This collection includes negatives and prints created between 1917 and 1923 during the Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku (Hawikuh) archaeological expedition on the A:shiwi (Zuni) Reservation in New Mexico. The expedition which was sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, was one of the most extensive archaeological projects conducted at the time. Photographs in this collection were shot by Alanson B. Skinner, Frederick Webb Hodge, Edwin Francis Coffin, George Hubbard Pepper, Jesse L. Nusbaum, Donald Cadzow, and Victor Schindler. Many of the photographs in this collection have been restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Scope and Contents:
The photographs in this collection were shot between 1917 and 1923 by various archaeologists and ethnographers involved in the Hawikku excavations. This includes Alanson B. Skinner, Frederick Webb Hodge, Edwin Francis Coffin, George Hubbard Pepper, Jesse L. Nusbaum, Donald Cadzow, and Victor Schindler. Many of the photographs in this collection have been restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Photographs from 1917 were shot by Alanson B. Skinner and Frederick Webb Hodge and include images with Zuni workmen as well as many images of burials (restricted). Photographs from 1918 were shot Edwin Francis Coffin and George Hubbard Pepper. Pepper's photographs include images of Kyusita (Cayusetsa) a Zuni potter, at work. Photographs from 1919 were shot by Jesse Nusbaum and Frederick Webb Hodge and include images of room sites, burials (restricted) and Camp Harmon. There are also images of George and Thea Heye, Harmon Hendricks and Joseph Keppler at the site.
Photographs from 1921 and 1923 were shot by Edwin Coffin and include Portraits of A:shiwi (Zuni) community members, kiva sites and room sites. There are also photographs from Donald Cadzow from 1923. Cadzow was assigned to accompany and assist Owen Cattell during the 1923 filming of events and ceremonies at Zuni (see NMAI. AC.001.001, Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection). These include images of pottery making, skin dressing, as well as ceremonial photographs (restricted). Victor Schindler also shot images of the Rain Dance and of Owen Cattell filming at this time.
In addition to on site photographs, there are also object images included in this collection. There are also a small amount of photographs from Kechipauan that are included in this collection, separate from the Louis C.G. Clarke Kechipauan Expedition photographs (NMAI.AC.001.044).
Many of the negatives are glass plate, though the majority were also copied onto acetate "safety film" in the 1960's during a photo conservation project. Any original nitrate negatives were destroyed by the museum.
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
The Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku (Hawkuh) Expedition was one of the most extensive archaeological projects ever conducted in the Southwest. With major funding from Harmon W. Hendricks, Frederick Webb Hodge began the field work in 1917 while still with the Bureau of American Ethnology. The first season was jointly sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI) and the Smithsonian Institution. Hodge joined the staff of the MAI in 1918 and subsequent fieldwork during the summers of 1918-1921 was sponsored by this institution. The last field season, during the summer of 1923, was jointly sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian and Louis C.G. Clarke, then director of the University Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, Cambridge University. Major excavations were carried out at two sites of early historic villages near the modern Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico: Hawikku (also Hawikuh) and Kechiba:wa (also Kechipawan, Kechipaun, or Kechipauan).
During the work at Hawikku, Hodge supervised a staff which included Jesse L. Nusbaum, Edwin F. Coffin, Samuel K. Lothrop, George Hubbard Pepper, Alanson Buck Skinner, Donald A. Cadzow, and Louis C. G. Clarke. In addition, at least 39 A:shiwi (Zuni) men participated in this excavation of their ancestral villages. Hodge's archaeological techniques encompassed stratigraphic excavation; the systematic recording of rooms, features, artifacts in field notebooks; in situ photographs; and ethnographic analogy. These techniques resulted in the recovery and documentation of thousands of artifacts of diverse types including ceramics, wood, bone, textiles, shell, lithics, and architectural elements from about 370 rooms, 1000 burials, and the large mission church and its associated friary. Hodge published several articles and one book related to the site on specialized topics such as bonework, turquoise, and the history of Hawikku. The only descriptive publication of the excavations, The Excavation of Hawikuh by Frederick Webb Hodge, Report of the Hendricks-hodge Expedition, 19
Related Materials:
See associated materials in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation records (NMAI.AC.001).
See: Hendricks-Hodge Archaeological Expedition papers. #9170. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
See: "The Excavation of Hawikuh by Frederick Webb Hodge: Report of the Hendricks-Hodge Expedition, 1917-1923," by Watson Smith, Richard Woodbury and Nathatlie Woodbury. Contributions from the Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation, Volume XX, 1966
Provenance:
The photographs in this collection were sent back to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation by the various photographers over the course of the field work, 1917-1923.
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) -- New Mexico -- Photographs Search this
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku Expedition photograph collection (NMAI.AC.001.042), Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The majority of the images are individual and group portraits of Southwestern tribes, photographed between 1900-1902, including Laguna Pueblo, Hopi Pueblo, Zuni Pueblo, Taos Pueblo, San Juan Pueblo, White Mountain Apache, Ute, San Carlos Apache, and Navajo Indians.
Scope and Contents:
The Orchard collection consists overwhelmingly of informal single and group portraits made by Orchard in 1900 and 1902 of Diné (Navajo), Hopi Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, A:shiwi (Zuni), and White Mountain Apache men and women. Among these are photographs of Native children standing before agency schools. In addition, there are informal single and group portraits of Jemez Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Ute, Uintah, San Carlos Apache, and Ohkey Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) men and women; photographs of Walpi, Zuni, Toas, and Acoma villages; and a few landscape views made in the Rio Grande and Little Colorado River canyons. There are a few portraits of Mohawk men and Sac and Fox women. A few photographs date from 1926 and are of Seminole women performing household duties. There are also a few excavations photographs, including those taken of an 1918 excavation along Spuyten Duyvil Creek in New York. Orchard made the later photographs on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Some of the negatives are glass plate negatives and others are copy negatives made of the photographs.
Arrangement:
Prints Arranged by print number (P01319, P01678-P01679, P02767-P03191, P03217-P03319, P03217-P03319, P04165, P08369-P08373, P12703-P12706, P28311)
Lantern slides Arranged by image number (L00353-L00354, L00356-L00363, L00367-L00369, L00371-L00376, L00379-L00384, L00386, L00388, L00390-L00392, L00397, L00401-L00402, L00404-L00406, L00408-L00409)
Negatives Arranged by negative number (N03368-N03373, N03762, N11617, N13457-N13460, N13481, N14935, N14939, N14941, N21574, N21600, N35151-N35158, N35162, N37725, N37879)
Biographical/Historical note:
Born in England in the early 1860s, William C. Orchard moved to the United States around 1885. Before working privately for George G. Heye, he briefly held a position at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. After the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation was established in 1916, Orchard became a museum preparator. In this position, he used his considerable artistic gifts to repair and restore specimens and to create models and dioramas for the Museum's exhibits. Orchard also published several books on porcupine-quill and beading techniques. He died in 1948.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Rights:
Copyright: National Museum of the American Indian
Genre/Form:
Photographic prints
Lantern slides
Photographs
Black-and-white negatives
Citation:
William C. Orchard collection of photographs, lantern slides and negatives, circa 1899-1937, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
Field photography from the 1923 Louis C. G. Clarke Kechipauan Expedition at the Kechipauan ruins on the A:shiwi (Zuni) Reservation in New Mexico.
Scope and Contents:
The photographs in this collection include field photography from the Louis C. G. Clarke Kechipauan Expedition shot by Edwin C. Coffin and Samuel K. Lothrop in 1923. This includes images of rooms, trenches, kivas in addition to general views of the site. There are several photographs which include images of burial and human remains which are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. The majority of the photographs are photographic prints, which later had copy negatives made during a large photograph conservation project in the 1960s. There were 30 negatives that arrived with the prints in 1923 but it appears the majority of these were destroyed in 1959, possibly because they were nitrate. Some, but not all of these negatives, had copy prints made before they were destroyed.
The Louis C. G. Clarke Kechipauan Expedition happened concurrently with the Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku (Hawikuh) archaeological expedition on the A:shiwi (Zuni) Reservation in New Mexico. Though there had been some preliminary archaeological work conducted by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI) in 1919, in 1923 a more substantial joint expedition was conducted by the MAI and Louis C. G. Clarke, director of the Cambridge University Museum in England. The expedition was under the direct supervision of Samuel K. Lothrop. Kechipauan (Kechipawan) was a neighboring A:shiwi (Zuni) Pueblo to Hawikku in the Ojo Caliente Valley. For more information about the history of Kechipauan see "The Age of the Zuni Pueblo of Kechipauan" by Frederick Webb Hodge in Indian Notes, Volume III, No. 2.
Related Materials:
The archaeological materials for this collection are in the NMAI archaeology collection with catalog numbers 12/3829 – 12/3911; 12/4834.
Provenance:
Field photographs came to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation along with the collections in 1923.
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) -- New Mexico Search this
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Louis C. G. Clarke Kechipauan Expedition photograph collection. Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The S.K. Lothrop collection primarily contains negatives, photographic prints, and lantern slides made by Lothrop while employed by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Lothrop traveled on behalf of the Museum to New Mexico, Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. The four New Mexico negatives in this collection date from 1915, before Lothrop worked for the Museum, and depict scenes around Zuni. During his 1924 trip to El Salvador, Lothrop photographed volcanos, archaeological sites, antiquities, the landscape, villages, and native peoples engaged in pottery and rope making, food preparation, house building, and ceremonial activities. The 1925 views particularly concentrate on Argentina (but also Chile and Peru). The Argentina materials include views made in the Tierra del Fuego (also part of Chile), including depictions of the daily lives and ceremonial activities of natives peoples of Tierra del Fuego--Selk'nam (Ona) and Yámana (Yagán/Yahgan); the Patagonia landscape; and excavations undertaken by the Museum's La Plata Expedition. The 1928 Guatemala views include depictions of Mayan ruins of Zaculeu and of Tz'utuhil Maya (Tzutuhil/Zutigil), Quiché Maya (Quiche), and Kaqchikel Maya (Cakchiquel) people engaged in weaving, rope making, canoeing, and ceremonial actitivies. The collection also contains photographs made by Lothrop before he worked for the Museum, including 1915 views of effigy mounds in Wisconsin and views at Hopi, Acoma, and Santa Clara; 1917 views of Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, and El Salvador; and 1918 views of Guatemala, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Nicaragua.
Samuel Kirkland Lothrop was an archaeologist and photographer who extensively traveled and worked throughout Central America and South America. George Gustav Heye originally hired Lothrop to research native Guatemalan and El Salvadoran textiles and pottery. He subsequently excavated on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian in such places as the Tierra del Fuego. Here he photographed indigenous communities who would not survive the twentieth century as a distinct culture group. In 1923, he also photographed the activities of the Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku Expedition excavations. In addition to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, the Peabody Museum and the Carnegie Institute sponsored his research and archaeological work.
Provenance:
Historically, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation managed all photographic and related manuscript collections separately. This collection description represents current management practices of organizing and contextualizing related archival materials.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Rights:
Copyright: National Museum of the American Indian
Topic:
Indians of Central America -- Guatemala -- Photographs Search this
Indians of Central America -- El Salvador -- Photographs Search this
Fuegians -- Social life and customs -- Photographs Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- Argentina -- Photographs Search this
Genre/Form:
Lantern slides
Photographs
Negatives
Photographic prints
Citation:
S. K. Lothrop collection of negatives, photographs and lantern slides, 1915-1928, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
This collection of films produced and acquired by the Museum of the American Indian (MAI) contains materials created by and for the MAI as ethnographic studies and as documentation of its own activities (including archaeological expeditions and cultural exchanges) between 1917 and 1938. Tribes represented include: Arikara, Crow, Navajo, Pilaga, Pueblo, Shoshone, and Zuni. Also included is footage of Hidatsa representatives and Zuni translators in Washington, D.C. and at the MAI; footage of MAI founder and director George Gustav Heye; and footage of the Hawikku (Hawikuh) and Kechipauan archaeological sites, Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. The collection consists mainly of successive 16mm and 35mm negative film duplicates and prints of now-destroyed original 35mm nitrate negatives. Series 4 gathers paper records directly pertaining to the collection. Preservation copies of the films exist on 35mm polyester film and Digital Betacam video tape. Access copies are available on DVDs.
The first series in this collection includes film, video, and DVD duplicates of ethnographic films funded, overseen, and filmed by agents of the MAI throughout the Western and Southwestern United States. The second series includes ethnographic films acquired rather than produced by the MAI of the Navajo and Pilaga. The third series consists of film produced by the MAI documenting its own activities, including an excavation at Hawikuh and Kechipauan, New Mexico; footage of MAI founder and director George Gustav Heye; and footage of Native visitors to the MAI and to Washington, D.C.
Arrangement note:
This collection is arranged into four series and chronologically within each series. Included are Series 1: Films Produced by the Museum of the American Indian, 1923-1927; Series 2: Films Acquired by the Museum of the American Indian, 1923-1924; Series 3: Documentation of Museum of the American Indian Activities, 1917-1938; and Series 4: Paper Records of the Ethnographic Film Collection. Titles within subseries are generally arranged alphabetically, with unrestricted titles listed before those restricted due to culturally sensitive content.
Within the collection, each unit of motion picture film (reel, videotape, or DVD) is assigned an identifying number. In this system, the final four appended numbers correspond to a title and a format. The full identifying number will appear as such: NMAI.AC.001.001.XX.YY, where XX corresponds to a numbered title and YY indicates the format of the print, as follows:
01: 35mm print (1917–1938, circa the original film dates)
02: 16mm dupe neg (made circa 1961 from XX.01 35mm)
03: 16mm print (from XX.02 for release, circa 1961)
04: 16mm print (from XX.02 for file/work or research, circa 1961)
05: 35mm dupe neg (preservation copy, made 2012–2014 from XX.01 and XX.02)
06: 35mm answer print (made 2012-2014 from XX.05)
07: Digital Betacam (preservation copy, made 2012-2014 from XX.06)
08, 09, 10 (if applicable): DVD (access copy, made 2012-2014 from XX.06)
11 and up: other copies and prints (see title-level notes for explanations)
Thus, for instance, the item with the number NMAI.AC.001.001.02.03 is the 16mm release print copy of the title "Deerskin Tanning and Wrapping the Leggings."
The content of each print or negative corresponding to the same title (XX) may be identical or similar. The content of the 1917-1938-era 35mm prints and the 1960s-era 16mm films differ. As the 35mm prints had deteriorated, damaged footage was removed prior to producing the 16mm negatives. After the 16mm negatives were produced, nitrate intertitles and additional damaged footage were also removed from the 35mm prints. The 2012-2014-era 35mm films were made by combining the existing 35mm prints with footage from the 16mm negatives in order to restore the most complete existing content to its highest possible quality. The Digital Betacam and DVD copies reproduce this restored footage.
This preservation and restoration effort was made possible by funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation, Save America's Treasures, and the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, as well as support from the National Museum of the American Indian.
Historical Note:
The Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation was founded by George Gustav Heye in 1908 as a repository for his extensive collection of American Indian artifacts. Through the MAI, Heye funded extensive archaeological and anthropological fieldwork throughout the Americas. This collection represents a series of ethnographic films made in the course of MAI expeditions throughout the Western and Southwestern United States, as well as similar films purchased by the museum. The films record a variety of American Indian traditions, including crafts, foodways, games, and ceremonies, and were spurred by the era's perception of Native communities as "fast-disappearing" and vulnerable to dramatic change. The activities recorded range from quotidian to highly culturally sensitive, as followed Heye's all-encompassing collecting strategy.
The MAI's motion picture expeditions took place between 1923 and 1927 and were carried out by a number of agents of the museum, usually in the course of gathering artifacts. Many of these agents were anthropologists accompanied by professional photographers, but other footage is amateur. The MAI treated the series in full as technical educational material, noting in their 1962 motion picture film catalog that "they are not suitable for general entertainment."
The moving image collection of the MAI included these self-produced films as well as similar films purchased by the museum and film shot in the course of the museum's activities, including documentation of archaeological digs, staff, and Native visitors. In 1961-1962, recognizing the educational potential of its collection, the MAI received a grant from the National Science Foundation to transfer the original deteriorating nitrate prints to safety film, discarding film and editing prints in the process. In 2012-2014, the National Museum of the American Indian completed a transfer of the titles to Digital Betacam and DVD formats, combining footage from both original and 1961-1962-era prints to salvage as much content as possible. This work was completed with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation, Save America's Treasures, and the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
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).
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
In 1961, the 16mm negatives (XX.02) in this subseries were cut to match the approved, edited File/Work Print (XX.04) of each title; the unspliced Release Print (XX.03) was then taken from the cut negative. Thus, the salvaged 35mm print (XX.01) is the closest record to the title's original 35mm negative.
Arrangement note:
Though titles within this collection's subseries are generally arranged alphabetically (given a lack of exact dates), "The Land of the Zuni and Community Work" clearly serves as an overview of the Zuni films and was thus placed at the beginning of the subseries. Unrestricted titles are listed before those restricted due to culturally sensitive content.
Restrictions:
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Indians of Central America -- Guatemala Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Collection descriptions
Postcards
Photographic prints
Place:
Temuco (Chile)
Cuzco (Peru)
Date:
1890-1939
Summary:
This collection consists of 145 postcards and 11 photographs depicting indigenous peoples of the Americas, with dates ranging 1890 – 1930s. The bulk of the collection consists of postcards of Native communities throughout the United States, and includes portrait images, dwellings, basket-making, weaving, and crafts.
Scope and Contents:
The Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection consists of 145 postcards and 11 photographs with dates ranging 1890 – 1930s. The images depict indigenous peoples of the Americas, and spans a large geographical breadth extending from the Arctic in the north to Chile and Peru in South America. The bulk of the collection consists of postcards of Native communities throughout the United States, with a significant number of images depicting various Pueblo and Southwest cultural groups; many of these latter postcards were produced by the Fred Harvey Company. A number of the postcards and photographs include portrait images, dwellings, basket-making, weaving, and crafts. Also of particular note are 13 scenes of daily life at a number of different Indian Boarding Schools at the turn of the twentieth century. Finally, in addition to the postcard images are 11 photographs consisting of cabinet cards and other photographic prints.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into 11 series, organized thematically (Indian Boarding Schools) and then regionally by location or culture group. Series 1: Indian Boarding Schools, Series 2: Arctic/Subarctic, Series 3: Northwest Coast,
Series 4: California, Series 5: Great Basin/Plateau, Series 6: Southwest, Series 7: Plains, Series 8: Northeast/Great Lakes, Series 9: Southeast, Series 10: Mexico/Central America, Series 11: South America
Biographical / Historical:
Dale Jenkins is a retired Financial Planner living in California, having previously worked in the Aerospace industry. He has collected late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American photographs and postcards for over 30 years. In addition to archival collections donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, Jenkins has also donated postcard and photograph collections to the California Museum of Photography, the California Historical Society, and the Museum of the City of New York.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Dale Jenkins in 2013 and 2014.
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.
Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians. Minnesota Search this
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection, NMAI.AC.069, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This series contains 45 postcards and 6 photographic prints. The images include depictions of activities such as weaving, basket making, pottery making, bread-baking, and selling crafts. Communities represented include Acoma Pueblo, Akimel O'odham (Pima), A:shiwi (Zuni), Chimayo, Cochiti Pueblo, Diné (Navajo), Havasupai (Coconino), Hopi Pueblo, Hualapai (Walapai), K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Laguna Pueblo, Mojave (Mohave), Tesuque Pueblo, and Tohono O'odham (Papago). The only individual specifically identified is Elle of Ganado [Diné (Navajo)], a well-known and celebrated weaver of the time. A large number of these postcards were produced by the Fred Harvey Company which partnered with the Santa Fe Railroad in the early 20th century to generate tourism in the American Southwest.
Collection 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).
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection, NMAI.AC.069, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian include photogravure printing plates and associated proofs made from Curtis photographs and used in the publication of The North American Indian volumes 1-9 and 12-19. The bulk of the images are portraits, though there are also images of everyday items, ceremonial artifacts, and camps.
Scope and Contents:
The collection comprises 183 photogravure plates (101 folio and 82 octavo) and 96 associated proofs used in the printing of The North American Indian volumes 1-9 and 12-19. The original photographs used to make the photogravures were made circa 1903-1926 and the photogravure plates were made in 1907-1930. The bulk are portraits, though there are also images of everyday items, ceremonial artifacts, and camps. About half of the proofs in the collection are originals used for Curtis's publication, though the collection also includes proofs made in the process of later publication by the Classic Gravure Company (circa 1980). Vintage proofs include handwritten notes, likely made by Curtis Studio employees in Seattle and Los Angeles. Many of the photogravure plates do not have matching proofs; in particular, there are no proofs for the octavo plates.
Arrangement:
The plates and proofs are arranged by the volume of The North American Indian in which they were published. They are described in this finding aid by the caption and plate number with which they were published.
Biographical / Historical:
Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) was an American photographer best known for his monumental and now-controversial project, the twenty-volume publication The North American Indian. Here he sought to document in words and pictures the "vanishing race" of American Indians.
Born in Wisconsin in 1868, Edward Curtis grew up on his family's farm in Le Sueur County, Minnesota, from 1874 to 1887. In 1887, he and his father Johnson Curtis settled on a plot near what is now Port Orchard, Washington, and the rest of the family joined them the following year. When Johnson Curtis died within a month of the family's arrival, the burden of providing for his mother and siblings fell to 20-year-old Edward, and Edward set out to do so through his photography. In 1891, Curtis moved to the booming city of Seattle and bought into a joint photo studio with Rasmus Rothi. Less than a year later, he formed "Curtis and Guptill, Photographers and Photoengravers" with Thomas Guptill; the enterprise quickly became a premier portrait studio for Seattle's elite. In 1895, Curtis made his first "Indian photograph" depicting Princess Angeline, daughter of the chief for whom Seattle had been named. The following year he earned his first medal from the National Photographic Convention for his "genre studies."
In 1899, Edward Curtis joined the Harriman Alaska Expedition as official photographer, a position which allowed him to learn from anthropologists C. Hart Merriam and George Bird Grinnell while documenting the landscapes and peoples of the Alaskan coast. This expedition and the resulting friendship with Grinnell helped to foster Curtis's ultimate goal to "form a comprehensive and permanent record of all the important tribes of the United States and Alaska that still retain to a considerable degree their primitive customs and traditions" (General Introduction, The North American Indian). Curtis made several trips to reservations from 1900 to 1904, including a trip with Grinnell to Montana in 1900 and multiple trips to the Southwest, including the Hopi Reservation. He also hired Adolph Muhr, former assistant to Omaha photographer Frank A. Rinehart, to manage the Curtis studio in his absence, a decision which would prove more and more fruitful as Curtis spent less and less time in Seattle.
In 1906, Curtis struck a deal with financier J. P. Morgan, whereby Morgan would support a company – The North American Indian, Inc. – with $15,000 for five years, by which time the project was expected to have ended. Systematic fieldwork for the publication began in earnest that summer season, with Curtis accompanied by a team of ethnological researchers and American Indian assistants. Arguably the most important member of Curtis' field team was William Myers, a former newspaperman who collected much of the ethnological data and completed most of the writing for the project. The first volume, covering Navajo and Apache peoples, was published at the end of 1907, but already Morgan's funding was incapable of meeting Curtis's needs. Despite heaping praise from society's elite, Curtis spent much of his time struggling to find people and institutions willing to subscribe to the expensive set of volumes. After the initial five years, only eight of the proposed twenty volumes had been completed. Fieldwork and publication continued with the support of J. P. Morgan, but Curtis's home life suffered because of his prolonged absences.
In 1919, Curtis's wife Clara was awarded a divorce settlement which included the entire Curtis studio in Seattle. Exhausted and bankrupt, Edward Curtis moved with his daughter Beth Magnuson to Los Angeles, where they operated a new Curtis Studio and continued work on the volumes; volume 12 was published
in 1922. The constant financial strain forced Myers to leave the North American Indian team after volume 18 (fieldwork in 1926) and Curtis made his last trip to photograph and gather data for volume 20 in 1927. After the final volumes were published in 1930, Curtis almost completely faded from public notice until his work was "rediscovered" and popularized in the 1970s.
Curtis's "salvage ethnology," as scholar Mick Gidley describes it, was mildly controversial even during his life and has become ever more so as his legacy deepens. In his quest to photograph pre-colonial Indian life through a twentieth-century lens, he often manipulated and constructed history as much as he recorded it: he staged reenactments, added props, and removed evidence of twentieth-century influences on "primitive" life. Curtis's work continues to shape popular conceptions of American Indians and so, while problematic, his legacy--his vision of American Indian life--continues to be relevant.
Related Materials:
NMAI also holds Edward Curtis photographs documenting the Harriman Expedition (1899) as well as platinum prints and photogravures of the images published in The North American Indian.
The Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives holds Edward Curtis prints submitted for copyright (Photo Lot 59) as well as many of his original negatives, photographs, and papers.
Steve Kern donated photogravure plates to the Center for Creative Photography and the Seattle Art Museum at the same time that he donated this set to MAI.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Steven and Arlene Kern to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in 1984.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Indians of North America -- Pictorial works Search this
Genre/Form:
Photogravures
Photographs
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
This collection was processed with funding from the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
The Mary Harriman Rumsey collection largely consists of photographic prints and lantern slides documenting the Harriman Expedition to Alaska in summer 1899. These depict members of the expedition and Alaskan scenery and people. The collection also includes scenic photographs of Alaska taken by Dora Keen in 1914 and photographs of Blackfeet, Hopi, Apache, and Suquamish Indians made by Edward Curtis in 1900 and 1903.
Scope and Contents:
The bulk of the collection comprises photographic prints, lantern slides, and one map documenting the Harriman Alaska Expedition from May to July of 1899. These photographs were made by members of the expedition, most prominently its official photographer Edward S. Curtis, funder Edward Henry Harriman, and lead scientist C. Hart Merriam. They depict Alaskan scenery, members of the expedition, and Native people and settlements that they encountered. Mary Harriman Rumsey's collection also includes later platinum prints of American Indians made and signed by Curtis (1900, 1903), photographs of glaciers in Alaska by Dora Keen (1914), a photograph of a painting by Charles Schreyvogel (1903), and a photograph of White Pass by Arthur Clarence Pillsbury (1898).
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in three series: photographs relating to the Harriman Expedition; photographs of Alaska that were not made on the Harriman Expedition; and other photographs relating to American Indians. The Harriman series is arranged in a rough chronological order.
Biographical / Historical:
Mary Harriman Rumsey (1881-1934) was an important American philanthropist and the oldest child of railroad tycoon Edward Henry Harriman. In 1901, while studying at Barnard College, she co-founded the Junior League for the Promotion of Settlement Movements (later named the Junior League of the City of New York), which facilitated charitable work by privileged women among New York's impoverished groups. Rumsey's efforts lead to the establishment of the Association of Junior Leagues International Inc. in 1921. Additionally, Rumsey co-founded Today magazine with her brother Averell Harriman and others, and in 1933 she chaired the Consumer Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration.
In 1899, Mary Harriman was among the Harriman family members who accompanied the Harriman Alaska Expedition. Originally planned as a bear-hunting trip for the family, the expedition, was funded by Edward Henry Harriman and organized with the help of ethnographer and naturalist Clinton Hart Merriam. The party of accomplished scientists, naturalists, photographers, artists, and writers cruised from British Columbia to Siberia and back on a private ship, the SS George W. Elder, in June and July of 1899. The scientists' findings were published in the thirteen-volume Harriman Alaska Series, and Harriman also paid the expedition's official photographer, Edward S. Curtis, to compile souvenir albums from the over 5,000 photographs made during the course of the expedition.
Related Materials:
The Smithsonian Institution Archives, University of Washington Special Collections, and Library of Congress have photo albums relating to the Harriman Alaska Expedition. The SI Archives also holds the Harriman Alaska Expedition Collection and photogravure plates from the Harriman Alaska Series.
NMAI holds photogravure plates and proofs made from Edward Curtis's later photographs and Frederick Dellenbaugh's expedition notes in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation records. The National Anthropological Archives also holds Curtis photographs and papers.
Separated Materials:
The following materials were also part of Mary Harriman Rumsey's estate, gifted to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in 1934. Where possible, their current locations have been noted.
33 artifacts, most of which were likely collected in Alaska by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, are now housed in the NMAI object collection (catalog numbers 18/6460 - 18/6494)
A set of Harriman Alaska Expedition books, probably now in the Cornell University Libraries
4 phonograph records
A bundle of botanical specimens
Provenance:
This collection was donated as part of the estate of Mary Harriman Rumsey to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in May 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 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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Mary Harriman Rumsey Collection of Harriman Alaska Expedition Photographs, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
This collection was processed with funding from the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
This collection contains photographs that were commissioned by Fred Harvey Co. and shot by Carl Moon circa 1907-1914. The photographs depict American Indian communities in the southwest including A:shiwi (Zuni), Acoma Pueblo, Diné (Navajo), Hopi, Laguna Pueblo, and Taos Pueblo among many others.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains 203 glass transparencies, 2 nitrate negatives, and 1 autochrome (plus 228 copy negatives and copy transparencies) that were commissioned by Fred Harvey Co. and shot by Carl moon circa 1905-1914. The photographs depict the southwest American Indian communities of A:shiwi (Zuni), Acoma Pueblo, Dine (Navajo), Havasupai (Coconino), Hopi Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Kewa (Santo Domingo Pueblo), Laguna Pueblo, Nambe Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), San Felipe Pueblo, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Taos Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, and White Mountain Apache. Some images were also shot in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. The photographs are a mix of portraits, posed action shots, and architecture shots. Some of the photographs appear to have been staged by the photographer. There are a few photographs in this collection that may have been shot by Moon prior to his employment with the Fred Harvey Company.
The copy negatives and transparencies were created by the Museum of the American Indian (NMAI's predecessor museum). There are sometimes multiple copy negatives and copy transparencies per glass plate transparency.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 17 series by culture group or location. Series 1: A:shiwi (Zuni), Series 2: Acoma Pueblo, Series 3: Diné (Navajo), Series 4: Havasupai (Coconino), Series 5: Hopi, Series 6: Isleta Pueblo, Series 7: K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Series 8: Kewa (Santa Domingo Pueblo), Series 9: Laguna Pueblo, Series 10: Nambe Pueblo, Series 11: Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), Series 12: San Felipe Pueblo, Series 13: San Ildefonso Pueblo, Series 14: Taos Pueblo, Series 15: Tesuque Pueblo, Series 16: White Mountain Apache, Series 17: Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
The collection is physically arranged first by collection type (transparencies and negatives) and then in photo numeric order.
Biographical / Historical:
Born in 1878 in Wilmington, Ohio, Carl E. Moon (originally spelled Karl) took up photography after serving with the Ohio National Guard. He moved to Albuquerque, N.M. in 1903 and opened a photograph studio where he began photographing American Indians in the U.S. southwest region. After publishing and exhibiting many of his photographs nationally, he was commissioned by the Fred Harvey Company in 1907 to take photographs of American Indian communities in the southwest. The Fred Harvey Company was founded by Frederick Henry Harvey and consisted of a chain of successful gift shops, restaurants, and hotels know as Harvey Houses. Moon photographed individuals in his El Tovar Studio in the Grand Canyon, Ariz. and also traveled to communities in the region including A:shiwi (Zuni), Diné (Navajo), Hopi, and Laguna Pueblo, among many others. The Fred Harvey Company used these photographs in their postcards, brochures, and publications for the tourist industry. The Fred Harvey Company also partnered with the Sante Fe Railroad to help generate tourism to the southwest region and Moon became the official photographer for the railroad. Moon also took up drawing and painting and studied with American painter Thomas Moran. Moon stayed with the Fred Harvey Company until 1914.
After Moon left the Fred Harvey Company, he opened a studio in Pasadena, California and continued his career as a photographer and painter. During this period, Moon painted and donated 26 works depicting Southwest American Indians to the Smithsonian Institution (now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection). He also sold 24 oil paintings and 293 photographic prints to Henry E. Huntington that are now part of the Huntington Library in San Marino California. With his wife Grace Purdie Moon, he also produced and illustrated children's books of collected Native American stories and legends. Moon died in San Francisco, Calif. in 1948.
Related Materials:
The Huntington Library in San Marino California holds a large collection of Carl Moon works, including oil paintings and photographic prints. The University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections also holds photographs shot by Carl Moon and the Smithsonian American Art Museum holds 26 Carl Moon paintings.
Separated Materials:
Two nitrate negatives are stored at an offsite storage facility.
Provenance:
Donated to the Museum of the American Indian by the Fred Harvey Company in 1963.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Indians of North America -- New Mexico Search this
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Fred Harvey Company collection of Carl Moon Southwest photographs, Box and Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This series contains 10 glass transparencies (plus 13 copy negatives and copy transparencies) shot by Carl Moon and depicting the Zuni community in New Mexico circa 1907-1914. The photographs include depictions of a Zuni Governor, Governor's wife, and other unidentified individuals. Other photographs depict a woman carrying a water jar on her head; children playing outside; adobe buildings in the village; and terraced waffle gardens. One photograph depicting an old Zuni Mission and burying ground in this series is restricted.
Collection 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).
Collection Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Fred Harvey Company collection of Carl Moon Southwest photographs, Box and Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
