These images depict the indigenous people of Peru, Bolivia, Suriname and Chile; the largest percentage of the images are of Panama and Guyana (British Guiana).
Scope and Contents:
The Verrill collection consists primarily of photographic materials made by Verrill in Guyana and Panama. Dating from 1917 and 1925, the Guyana photographs depict mostly Carib and Patamona but also Warao, Arecuna, Akawaio (Acawai), Akurio (Acuria), Arawak, Macushi (Macusi), Waiwai, and Taruma men and women. These are mostly informal portraits, but the photographs also document dwellings and various activities, such as weaving, spinning, fishing, and canoeing. Included in the Guyana materials are also nineteenth-century (ca. 1880?) albumen prints of portraits of Wapichana (Wapishana), Waiwai, Atorai, and Taruma men and women; Verrill most likely did not make these photographs. The Panama materials date from 1924 and 1925 and are primarily portraits of Teribe (Terraba), Ngäbe (Boorabi), Coclé Guaymi (Cocle), Guaymi, Kuna (Cuna), Emberá (Choikoi), and Sabanero men and women, but the photographs also depict dwellings, ceremonials, and canoes. Among the Panama materials are photographs depicting antiquities from Penonomé. The collection also consists of 1924 photographs of the indigenous peoples of Peru, Bolivia, and Chile and 1925 photographs of the indigenous peoples of Suriname and Peru.
Arrangement note:
Negatives Arranged by negative number (N10017-N10307, N10804-N10966, N11229-N11257, N29558, N34270, N34288-N34289, N34294, N34930-N34932, N36040-N36041, N36044, N41525)
Prints Arranged by print number (P00243-P00271, P00289-P00341, P00289-P00341, P02207-P02215, P06385-P06401, P06654-P06682, P06654-P06682, P06695-P06700, P06703, P07307, P07310-P07315, P07317, P07384-P07394, P09137-P09141, P18855)
Lantern slide Arranged by lantern slide number (L00076)
Biographical/Historical note:
Born in 1871 in New Haven, Connecticut, A. Hyatt Verrill was an illustrator, naturalist, explorer, and author of more than 105 books. From 1889 to 1928, he either explored, made ethnological expeditions to, or excavated in Bermuda, the West Indies, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Surinam.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
A. Hyatt Verrill negatives, photographs and other materials, 1917-1926, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
The material includes lists, texts, brief articles, clippings, vocabularies, letters, reading notes, bibliographic notes, and maps. Much of the material has to do with natural history and geography and includes material on place names and animal names. Some of the material has no direct relation to Roth's study of Guyana aborigines. For example, there are comparisons of names on maps of different periods and and lists of fauna. There are also small amounts of material on face painting, loan words (Indian in Dutch, European words in Carib), and petroglyphs. Some of the clippings concern Brazil.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 7295
Local Note:
Xerox copies of manuscript documents and printed material
