Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Albumen prints
Photographs
Place:
Chelly, Canyon de (Ariz.)
Date:
1870s-1880s
bulk 1879-1879
Scope and Contents note:
The collection primarily consists of photographs made by John K. Hillers for the Bureau of American Ethnology documenting pueblos, cliff and rock dwellings, and people in Arizona and New Mexico. The photographs depict Navajo, Zuni, Taos, Oraibi, Walpi, Tesuque, Sichomovi, Cochiti, Mishongnavi, and Shipaulovi Pueblos. There are also pictures of mounds, possibly in West Virginia, and a Hobart Nichols drawing of the interior of a Pueblo dwelling. The bulk of the photographs are on BAE mounts, of which some are stamped "Compliments of J. W. Powell". Several of the images were made during the United States Geological Survey in 1885.
Biographical/Historical note:
John K. Hillers (1843-1925) immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1852. He spent almost twenty years photographing Native Americans, largely for the Bureau of American Ethnology and the United States Geological Survey. He began work on the Survey as a boatman on John Wesley Powell's second expedition down the Colorado River in 1871. He soon became the assistant, and then main photographer (1872) for the expedition. From 1879 to 1900, Hillers served as the first staff photographer of the Bureau of Ethnology, and in 1881 he took pictures for the United States Geological Survey.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 143
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional Hillers photographs in the National Anthropological Archives can be found in Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 28, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 83-18, Photo Lot 87-2N, Photo Lot 90-1, Photo Lot 92-46, and the BAE historical negatives.
The National Anthropological Archives also holds Hillers's diary from 1871-1872 and 1874, 1875 (MS 4410).
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
