This collection includes 10 copy negatives of E. Lucas Bridges photographs from Tierra del Fuego in Argentina made between 1900 and 1910. Bridges was the son of an Anglican missionary and grew up among the Selk'nam (Ona) indigenous people at the southernmost tip of South America. Bridges published The Uttermost Part of the Earth in 1949 documenting his family's experiences in Tierra del Fuego.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes 10 copy negatives of E. Lucas Bridges photographs from Tierra del Fuego in Argentina made between 1900 and 1910. The majority of the images are of a Selk'nam (Ona) Hain, or Initiation ceremony. These images have been restricted. The remainder of the photographs include portraits of Selk'nam (Ona) men and women on Isla Grande de Terra del Fuego in Argentina. This includes portraits of Kautempklh and Paloa, Halah and his family, Te-al and Ishtohn, and an unidentified group. Many of these photographs were included in the 1949 book The Uttermost Part of the Earth written by E. Lucas Bridges. The book documents his family's experiences in Tierra del Fuego at the turn of the 20th century.
The copy negatives were made by photographing a set of Lucas Bridges prints. It's unclear whether this was done prior to the donation (by Bridges) or by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.
N20227-N20036
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
Esteban Lucas Bridges, 1874-1949, was born to Anglican missionary father Reverend Thomas Bridges and mother Mary Ann Bridges in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Although his father resigned his missionary position in 1886, the family remained in Tierra del Fuego and built the Estancia Harberton on the coast of the Beagle Channel. From 1898 through 1914, Bridges, along with his brothers, opened new trails and visited frequently with the indigenous peoples of the region, often providing shelter from white settlers on their estancias. Many European colonizers between the 1870s and 1930 actively and knowingly decimated the Selk'nam population in the quest for gold and land. Although Lucas Bridges did much to try to help the local communities, by 1930 the Selk'nam community was reduced to about 100 members.
During World War I, Bridges went to England to enlist in the army. He married Janette McLeod Jardine in 1917 and following the war the couple moved to South Africa where they developed a ranch. Bridges returned to Argentina shortly before his death in 1949.
Provenance:
Gift of E. Lucas Bridges, 1932.
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). Some images 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); E. Lucas Bridges photographs from Tierra del Fuego, image #, NMAI.AC.144. National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
