/1959-1960
EEPA 2000-070421
General:
Title source: Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Other Archival Materials:
Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Collection Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
