Most of Ruth Landes's papers relate directly or indirectly to Landes's American Indian research, her work in Brazil, and her study of bilingualism. There is also a considerable amount of material that relates to her experiences (sometimes fictionalized) at Fisk University. There is only small amount of material related to her other interests. Her collection also has material of and relating to the Brazilian folklorist and journalist Edison Carneiro. There is also noteworthy material concerning Herbert Baldus, Ruth Benedict, Elmer C. Imes, Charles S. Johnson, and Robert E. Park. There is a large amount of printed and processed materials in the collection, mainly in the form of newspaper clippings and a collection of scholarly papers.
Scope and Contents:
This collection is mainly comprised of the professional papers of Ruth Schlossberg Landes. Included are correspondence, journals, published and unpublished manuscripts of writings, research materials including field notes and reading notes, photographs, drawings, scholarly papers and publications by other scholars, and clippings from newspapers and periodicals.
Landes's field research on Candomblé in Brazil is well-represented in this collection, consisting of her field journals, writings, and photographs. Also present are Maggie Wilson's stories that were the basis for Landes's The Ojibwa Woman. Unfortunately, Landes was unable to locate her journals for her early research with the Ojibwa/Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Dakota. There are, however, field photographs of the Ojibwa/Chippewa and Potawatomi in the collection. There is also a great deal of her research on groups, especially minorities, in multilingual states with particular focus on the French of Quebec, Basques of Spain and the United States, Boers and Blacks of South Africa, the several socio-linguistic groups of Switzerland, and Acadians (Cajuns) of Louisiana. In the collection are several drafts of her unpublished manuscript on bilingualism, "Tongues that Defy the State." There is also a small amount of material about Black Jews of New York and considerable material about Landes's experience among African Americans when she taught briefly at Fisk University, including her unpublished manuscript "Now, at Athens," containing fictional and autobiographical accounts of her time at Fisk.
Reflections of other facets of Landes's professional activities are also included. Some materials concern her teaching activities, and there is also documentation of her work with the Fair Employment Practices Commission (a federal government agency during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt) and a similar private organization which immediately succeeded the FEPA; Gunnar Myrdal's research into the plight of African Americans ("The Negro in America"); the Research in Contemporary Cultures project at Columbia University; and the American Jewish Congress.
Among Landes's correspondents are Ruth Benedict, Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Ralph Bunche, Herbert Baldus, Edison Carneiro, Sally Chilver, Frances Densmore, Sol Tax, Elmer S. Imes, Charles S. Johnson, Robert E. Park, and Hendrik W. van der Merwe.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into 6 series: (1) Correspondence, 1931-1991; (2) Research Materials, circa 1930s-1990; (3) Writings, circa 1930s-1990; (4) Teaching Materials, 1935-1975, undated; (5) Biographical and Personal Files, 1928-1988; (6) Graphic Materials, 1933-1978, undated
Biographical Note:
Ruth Schlossberg Landes was born on October 8, 1908 in New York City. Her father was Joseph Schlossberg, an activist in the Yiddish labor socialist community and one of the founders of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. She studied sociology at New York University (B.A. 1928) and social work at the New York School of Social Work, Columbia University (M.S.W. 1929). While in graduate school, Landes studied Black Jews in Harlem for her master's thesis, a topic that developed her interests in anthropology.
After graduating in 1929, she worked as a social worker in Harlem and married Victor Landes, a medical student and son of family friends. Their marriage ended after two years when she enrolled in the doctoral program in anthropology at Columbia against her husband's wishes. She kept his surname due to the stigma of being a divorced woman.
At Columbia, Landes studied under Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict, her main advisor. Under the guidance of Benedict, Landes moved away from further study of African Americans to focus on Native American communities. Upon Benedict's suggestion, Landes studied the social organization of the Ojibwa in Manitou Rapids in Ontario from 1932 to 1936 for her Ph.D. fieldwork. Her dissertation, Ojibwa Sociology, was published in 1937. Landes also contributed "The Ojibwa of Canada" in Cooperation and Competition among Primitive Peoples (1937), a volume edited by Margaret Mead. In 1938, Landes published Ojibwa Women (1938), a book written in collaboration with Maggie Wilson, an Ojibwa interpreter and informant.
In addition to studying the Ojibwa in Ontario, Landes also conducted fieldwork with the Chippewa of Red Lake, Minnesota in 1933, working closely with shaman or midé Will Rogers. Her book, Ojibwa Religion and the Midéwiwin (1968) was based largely on her research with Rogers and Maggie Wilson. In 1935 and 1936, she undertook fieldwork with the Santee Dakota in Minnesota and the Potawatomi in Kansas. Like Ojibwa Religion and the Midéwiwin, her books on the Santee Dakota and Potawatomi were not published until several years later—The Mystic Lake Sioux: Sociology of the Mdewakantonwan Sioux was published in 1968 while The Prairie Potawatomi was published in 1970. In between her field research in the 1930s and the publication of The Prairie Potawatomi, Landes returned to Kansas to study the Potawatomi in the 1950s and 1960s.
Landes's plan to continue her studies with the Potawatomi in 1937 changed when Benedict invited her to join a team of researchers from Columbia University in Brazil. Landes was to conduct research on Afro-Brazilians in Bahia, Brazil, while Walter Lipkind, Buell Quain, and Charles Wagley studied indigenous people in the Amazons. To prepare for her research, Landes was at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1937 and 1938 to consult with Robert Park and Donald Pierson and to use the university's library collections of African and African American materials. During that time, Landes also held a teaching position at Fisk and lived in the non-segregated women's residence on campus. Landes later wrote "Now, at Athens," an unpublished memoir containing fictional and true accounts of her experiences at Fisk.
From 1938 to 1939, Landes conducted fieldwork on the role of Afro-Brazilian women and homosexuals in the Candomblé religion in Bahia, Brazil. Unable to move freely by herself in Brazil as a single woman, Landes was accompanied by Edison Carneiro, a Bahian journalist and folklorist. With Carneiro as her companion, Landes was allowed access to rituals and people that would have been closed off to her otherwise. Due to her association with Carneiro, a member of the Brazilian Communist Party, Landes was suspected of being a communist and was forced to leave Bahia early. Publications from her research in Brazil include "A Cult Matriarchate and Male Homosexuality" (1940) and City of Women (1947). She returned to Brazil in 1966 to study the effects of urban development in Rio de Janeiro. In 1967, a Portuguese translation of City of Women was published, a project that Carneiro had commissioned as the first director of the Ministry of Education and Culture's Special National Agency for the Protection of Folklore.
Landes returned to New York in 1939, working briefly as a researcher for Gunnar Myrdal's study of African Americans. Unable to obtain a permanent position at a university, she worked in several other short term positions throughout most of her career. During World War II, Landes was a research director for the Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs (1941) and consultant for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practices Committee on African American and Mexican American cases (1941-44). In 1945, Landes directed a program created by Pearl S. Buck and a group of interdenominational clergy to analyze pending New York anti-discrimination legislation. She moved to California the following year to work for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Welfare Council on a study of race and youth gangs. After her contract ended, she moved back to New York and was hired as a contract researcher for the American Jewish Congress (1948-50). She also participated in Columbia University's Research in Contemporary Cultures (1949-51), studying Jewish families. She coauthored with Mark Zborowski, "Hypothesis concerning the Eastern European Jewish Family." From 1951 to 1952, Landes spent a year in London, funded by a Fulbright fellowship to study colored colonial immigrants and race relations in Great Britain.
After her fellowship ended, Landes returned to the United States and held short term appointments at several universities. She taught at the William Alanson White Psychiatric Institution in New York (1953-54), the New School for Social Research in New York (1953-55), University of Kansas (1957, 1964), University of Southern California (1957-62), Columbia University (1963), Los Angeles State College (1963), and Tulane University (1964). At Claremont Graduate School, Landes helped to develop and direct the Claremont Anthropology and Education Program (1959-62).
It was not until 1965 that Landes obtained a permanent faculty position at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario; she was recruited for the position by Richard Slobodin. Due to Ontario's age retirement law, Landes was forced to retire in 1973 at the age of 65. She continued to teach part-time until 1977, when she became professor emerita.
Landes passed away at the age of 82 on February 11, 1991.
Sources Consulted
Cole, Sally. 2003. Ruth Landes: A Life in Anthropology. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
Chronology
1908 October 8 -- Born Ruth Schlossberg in New York City
1928 -- B.A. in sociology, New York University
1929 -- M.S.W., New York School of Social Work, Columbia University
1929-1931 -- Social worker in Harlem Married to Victor Landes
1929-1934 -- Studied Black Jews in Harlem
1931 -- Began graduate work in anthropology at Columbia University
1932-1936 -- Studied the Ojibwa in Ontario and Minnesota (in field periodically)
1933-1940 -- Research Fellow, Columbia University
1935 Summer-Fall -- Studied the Santee Sioux (Dakota) in Minnesota
1935-1936 -- Studied the Potawatomi in Kansas
1935 -- Ph.D., Columbia University
1937 -- Instructor, Brooklyn College
1937-1938 -- Instructor, Fisk University
1938-1939 -- Studied Afro-Brazilians and Candomblé in Brazil, especially at Bahia
1939 -- Researcher on Gunnar Myrdal's study, "The Negro in America"
1941 -- Research Director, Office of Inter American Affairs, Washington, D.C.
1941-1945 -- Representative for Negro and Mexican American Affairs, Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), President Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration
1944 -- Interim Director, Committee Against Racial Discrimination, New York
1946-1947 -- Researcher, study of Mexican American youth, gangs, and families, Los Angeles Metropolitan Council
1948-1951 -- Researcher, American Jewish Congress, New York
1949-1951 -- Research consultant, study on Jewish families in New York for Research in Contemporary Cultures Project, Columbia University
1951-1952 -- Fulbright Scholar, to study colored colonial immigration into Great Britain
1953-1954 -- Lecturer, William Alanson White Psychiatric Institution, New York
1953-1955 -- Lecturer, New School for Social Research, New York
1956-1957 -- Married to Ignacio Lutero Lopez
1957 Summer -- Visiting Professor, University of Kansas
1957-1958 -- Visiting Professor, University of Southern California
1957-1965 -- Consultant, California agencies (Department of Social Work, Bureau of Mental Hygiene, Department of Education, Public Health Department) and San Francisco Police Department
1958-1959 -- Director, Geriatrics Program, Los Angeles City Health Department
1959-1962 -- Visiting Professor and Director of Anthropology and Education Program, Claremont Graduate School
1962 -- Extension Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Berkeley
1963 -- Extension Lecturer, Columbia University Extension Lecturer, Los Angeles State College
1963-1965 -- Consultant, International Business Machines (IBM)
1964 January-June -- Visiting Professor, Tulane University
1964 Summer -- Field work with Potawatomi in Kansas Professor, University of Kansas
1965-1975 -- Professor at McMaster University
1966 -- Studied urban development in Rio de Janeiro
1968-1975 -- Studied bilingualism and biculturalism in Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, United States, and Canada (in Spain and the United States concentrated on Basques)
1975 -- Became part-time faculty member at McMaster University
1977 -- Professor Emerita, McMaster University
1978 -- Award of Merit from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
1991 February 11 -- Died in Hamilton, Ontario
1991 -- Establishment of the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund at Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM)
Related Materials:
Correspondence from Ruth Landes can be found in the William Duncan Strong Papers, the Leonard Bloomfield Papers, and MS 7369. The Ruth Bunzel Papers contains a copy of a grant application by Landes.
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Ruth Landes in 1991.
Restrictions:
The Ruth Landes papers are open for research. The nitrate negatives in this collection have been separated from the collection and stored offsite. Access to nitrate negatives is restricted due to preservation concerns.
Access to the Ruth Landes papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Ruth Landes papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The revision of this finding aid and digitization of portions of the collection were made possible through the financial support of the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund.
8 Prints (halftone (including one newspaper clipping))
124 Prints (circa, silver gelatin, albumen, and platinum)
50 Copy prints (circa)
3 copper printing plates
1 Color print
1 Print (wood engraving)
3 Copy negatives (glass)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Copy prints
Color prints
Copy negatives
Photographs
Date:
circa 1860s-1970
Scope and Contents note:
This collection is an artificial collection of photographs, copper plates, and a few notes, all of which depict or relate to anthropologists, many of which were associated with the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Included are portraits of Franz Boas, Q. M. Bond, Arno B. Cammerer, Frank Hamilton Cushing, Edwin Hamilton Davis, J. Woodbridge Davis, Frances Densmore, James Owen Dorsey, Philip Drucker, Jesse Walter Fewkes (including photographs of his home by Frances Densmore), Albert Samuel Gatschet, James A. Geary, De Lancey W. Gill, George Brown Goode, Horatio Hale, Henry Wetherbee Henshaw, John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt, John K. Hillers, William Henry Holmes, William Henry Jackson, Eugene Irving Knez, Alfred Louis Kroeber, Pere Albert Lacomb, Augustus Le Plongeon, James Mooney, Lewis Henry Morgan, Carl Oschsicanes, James Constantine Pilling, John Wesley Powell, Frau Signe Rink, Frank Harold Hanna Roberts, Jr., Charles C. Royce, Robert Lloyd Stephenson, James Stevenson, Matilda Coxe Stevenson, Julian Haynes Steward, Steward Struever, James Gilchrist Swan, John Reed Swanton, Edwin P. Upham, Wilcomb E. Washburn, and Gordon Randolph Willey. Groups depicted include the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1936; the De Soto Commission; officers of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1885; a 1920 expedition group to Hawikuk; staff of the Great Lakes Division, United States Geological Survey, in Salt Lake City, 1882; a group at Moundville, Alabama, 1932; the University of Nebraska archeological field party, 1920; the Pecos conference, 1927; John Wesley Powell with Wild Hank, Kentucky Mountain Bill, and Jesus Aloiso; and the United States Geological Survey staff, ca. 1894.
Among photographers represented are Vernon Orlando Bailey, Blackston Studios of New York, Dana of New York, Frances Densmore, Gene Garrett, C. W. Gilbert, De Lancey W. Gill, John K. Hillers, William H. Jackson, Kets Kemethy, Paul Koby, David McDonough, H. C. Phillips, Rice of Washington, D. C., and J. A. Shuck of El Reno, Oklahoma.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 33
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Four photographs with negatives by Matilda Coxe Stevenson have been relocated to Photo Lot 23.
This collection includes photographs that have been removed from other collections in the National Anthropological Archives, including MS 4970, MS 4851, MS 4780, MS 4250, MS 4751, MS 4516, MS 4860, MS 4695, MS 4970, and MS 4558.
See others in:
Portraits of anthropologists, 1860s-1960s
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Copy prints of original photographs held by the American Philosophical Society, National Geographic Society, and National Archives cannot be copied. Copies may be obtained from these repositories.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 33, Portraits of anthropologists, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
1,195 Prints (albumen, silver gelatin, and platinum)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Photomechanical prints
Photographs
Stereographs
Postcards
Place:
Wyoming
Virginia
New York
New Mexico
Vermont
South Carolina
Maine
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Maryland
Montana
Nebraska
Alaska
British Columbia
Arizona
Colorado
California
Date:
1871-1912
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs of geologic features and the natural environment of the American West, Alaska, and Mexico, most of which were created during government surveys and the expansion of railroads during the 1800s. There are also photographs collected and made by individuals who worked or traveled in the west. Depicted locales include Alaska, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming, and there are some additional images of artifacts, artwork, and portraits. Photographers represented include William Henry Jackson, John K. Hillers, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, E. O. Beaman, James Fennemore, William Bell, and other professional and amateur photographers.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 37
Varying Form of Title:
Scenic Views of North America
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Charles Savage photographs previously filed in Photo Lot 37 have been relocated to National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 156.
Bourne & May photographs previously filed in Photo Lot 37 have been relocated to National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 159.
The National Anthropological Archives holds additional photographs by photographers or from accessions represented in this collection in Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 40, and other photo lots.
See others in:
Photographs of North American geology and scenery, 1871-1912
These papers reflect the professional lives of Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838-1923), an ethnologist with the Peabody Museum of Harvard and collaborator with the Bureau of American Ethnology, and Francis La Flesche (1856-1923), an anthropologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology. Due to the close professional and personal relationship of Fletcher and La Flesche, their papers have been arranged jointly. The papers cover the period from 1874 to 1939. Included in the collection is correspondence, personal diaries, lectures, field notes and other ethnographic papers, drafts, musical transcriptions, publications by various authors, maps and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
These papers reflect the professional lives of Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838-1923), an ethnologist with the Peabody Museum of Harvard University and collaborator with the Bureau of American Ethnology, and Francis La Flesche (1856-1923), an anthropologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology. Due to the close professional and personal relationship of Fletcher and La Flesche, their papers have been arranged jointly. The papers cover the period from 1874 to 1939. Included in the collection is correspondence, personal diaries, lectures, field notes and other ethnographic papers, drafts, musical transcriptions, publications by various authors, maps and photographs.
The papers have been divided into three general categories: the papers of Alice Cunningham Fletcher, the papers of Francis La Flesche, and the ethnographic research of Fletcher and La Flesche. The first two categories represent personal and professional materials of Fletcher and La Flesche. The third section holds the majority of the ethnographic material in the collection.
Of primary concern are Fletcher and La Flesche's ethnological investigations conducted among the Plains Indians, particularly the Omaha and Osage. Fletcher's Pawnee field research and her allotment work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs among the Omaha, Nez Perce, and Winnebago are represented in the collection. A substantial portion of the ethnographic material reflects Fletcher and La Flesche's studies of Native American music. Much of the correspondence in the papers of Fletcher and La Flesche is rich with information about the situation of Omaha peoples in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Also included in the collection are documents related to Fletcher's work with the Archaeological Institute of America and the School for American Archaeology. Additionally, substantial amounts of Fletcher's early anthropological and historical research are found among her correspondence, lectures, anthropological notes, and early field diaries. La Flesche's literary efforts are also generously represented.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into the following 3 series: 1) Alice Cunningham Fletcher papers, 1873-1925; 2) Francis La Flesche papers, 1881-1930; 3) Papers relating to the anthropological research of Alice Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, 1877-1939.
Series 1: Alice Cunningham Fletcher papers is divided into the following 10 subseries: 1.1) Incoming correspondence, 1874-1923 (bulk 1882-1923); 1.2) Outgoing correspondence, 1873-1921; 1.3) Correspondence on specific subjects, 1881-1925; 1.4) Correspondence between Fletcher and La Flesche, 1895-1922; 1.5) Publications, 1882-1920; 1.6) Organizational records, 1904-1921; 1.7) General anthropological notes, undated; 1.8) Lectures, circa 1878-1910; 1.9) Diaries, 1881-1922; 1.10) Biography and memorabilia, 1878-1925.
Series 2: Francis La Flesche papers is divided into the following 6 subseries: 2.11) General correspondence, 1890-1929; 2.12) Correspondence on specific subjects, 1881-1930; 2.13) Publications, 1900-1927; 2.14) Literary efforts, undated; 2.15) Personal diaries, 1883-1924; 2.16) Biography and memorabilia, 1886-1930.
Series 3: Papers relating to the anthropological research of Alice Fletcher and Francis La Flesche is divided into the following 12 subseries: 3.17) Alaska, 1886-1887; 3.18) Earth lodges, 1882, 1898-1899; 3.19) Music, 1888-1918; 3.20) Nez Perce, 1889-1909; 3.21) Omaha, 1882-1922; 3.22) Osage, 1896-1939; 3.23) Pawnee, 1897-1910; 3.24) Pipes, undated; 3.25) Sioux, 1877-1896; 3.26) Other tribes, 1882-1922; 3.27) Publications collected, 1884-1905, undated; 3.28) Photographs, undated.
Biographical / Historical:
Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838-1923) was an ethnologist with the Peabody Museum of Harvard and collaborator with the Bureau of American Ethnology. Francis La Flesche (1856-1923) was an anthropologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Chronology of the Life of Alice Cunningham Fletcher
1838 March 15 -- Born in Havana, Cuba
1873-1876 -- Secretary, American Association for Advancement of Women
1879 -- Informal student of anthropology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University
1881 -- Field trip to Omaha and Rosebud Agencies
1882 -- Assistant in ethnology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University
1882 -- Helped secure land in severalty to Omaha Indians
1882-1883 -- Begins collaboration with Francis La Flesche on the Peabody Museum's collection of Omaha and Sioux artifacts
1883-1884 -- Special Agent, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Omaha Agency
1886 -- Bureau of Education investigation of Alaskan native education
1887-1888 -- Special Disbursing Agent, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Winnebago Agency
1889-1892 -- Special Agent for allotment, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nez Perce Agency
1890-1899 -- President, Women's Anthropological Society of America
1891-1923 -- Mary Copley Thaw Fellow, Peabody Museum, Harvard University
1892-1893 -- Department of Interior consultant, World's Columbian Exposition
1896 -- Vice-President, Section H, American Association for the Advancement of Science
1897 -- Collaborator, Bureau of American Ethnology
1899-1916 -- Editorial board, American Anthropologist
1900 -- Published Indian Story and Song from North America
1901-1902 -- Advisory committee, Anthropology Department, University of California at Berkeley
1903 -- President, Anthropological Society of Washington
1904 -- Published The Hako: A Pawnee Ceremony with James Murie
1908-1913 -- Chair, Managing Committee of School of American Archaeology
1911 -- Honorary Vice-President, Section H, British Association for Advancement of Science
1911 -- Published The Omaha Tribe with Francis La Flesche
1913 -- Chair Emeritus, Managing Committee of School of American Archaeology
1915 -- Published Indian Games and Dances with Native Songs Arranged from American Indian Ceremonials and Sports
1923 April 6 -- Died in Washington, D.C.
Chronology of the Life of Francis La Flesche
1857 December 25 -- Born on Omaha Reservation near Macy, Nebraska
1879 -- Lecture tour, Ponca chief Standing Bear
1881 -- Interpreter, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
1881-1910 -- Clerk, Bureau of Indian Affairs
1891 -- Informally adopted as Fletcher's son
1892 -- LL.B., National University Law School
1893 -- LL.M., National University Law School
1900 -- Published The Middle Five: Indian Boys at School
1906-1908 -- Marriage to Rosa Bourassa
1910-1929 -- Ethnologist, Bureau of American Ethnology
1911 -- Published The Omaha Tribe with Alice Fletcher
1921 -- Published The Osage Tribe, Part One
1922 -- Member, National Academy of Sciences
1922-1923 -- President, Anthropological Society of Washington
1925 -- Published The Osage Tribe, Part Two
1926 -- Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Nebraska
1928 -- Published The Osage Tribe, Part Three
1932 -- Published Dictionary of the Osage Language
1932 September 5 -- Died in Thurston County, Nebraska
1939 -- Posthumous publication of War Ceremony and Peace Ceremony of the Osage Indians
Related Materials:
Additional material related to the professional work of Fletcher and La Flesche in the National Anthropological Archives may be found among the correspondence of the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) and the records of the Anthropological Society of Washington.
Sound recordings made by Fletcher and La Flesche can be found at the Library of Congress. The National Archives Records Administration hold the Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), including those relating to allotments in severalty for the Nez Perce by Alice Fletcher. The Nebraska Historical Society has diaries, letters and clippings regarding the La Flesche family, including correspondence of Francis La Flesche and Fletcher. The Radcliffe College Archives holds a manuscript account of Alice Fletcher's four summers with the Nez Perce (1889-1892). Correspondence between Fletcher and F. W. Putnam is also located at the Peabody Museum Archives of Harvard University.
Separated Materials:
Ethnographic photographs from the collection have been catalogued by tribe in Photo Lot 24.
Glass plate negatives from the collection have been catalogued by tribe in the BAE glass negatives collection (Negative Numbers 4439-4515).
Provenance:
The papers of Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche have been received from an undocumented number of sources. Portions of Fletcher's ethnographic papers were donated to the archives by Mrs. G. David Pearlman in memory of her husband in 1959.
Restrictions:
The Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche papers are open for research.
Access to the Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche papers requires an appointment.
Photographs depicting Potawatomi people, including copy prints of 19th century portraits as well as photographs by James A. Clifton and Dr. Robert L. Bee of Potawatomi interviewees and a Potawatomi pow wow. The collection also includes images of Potawatomi material culture, including heirloom pipes, a grave house, dice counters, a drum and Ojibwa participants in a drum presentation ceremony. Photographs are mounted for publication and have captions.
Biographical/Historical note:
James A. Clifton is a psychological anthropologist and ethnohistorian. He graduated with a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Oregon in 1960 and was the Emeritus Frankenthal Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 78-46
Reproduction Note:
Copy prints probably made by Regents Press of Kansas.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Originals for Bureau of American Ethnology copy prints can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in the Reference Prints File and the BAE Historical Negatives.
The National Anthropological Archives also holds$dJames A. Clifton's Research Files on the Kansas Potawatomi, his Report on a Survey of Potawatomi Indian Groups in Canada (MS 7198), and his revised draft of "Escape, Evasion, and Eviction: Adaptive Responses of the Indians of the Old Northwest to the Jacksonian Removal Policy in the 1830s" (MS 7395).
James Clifton photographs of Ruth Landes, a Potawatomi woman, can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Ruth Landes's papers.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Copy prints of photographs held by Chicago Historical Society and British Museum cannot be copied. Copies may be obtained from these repositories.
Photo lot 78-46, James Alfred Clifton photographs of Potawatomi people and material culture, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
An interview of Dewey Albinson conducted 1965 October 27, by Virginia Nagle, for the Archives of American Art. Albinson describes his position as supervisor of Projects for the Minnesota State Department of Education. He speaks of the Minneapolis Handicraft Project; crafts by American Indians; artists and communism in New York City; Federal Art Project murals in St. Paul, Minnesota; and his relationship with Frances Densmore, Floyd Dell, Roland Mousseau, Will Norman, Benett Swanson, Forbes Watson, Charles Wells, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Dewey Albinson (1898-1971) was an art administrator and painter from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hrs., 34 min.
Provenance:
This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
DUB OF LC RECORDINGS OF FRANCIS DENSMORE FW WITH CHIPPEWA INDIANS FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY; RIGHTS REMAIN WITH LC
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Wisconsin, United States.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
Includes approximately 55 pages "corrected copy" of transcriptions and approximately 100 pages of transcriptions which are not arranged in numerical sequence.
(Old Number 3917) 10 sheets of original drawings of the Mid'e and 2 Mid'e diagrams reproduced in Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 45. Drawings made for F. Densmore, 1907-1908 and transmitted by her to the Bureau of American Ethnology, August 4, 1937. Also native (?) drawing of noose for catching rabbits described in the bulletin. (Specimen of noose for catching rabbit sent to U.S. National Museum, , 1964, Accession Number . (The following on micro film reel #19)-List of corrections in the text used by F. Densmore in Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletins 45 and 53 as made by Father S.J. Richards, Sprague, Ontario. (Missionary to the Indians since 1883), October 8, 1939. 17 page manuscript. Also letter from F. Densmore to Dr. Stirling returning Father Richards' manuscript. "Series of Three Chippewa Stories."--March 9, 1932. 10 pages typed. Received from Densmore estate, ca. 1962. 2272 "Chippewa customs and uses of Plants." Manuscript once filed under number 2272, not present (no further information as to number of pages, etc.) Third page of handwritten manuscript describing construction of the frame of a wigwam. Refers to negative Number 596-D-13-e, found with manuscript.
Photographs depicting camps and scenery during July 4th observances in 1912 at Bullhead, Standing Rock Reservation, South Dakota. Handwriting on the photographs' versos is probably that of Frances Densmore.
Biographical/Historical note:
Frances Densmore (1867-1957) was born in Red Wing, Minnesota, and educated at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music (1884-1886). She taught music in St. Paul until 1889, when she moved to Boston to study with composers at Harvard University. Soon thereafter, Densmore became interested in Native American music and she did her first field studies with the Ojibwa in Minnesota in 1905. She became associated with the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1907, which helped fund her trips to record music, collect musical insturments, and make photographs documenting tribes across the United States. Densmore stayed with the Bureau for fifty years until her death in Red Wing in 1957.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 81L
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds Frances Densmore papers (MS 4250) and material relating to her music research (MS 3370 and other numbered manuscript collections).
Densmore photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 24, MS 4250, MS 4635, MS 3261, MS 4690, MS 4877, Photo Lot 33, and the BAE historical negatives.
Correspondence from Densmore held in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4846, MS 4821, Bureau of American Ethnology records, Science Service records, records of the Department of Anthropology, and collections of personal papers.
The Braun Research Library at Autry National Center and the Minnesota Historical Society also holds Frances Densmore papers.
Restrictions:
Original nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require advanced notice for viewing.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 81L, Frances Densmore photographs of July 4 observances at Standing Rock Reservation, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
MS 7008 Instructions to Mae Tucker, Bureau of American Ethnology clerk, concerning the handling of F. W. Hodge's sound recordings of Santo Domingo music, and notes by Tucker
Indians of North America -- Southern States Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Newsclippings
Date:
1931-1942
Scope and Contents:
Contents include: ---- Correspondence with editor of Bureau of American Ethnology and list of illustrations used in Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 161. ---- "Seminole Music." 374 page carbon copy of manuscript and a few miscellaneous pages, roughs of music transcriptions, arranged music transcriptions of 243 songs as published. Submitted December 18, 1942. ---- "Seminole Music." Approximately 250 page manuscript. Incomplete manuscript submitted by Frances Densmore, May 16, 1940. This manuscript and the manuscript finally published in Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 161 are compilations of previous manuscripts submitted by the author, 1931-1933, 1936, 1941. (Old Number) 1787 "Seminole Hunting and Alligator Dance Songs." 22 page manuscript, 28 pages tabulated analyses of 13 songs. (Transcriptions and 10 illustrations mentioned on old catalog card are not present. See original prints file for illustrations in part.) Submitted February 1, 1932.
Submitted April 21, 1932. (Old Number) 3228 "Seminole Songs connected with Legends and Dances." 38 page manuscript including descriptive analysis of songs, tabulated analyses of 31 songs. (transcriptions of 31 songs, recorded on old catalog card, are not present.) Submitted September 30, 1932. (Old Number) 3259-a "Chitimacha, Choctaw and Seminole Music, with a comparative survey of Indian music in the Gulf States." 75 page manuscript, including descriptive analyses of 23 songs, tabulated analyses for 13 Seminole songs. (Tabulated analyses for Chitimacha and Choctaw songs, 20 pages transcriptions, 18 photos and 2 figures, recorded on old catalog card, are not present. See original print file for part of the illustrations.) Submitted main portion of the manuscript to the Bureau of American Ethnology June 17, 1933. The comparative survey part was a report submitted to the National Research Council, May 15, 1933. (Old Number) 3259-b (part) Seminole text from manuscript "Choctaw and Seminole Songs." 8 page manuscript Submitted June 14, 1939. The Choctaw material is separately filed under Choctaw, Bureau of American Ethnology Ms Number 3258 (Old Manuscript Number 3259-b, part.) (Old Number) 3260 "Dance Songs of the Seminole Indians." 19 page manuscript including descriptive analyses of 20 songs, tabulated analyses. (Transcriptions and 9 photos sent with this manuscript, recorded on old catalog card, are not present.)
(Old Number) 3197 "The Seminole Indians." 43 page manuscript including descriptive analyses of 7 songs, tabulated analyses of 8 songs. (8 transcriptions and 36 photos and 1 sketch illustration, recorded on old catalog card, are not present.) See original prints file for part of illustrations.) Submitted March 3, 1931. (Old Number) 3208 "Seminole Bird Dance and their Songs." 31 page manuscript including descriptive analyses of songs, tabulated analyses for 18 songs. (18 song transcriptions and 42 photo illustrations, recorded on old catalog card, are not present). Submitted January 18, 1932. (Old Number) 3209 "Buffalo Dance and Corn Dance." 30 page manuscript including descriptive analyses of 12 songs, 12 tabulated analyses. (12 transcriptions and 12 photo illustrations, recorded on old catalog card, are not present. See original print file for part of the photo illustrations.) Submitted December 12, 1931. (Old Number) 3211 "A comparison between the structure of Nootka and Quileute songs and that of songs previously analyzed, also a description of a Seminole flute and Seminole customs." 57 page manuscript, from which pages 4-10 were taken out by F. D. for incorporation in Nootka and Quileute Music. No Nootka and Quileute material remains in this manuscript. (17 photo illustrations, map and diagram, recorded on old catalog card, are not present. See original print file for some of the illustrations.)
Submitted November 30, 1932. (Old Number) 3262 "Caloosa and Seminole Corn Dance and Hunting Dance Songs." 28 page manuscript, including descriptive analyses of 25 songs, tabulated analyses of 25 songs. (11 pages transcriptions, 1 sketch, 13 photos, recorded on old catalog card, are not present. See original print file for some of the photos.) Submitted May 28, 1932. (Old Number) 3407 "Dance Songs of the Seminole Indians." 2 page list of Seminole transcriptions and cylinder records. (7 sheets transcriptions, recorded on old catalog card, are not present.) All these songs were recorded at Brighton, Florida, by Billie Stewart in February 1932. Submitted by F.D. March 16, 1936. (Old Number) 4083 "Songs of the Seminole in Florida." 28 page manuscript (71 transcriptions of songs, recorded on old catalog card, are not present.) Submitted by F.D. March 20, 1941.
The following Seminole material was received from the Densmore estate, ca. 1962. Three notebooks in F. Densmore's handwriting, dated: 1931, 1932 and 1933 (Brighten), and 1933. These notebooks contain material on Seminole songs and dances. Miscellaneous fieldnotes including "Last of Josie Billie" and "Discended from Osceola". Reading notes from Frank Drew, Minnie Moore-Willson, Clay McCauley, and others. 2 notebooks and several miscellaneous pages. "Annual Report, Narrative Section, 1935, Seminole Agency Dania, Fla." Prepared by J.L. Glenn, Officer in Charge. 18 page mimeo. Clippings: "Indian Buried Unmourned; Tribesmen at Paleface Rites," February 25, 1938, The Herald; photographs of Seminole Indians, page 10, April 25, 1937, The Herald, Miami, Florida, with typed note: "Do these scenes remind you of 'Days of (not so) long ago?' Chas." Various reprints re Seminole Indians: "Souvenir of the Original Musa Isle Seminole Indian Village, Miami, Fla." No date, 12 pages. Publishers announcement of Grant Forman's book, Indian Removal. "Musa Isle Seminoles and Alligators" by James Lowther Berkebile, 1929, Phoenix Printing Co., Augusta, Georgia. 35 pages and 23 illustrations of Seminole Indians.
"Seminole Indians: Survey of the Seminole Indians of Florida," presented by Mr. Fletcher, 71st Congress, 3rd Session, Doc. No. 314, GPO, 1931. 88 pages and map. Announcement of lectures W. Stanley Hanson, Secretary Seminole Indian Association, and article from The American Eagle, "Seminole Indian Association Reorganized", September, 1933.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4690
Other Title:
Seminole Music
Seminole Hunting and Alligator Dance Songs
The Seminole Indians
Seminole Bird Dance and their Songs
Buffalo Dance and Corn Dance
A comparison between the structure of Nootka and Quileute songs and that of songs previously analyzed, also a description of a Seminole flute and Seminole customs
Seminole Songs connected with Legends and Dances
Chitimacha, Choctaw and Seminole Music, with a comparative survey of Indian music in the Gulf States
Seminole text from manuscript "Choctaw and Seminole Songs"
Dance Songs of the Seminole Indians
Caloosa and Seminole Corn Dance and Hunting Dance Songs
Contents: Discs issued by The Library of Congress, as follows: 1) Library of Congress Album XXII. Songs of the Chippewa. 1950. Library of Congress Record L 22. Five 78 r.p.m. discs and descriptive leaflet. 2) Songs of the Chippewa. 1950. One 33 r.p.m. disc and descriptive leaflet. 3) Library of Congress Record L33. Songs of the Menominee, Mandan, and Hidatsa. [1953. One 33 r.p.m. disc and descriptive leaflet. 4) Library of Congress Record L32. Songs of the Nootka and Quileute. [1953. One 33 r.p.m. disc and descriptive leaflet. 5) Library of Congress Record L31. Songs of the Papago. [1953.] one 33 r.p.m. disc and descriptive leaflet.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Portfolios
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Material includes 92 page manuscript, 1 illustration, transcriptions of 64 Omaha songs, list of Omaha songs with catalog numbers, and new titles for cylinder records of Omaha songs.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Portfolios
Songs
Date:
1927-1939
Scope and Contents:
Material includes manuscript "Winnebago Music," 362 typed pages, 50 illustrations (filed separately in original prints file, Bureau of American Ethnology File, Number 3261 part), transcriptions of 205 Winnebago songs, and 2 flute melodies (ca. 116 pages) marked "ready for publication" and submitted November 28, 1939; and original copies of 205 Winnebago songs received from the Densmore estate, ca. 1962. This manuscript was compiled from various Winnebago manuscripts submitted by the author to the Bureau of American Ethnology at intervals, 1927-1940.
Contents:
"Winnebago Music." Contains material from 14 Winnebago manuscripts formerly submitted. Revised in final form for publication November, 1940 by Miss Densmore. 362 pages numbered 1 through 318 with some pages having several sub-letters. The manuscript contains an 83 page section on "The Peyote Cult". "Winnebago Music." Carbon copy of unpublished manuscript, pages 220-240. This manuscript is a brief resume of F. Densmore's work with Winnebago songs and dances. No date appears on the manuscript but it could not have been written before 1940. Tabulated analyses from the various Winnebago manuscripts in the following list were sent to F. Densmore, returned by F. Densmore, July 19, 1939, and not refiled with the manuscript to which they belong. Now filed together in 1st envelope.
Old Manuscript Number 2974, "14 Winnebago songs used in the treatment of the sick." 10 page manuscript, 7 page descriptive analysis of songs. Material was collected at Galesville, Wisconsin, November 23, 1927.
Old Manuscript Number 2986, "22 Winnebago songs of the Winter Feast." 22 page manuscript. Submitted April 21, 1928.
Old Manuscript Number 3029, "28 Winnebago war songs." 34 page manuscript including descriptive analysis of songs. Material collected in Trempeleau and near Galesville, Wisconsin, October 1927. Submitted November 26, 1928.
Old Manuscript Number 3106, "Origin-song of the dice game and other Winnebago songs." 11 page manuscript, 7 page descriptive analysis. Submitted December 15, 1928.
Old Manuscript Number 3107, "13 Winnebago songs connected to the recent war, and 17 tables showing a comparison between songs of the Pawnee and songs of the Chippewa, Sioux and other tribes." 11 page manuscript, 9 page descriptive analysis. Submitted January 26, 1929.
Old Manuscript Number 3115, "19 Winnebago songs connected with legends, games and dances." 14 page manuscript, 11 page descriptive analysis. Material collected near Black Falls, Wisconsin, September 1928 and submitted to the Bureau of American Ethnology March 2, 1929. Also "data concerning two Winnebago drumsticks and a pair of Menominee "striking sticks." 1 page, 1 illustration. 3/5/1929
Old Manuscript Number 3156, "12 Winnebago songs of games and dances." 17 page manuscript including descriptive analyses of 12 songs. Material collected Tomah, Wisconsin and near Wisconsin Rapids, June 26, 1930.
Old Manuscript Number 3178 "Songs for a spirit of the dead, and other Winnebago songs." (36 pages analysis, 9 sheets transcriptions, 4 small photos, recorded on the old catalog card are not present. Material collected at Dallas on Wisconsin River, October 31, 1930.
Old Manuscript Number 3179 "Winnebago songs of the Water-spirit and Night-spirit bundles." 21 page manuscript including descriptive analysis. (24 pages tabulated analysis, 9 sheets transcriptions, 2 photos of John Smoke, recorded on old catalog card are not present) Submitted September 20, 1930.
Old Manuscript Number 3198 "Winnebago songs of the Medicine Lodge: Buffalo Feast and Fish Dance." 28 page manuscript including descriptive analysis. (Tabulated analysis, transcriptions and 2 illustrations recorded on the old catalog card are not present) Material collected at Red Wing, Minnesota, September 1930. Submitted June 27, 1931.
Old Manuscript Number 3201 "(14) Pueblo (Hopi, Zuni), Navaho and Winnebago Songs." 21 page manuscript including descriptive analysis. (Transcription, tabulated analysis and illustrations recorded on old catalog card are not present.) Submitted October 16, 1931.
Old Manuscript Number 3205 "The Peyote Cult and Treatment of the Sick among the Winnebago Indians." 44 page typed manuscript including descriptive analysis of 17 songs, 1 original diagram of Peyote lodge, drawn by Yellowbank, and 8" X 10" photo of musical instruments, and 4 photo illustrations (Bureau of American Ethnology # 3261-b,27,28,29,30). (Transcriptions and tabulated analysis recorded on old catalog card are not present.) Submitted October 16, 1931.
Old Manuscript Number 3229 (pt) "Winnebago, Iroquois, Pueblo (Zuni and Cochiti), and British Columbia (Nitinat, Fraser and Thompson River) songs, with catalog numbers of 143 songs." Catalog numbers of song numbers 1981-2123 is the only remaining part of this manuscript. (60 page manuscript, recorded on old catalog card, was separated at intervals. The Iroquois section was pulled August 1955 and is now filed Bureau of American Ethnology Manuscript # 3378. The Pueblo section was pulled August 1955 and now filed Bureau of American Ethnology Manuscript # 4482 (old number 3229 part). The British Columbia Section was pulled August 1955 and is now filed Bureau of American Ethnology Manuscript # 3371 (old number 3229 part). All this material accounts for pages 35-60 of the 60 page manuscript. The first 25 pages must have refered to the Winnebago and perhaps a comparative analysis of the songs of these different tribes, but these 25 pages have not been located.
Old Manuscript Number 3261-a "(9) Winnebago Songs of the Peyote Ceremony." 17 page typed manuscript including descriptive analysis, 1 diagram, 3 portraits of singers now in illustration file # 3261-b:31, 33, 34). (18 page tabulated analysis and 6 page transcriptions, recorded on old catalog card, are not present, 1965) Submitted June 21, 1932.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3261
Provenance:
Submitted by the author to the Bureau of American Ethnology at intervals, and some manuscripts received from the Densmore estate, ca. 1962.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Musical transcriptions
Date:
ca. 1929-37
Scope and Contents:
Includes: (1) "A Comparison between Yuma, Acoma, and Alaska Indian Songs" 19 pages. (2) Descriptive analysis of seven Acoma songs 7 pages. (3) Material relating to eight Alaska Indian songs sung by James Fox and recorded by the Reverend John W. Chapman at Anvik, Alaska. The songs are those of the waterspirit, crane, fox, owl, woodpecker, jay, porcupine, and crow. They have been identified as being Ingalik, perhaps on the basis of where they were recorded. The words, if there were any, have not been included in the transcriptions. (a) Descriptive analysis 2 pages. (b) Three sets of musical transcriptions (15 pages) plus a photostatic copy of one set. The three transcriptions differ in small but significant ways. (c) Forms used in analyzing the songs 16 pages. (d) Fragment of a note that includes information about Fox, Chapman, and the acquisition of the sound recordings by the Bureau of American Ethnology 1 page. (e) Fragment of a note about the songs and the quality of the recordings 1 page. (f) Fragment of a letter, Chapman to Densmore, May 11, 1931, including information incorporated in f, above 2 pages.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3137
Other Title:
A Comparison between Yuma, Acoma, and Alaska Indian Songs
Includes 7 page manuscript and descriptive analysis of 11 songs. (4 pages transcriptions, 22 tabulated analysis, one portrait of singer, Mrs. Holden, 1 sheet with sketch of designs of face paint, recorded on old catalog card, not present.) Old catalog card was marked "pub. BAE 124." This appears to be the only manuscript now in the BAE Archives relating to this publication. See number 3157 for various other Quileute manuscripts submitted by F. Densmore, published and never returned to Bureau of American Ethnology.
"Papago Music" 382 page manuscript, 79 sheets transcriptions, 56 illustrations, 41 pages of notes on Papago words, all once filed under old manuscript number 1670 was apparently sent to the editor's office, November 18, 1927, and never returned.
The Ruth Landes papers are open for research. The nitrate negatives in this collection have been separated from the collection and stored offsite. Access to nitrate negatives is restricted due to preservation concerns.
Access to the Ruth Landes papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Ruth Landes papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The revision of this finding aid and digitization of portions of the collection were made possible through the financial support of the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund.
