Photographs depicting Spruce Tree House, Cliff Palace, and Balcony House in Mesa Verde. The collection includes one image of Balcony House before restoration.
Biographical/Historical note:
Arthur Chapman (1873-1935) was a cowboy, poet, and newspaper columnist who explored much of the Rocky Mountains, Mesa Verde National Park, and other scenic areas in Colorado and the West. He wrote his most famous poem, "Out Where the West Begins" (circa 1910), as an homage to the people and land of the frontier.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 87-2G
Location of Other Archival Materials:
An additional photograph by Chapman can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24.
Correspondence from Chapman can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4517.
The Denver Public Library holds photographs of Chapman.
This collection includes photographic prints and copy negatives made by Charles Morgan Wood between 1908 and 1925 of indigenous communities and archaeological sites within Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. The communities photographed include the San Ildefonso Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Diné (Navajo), Tesuque Pueblo, Hopi-Tewa, Kewa (Santo Domingo Pueblo), Nambe Pueblo, K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Laguna Pueblo, A:shiwi (Zuni), Hopi Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo, and Taos Pueblo.
Scope and Contents:
Series one includes photos taken in Arizona between 1908-1925. Photos include landscapes, buildings, and portraits of living communities posing or engaging in tasks, such as decorating pottery, blanket weaving, and grinding corn. The depicted communities include the Hopi-Tewa, Hopi Pueblo, and Diné (Navajo). Also included are photographs of archaeological sites within Arizona, including several pictographs at Betatakin. A few prints document the Diné (Navajo) mud-bathing for a head dance. Catalog numbers include N36036, N41315, P07121-P0145; P07152-P07168
Series two includes photos taken between 1920-1925 in New Mexico. Some photos depict archaeological sites and prehistoric ruins, including photos of the Bandelier National Monument, the Inscription Rock in El Morro, and cliff-dwellings in Rito de los Frijoles. This series also depicts houses, buildings, and portraits taken among living communities, including the San Ildefonso Pueblo, Diné (Navajo), Isleta Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, Kewa (Santo Domingo Pueblo), Taos Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo, Hopi Pueblo, Hopi-Tewa, and K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo). Several photos also document women selling pottery and the A:shiwi (Zuni) rain dance. Catalog numbers include N36029-N36035; N36037-N36039; P07072-P07120; P07146-P0151; P07169-P07207.
Series three includes several photos of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, taken between 1920 and 1925. Structures include a view of a Spruce-tee house, Cliff palace, the Balcony house, and "Navajo Canon." Catalog numbers include P07066-P07071.
Prints include P07066-P07207. Copy negatives include N36029-N36039, N41315.
Arrangement:
Arranged intro three series geographically. Arranged by catalog number within each series.
Biographical / Historical:
Charles Morgan Wood was born in 1879. He was a manufacturer and author from Dayton, Ohio. He retired to Tucson in 1923 where he pursued interests in writing, western history, and book collecting. At the time of his death in 1927, he was gathering material for a history of the Apache Indians.
Biography adapted from Arizona Historical Society.
Provenance:
Gift of Charles Morgan Wood, 1925.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
P07133 and P07139 are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Charles Morgan Wood photograph collection, image #, NMAI.AC.167; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. The original glass plate is available for inspection if necessary in the Archives Center. A limited number of fragile glass negatives and positives in the collection can be viewed directly in the Archives Center by prior appointment. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Photo Lot 90-1, George V. Allen collection of photographs of Native Americans and the American frontier, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. The original glass plate is available for inspection if necessary in the Archives Center. A limited number of fragile glass negatives and positives in the collection can be viewed directly in the Archives Center by prior appointment. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
This collection consists of 534 glass lantern slides depicting Indigenous groups throughout North America. It also includes a small number of publications written by Elmer E. Higley and others about Native Americans and missionary work during the early twentieth century.
Scope and Contents:
The Elmer E. Higley collection consists of both Lantern Slides and Printed Materials. Series 1: Lantern Slides, 1900-1924, includes 534 glass lantern slides, many hand-colored. The lantern slides were used by Higley in lectures to promote his missionary and reform work with the Joint Committee on Indian Work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was the Superintendent from 1919 to 1923. While Higley was the photographer of some of the lantern slide images, specifically those taken in Mesa Verde, the majority of the photographs were not taken by Higley, but rather collected by him for use in his lectures as he traveled around the country. Series 2: Printed Materials, 1914-1968, includes a small number of early twentieth-century publications written by Higley and others about Native Americans and missionary work in the United States during this time.
Please note that the language and terminology used in this collection reflects the context and culture of the time of its creation, and may include culturally sensitive information. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into two series. Series 1: Lantern Slides, 1900-1924 and Series 2: Printed Materials, 1914-1968.
Biographical / Historical:
Elmer Ellsworth Higley was born in Ohio in 1867. He attended high school and college in northwestern Pennsylvania before marrying Alice C. Dowler in 1892. Higley later also attended the Drew Theological Seminary and afterwards worked as a pastor in a number of Methodist churches around the country. In approximately 1919 Higley was appointed Superintendent of the Joint Committee on Indian Work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with his office based in Chicago, Illinois. Employed in this work until 1923, Higley traveled the United States, visiting Native reservations and promoting Christian reform efforts for American Indian education. While traveling, Higley frequently presented illustrated lectures on his missionary work to audiences, using the glass lantern slides now residing in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. In the years after 1923, Higley continued as a pastor in both Ames, Iowa, and Evanston, Illinois, the latter where he eventually died in 1931.
Provenance:
Gift of Mrs. R. S. Jensen and Family in 2018 and 2019.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Some photographs in this colletion are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Elmer E. Higley collection, NMAI.AC.228; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Images in this collection were mostly taken by Frederick Dellenbaugh, William Henry Jackson, Alexander Gardner, John Wetherill, John K. Hillers, Edward O. Beaman, Charles Milton Bell and Frank Rinehart. Subjects include delegation portraits, images from the Hayden's and Powell's Geological and Geographical Surveys, cliff dwellings, landscape views, and images from the U.S. Indian Congress Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha 1898.
Arrangement note:
Lantern slide: organized in envelopes; arranged by image number
Negatives: organized in envelopes; arranged by negative number
Prints: organized in folders; arranged by print number
Biographical/Historical note:
Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh (1853--935) was an American explorer, artist and mapmaker, best known for his travels and descriptions of the Southwest. At the age of only 18, he was chosen to accompany the second Powell expedition down the Colorado River, serving as both artist and mapmaker. In 1899, Dellenbaugh was part of the Harriman Alaska Expedition.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Frederick S. Dellenbaugh photographs, negatives and other material, circa 1861-1934, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
The collection consists of two photographs, one depicting Spruce Tree House in Mesa Verde and the other depicting a man standing by a Pueblo building.
Biographical/Historical note:
George L. Beam (1868-1935) was company photographer for the Denver & Rio Grande railroad. In this capacity, he documented the railroad and scenery of the western United States.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 87-2A
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs by Beam can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24 and Photo Lot 30.
The National Anthropological Archives holds the George L. Beam Papers, circa 1917-1927 (MS 4517).
Photographs by Beam can be found at the Denver Public Library in the James L Ozment Collection.
Contained in:
Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collections, undated
Includes images from the excavations at Hawikku near Zuni Pueblo and Basketmaker's Cave in Kane County, Utah, as well as objects found at Cave Lakes, also in Kane County, Utah. Also included are views of Zuni Pueblo, Santa Clara Pueblo, Jemez Pueblo, Puye cliff dwellings, Pecos Mission and other views of Arizona and New Mexico.
Arrangement note:
Negatives: organized in individual sleeves; arranged by negative number
Prints: organized in folders; arranged by print number
Biographical/Historical note:
Jesse L. Nusbaum, a long-time archaeologist and administrator for the National Park Service and recipient of the Distinguished Service ward from the Department of the Interior (1954), began his career as a teacher, attending Colorado Teachers College in Greeley, where he received his Bachelor of Pedagogy in 1907. He then moved to Las Vegas to teach science and manual arts at New Mexico State Normal School. Later that year, he made his first connection with Mesa Verde as a photographer and archeological assistant to A. V. Kidder; Nusbaum spent the next year working as an assistant to the archeologist. In June of 1909 he became the first employee of the School of American Archeology and Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe under Dr. Edgar L. Hewett. Nusbaum traveled to Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Colorado, and New Mexico where he undertook archeological surveys, investigations, excavations, and ruins stabilization.
Nusbaum's work at the museum brought him back to Mesa Verde for the excavation, repair, and stabilization of the Balcony House, a project which extended into the winter of 1910. In 1913, he supervised the completion of the New Mexico Palace of Governors in Santa Fe and worked in the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan with Dr. S. G. Morley. He then supervised the construction of the state art museum from 1916 to 1918. Nusbaum enlisted during World War I in the hopes of becoming an aviator, but instead he became an engineer and served in France until his discharge in 1919. After the war, Nusbaum moved to New York City and worked at the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. While Nusbaum was working in New York he took part in several expeditions to the Southwest, including those at Hawikku (Hawikuh) Pueblo and Basketmaker Cave.
In 1921, while still in New York, he was selected by Stephen Mather and Arno Cammerer to become superintendent at Mesa Verde National Park. Director Mather had become disgusted with the conditions that had developed there under a political superintendent. Nusbaum was a very effective superintendent, advancing the development of the park and preserving the archeological resources. He discontinued grazing, built a museum and developed good interpretive programs, especially ones designed to explain the Antiquities Act. His involvement with the Act led to his designation in 1927 as the lead archeologist and prime enforcer of the Act for the Southwest (while remaining Mesa Verde superintendent).
Nusbaum continued this dual capacity until 1930, when he took a leave of absence to organize and direct the Laboratory of Anthropology at Santa Fe, New Mexico. He continued as director of the laboratory until 1935, having earlier returned to the Park Service and resumed his dual duties as Mesa Verde superintendent and Department of the Interior archeologist enforcing the Antiquities Act. Nusbaum continued this dual position for many years. In 1946 he left Mesa Verde and his dual role for Santa Fe. At the National Park Service office there, he took up increased duties as the senior archeologist of the National Park Service. In this capacity, Nusbaum began one of the first salvage archeology projects when he persuaded El Paso Natural Gas Company to allow archeological excavation along their pipelines. After a year's extension Nusbaum was forced to retire from the NPS at the age of 71 in 1957. However, he continued to do consulting work for many years. He died in Santa Fe in December 1975, at the age of 88.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Rights:
Restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Genre/Form:
Negatives
Photographic prints
Photographs
Citation:
Jesse L. Nusbaum negatives and photographs, 1910-1928, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
This collection contains glass lantern slides shot by rancher and explorer John Wetherill (1866-1944). The photographs depict Ancestral Puebloan sites in southwestern U.S., as well as photos of Diné (Navajo) and Ute men and women.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 42 glass lantern slides that were shot by John Wetherill (1866-1944) circa 1892. The bulk of the photographs depict Ancestral Puebloan sites at Mesa Verde and Hovenweep in southwest Colorado. Wetherill may have been escorting the H. Jay Smith Exploring Company around the region as they collected objects for a Mesa Verde exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
The glass lantern slides depict cliff dwellings in a state of pre-archaeological preservation including the sites of Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, Square Tower House, Kodak House, Sandal House, and Spring House at Mesa Verde; and Square Tower at Hovenweep. The photographs also depict Oraibi Hopi Village, Montezuma Castle, and Casa Grande Ruins sites in Arizona.
A few photographs depict Ute and Diné (Navajo) men and women. One photograph of note depicts an outdoor group portrait photographed at a Ute wedding in Mancos, Colorado. The individuals depicted include George Bowles (Harvard student), Mancos Jim (Ute) and his wife, Herbert L. Cowing (1877-1956), Elmer Coston, Benjamin Kite Wetherill (1832-1898), and Richard Wetherill (1858-1910).
Several photographs in this collection also depict objects such as pottery, yucca baskets, stone axes, manos, and metates alongside Ancestral Puebloan human remains. These photographs are restricted.
John Wetherill is listed as the photographer, however, his brother Richard Wetherill (1858-1910) may have shot some of the photographs as well. The lantern slides feature handwritten labels that describe the photographs and were probably written by a Museum of the American Indian employee. Additionally, "Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation, Broadway at 155th ST. N. Y. City" is printed on the back of the masking paper, which indicates that the lantern slides were most likely assembled by MAI staff.
Some lantern slides may be the reverse or mirror images of the actual scenes.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in photo number order.
Biographical / Historical:
John Wetherill (1866-1944) was a cattle rancher, explorer, and amateur archaeologist in Colorado. Born in Kansas in 1866 to Benjamin Kite Wetherill and Marion Tompkins Wetherill, the family moved to Mancos in southwestern Colorado in 1879. In December 1888, Richard Wetherill (John's older brother) and Charles Mason (brother-in-law), were credited with having discovered Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, and Square Tower House sites at Mesa Verde, although the cliff dwellings were already known to some Native Puebloan communities in the southwest at the time. Additionally, several non-Native explorers had visited other Ancestral Puebloan sites in the region prior to the Wetherills' discoveries including Mexican-Spanish missionaries Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante in 1776; prospector John Moss in 1873; and photographer William Henry Jackson for the Hayden U.S. Geological Survey in 1874.
After the discovery, Richard and his brothers John, Clayton, Winslow, and Benjamin continued exploring and found other Ancestral Puebloan sites in the region. In 1891, the Wetherill brothers worked with amateur Swedish archaeologist Gustaf Nordenskiöld excavating Cliff House. Nordenskiöld taught them the basics tenants of archaeological excavation and trained them to keep detailed provenance records and to label objects.
From 1888-1893, the Wetherills collected more objects from Mesa Verde and eventually sold many of their collections, including a large collection to the Colorado State Historical Society (History Colorado). By 1900 John Wetherill moved to New Mexico and then Utah with his wife Louise Wade Wetherill. John continued serving as a guide and trained archaeologists and anthropologists in the region. He died in 1944.
Agnes Cowing (1880-1965), the collector of the glass lantern slides, was a librarian in New York. She most likely obtained them from her brother Herbert L. Cowing (1877-1956) or her sister Julia R. Cowing (b. 1857) who were both friends of the Wetherill family and visited the Wetherill Ranch in Mancos, Colorado in the 1890s.
Related Materials:
History Colorado in Denver, Colo. holds a John and Richard Wetherill photographs collection (2000.129), a Richard Wetherill manuscripts collection (Mini-MSS #3035), and a large collection of objects collected by the Wetherills. The Smithsonian's National Anthropological Archives holds a collection of photographs collected by H. Jay Smith (NAA MS 2420).
Provenance:
Donated to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation by Agnes Cowing in 1934.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Topic:
Indians of North America -- Antiquities & archaeological sites -- Colorado Search this
cliff dwellings -- Colorado -- Mesa Verde National Park Search this
Genre/Form:
Lantern slides
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); John Wetherill lantern slides, Box and Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Letters of Gustaf Nordenskiöld : written in the year 1891, and articles from the journals Ymer and Photographic times / edited by Irving L. Diamond and Daniel M. Olson ; translated from Swedish by Daniel M. Olson
