Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
16 Photographic prints
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Place:
Channel Islands (Calif.)
Date:
1920-1926
Summary:
Photographs by Arthur R. Sanger from excavations on the Channel Islands, California, around 1926.
Scope and Contents:
The collection contains 16 photographic prints shot by Arthur R. Sanger on the San Nicholas, San Miguel, and Santa Rosa Islands in Southern California. The majority of these photographs contain images of human remains and are therefore restricted due to cultural sensitivity. The photographs are undated, but likely accompanied Sanger's first collection sold to the Museum of the American Indian in 1926, so were likely shot sometime before that date. In addition to photographs of the excavation of burials, there are a handful of landscape shots of the islands themselves.
P07766 - P07781.
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
Arthur Randall Sanger (1880-1971) was born in Palmer, Massachusetts, but later moved to California where he spent the rest of his life. Sanger was a founder of the Catalina Island Yacht Club and owner of the yacht Dreamer which he used to access the California Channel Islands where he excavated an untold number of Native burials. He also claimed to have excavated stone pipes and effigies from various island sites. Sanger maintained a long term relationship with George Gustav Heye and the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation selling multiple collections of these excavated California materials to the Museum between the years of 1926 and 1951. It was later discovered that Sanger, along with Orville T. Littleton, knowingly sold many fraudulent materials to the museum, as well as to other institutions and private collectors. It is believed by several scholars that Sanger made many of the effigies himself. For more information about the controversy see;
Lee, Georgia. Fake Effigies from the Southern California Coast? Robert Heizer and the Effigy Controversy in Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 15(2): 195-215, 1993
Koerper, Henry C. and and Paul G. Chace. Heizer, Strandt, and the Effigy Controversy in Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 17(2):280-284, 1995
Koerper, Henry C., and Sherri Gust. Additional Revelations Concerning Arthur Sanger and Archaeological Fakery in Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly
Koerper, Henry C. More on Arthur Sanger's Skullduggeries in Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly. Volume 52, Number 2. 2016
Provenance:
Sold to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation by Arthur R. Sanger along with field collections in 1926.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu). Photographs with burials, human remains or any other cultural sensitivity are restricted.
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 users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Topic:
Excavations (Archaeology) -- California Search this
Physical anthropology -- skeletal remains Search this
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Arthur R. Sanger photographs from the California Channel Islands, Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
