These records document the governance and programmatic activities of the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation (MAI) from its inception in 1904 until its sublimation by the Smithsonian Institution in 1990. The types of materials present in this collection include personal and institutional correspondence, individual subject files, minutes and annual reports, financial ledgers, legal records, expedition field notes, research notes, catalog and object lists, publications, clippings, flyers, maps, photographs, negatives and audio-visual materials. These materials span a varied range of subjects relating to the activities of the museum which are more fully described on the series level.
Scope and Contents:
These records document the governance and programmatic activities of the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation (MAI) from its inception in 1904 until its sublimation by the Smithsonian Institution in 1990. The types of materials present in this collection include personal and institutional correspondence, individual subject files, minutes and annual reports, financial ledgers, legal records, expedition field notes, research notes, catalog and object lists, publications, clippings, flyers, maps, photographs, negatives and audio-visual materials. These materials span a varied range of subjects relating to the activities of the museum which are more fully described on the series level.
Arrangement:
The MAI, Heye Foundation records have been arranged into 21 series and 50 subseries:
Series 1: Directors, 1908-1990 (1.1: George Gustav Heye, 1863-1962, 1.2: Edwin K. Burnett, 1943-1960, 1.3: Frederick Dockstader, 1950-1976, 1.4: Alexander F. Draper, 1972-1977, 1.5:Roland W. Force, 1963-1990, 1.6: George Eager, Assistant Director, 1977-1990)
Series 2: Board of Trustees, 1916-1990 (2.1: Board of Trustee Minutes, 1916-1990, 2.2: Individual Board Correspondence, 1943-1990, 2.3: Subject Files, 1917-1990)
Series 3: Administrative, 1916-1989 (3.1: Subject Files, 1904-1991, 3.2: Personnel, 1956-1991, 3.3: Legal, 1900-1989, 3.4: Task Force, 1976-1986, 3.5: George Abrams, 1980-1991)
Series 4: Financial, 1916-1990 (4.1: Ledgers, 1900-1962, 4.2: Correspondence, 1905-1985, 4.3: Subject Files, 1916-1990)
Series 5: Expeditions, 1896-1973Series 6: Collectors, 1872-1981Series 7: Registration, 1856-1993Series 8: Collections Management, 1937-1988Series 9: Curatorial, 1963-1990 (9.1: Curatorial Council, 1973-1990, 9.2: Gary Galante, 1979-1991, 9.3: Mary Jane Lenz, 1974-1994, 9.4: James G. E. Smith, 1963-1990, 9.5: U. Vincent Wilcox, 1968-1984, 9.6: Anna C. Roosevelt, 1973-1988)
Series 10: Exhibits, 1923-1991 (10.1: MAI Exhibits, 1923-1990, 10.2: Non-MAI Exhibits, 1937-1991)
Series 11: Public Programs, 1935-1990Series 12: Publications, 1904-1994 (12.1: Annual Reports, 1917-1989, 12.2: Publications by MAI, 1904-1990, 12.3: Publications by Other Sources, 1881-1990, 12.4: Administration, 1920-1988, 12.5: Archival Set of Official Publications, 1907-1976)
Series 13: Public Affairs, 1938-1991Series 14: Development, 1927-1991 (14.1: Administration, 1979-1990, 14.2: Donors, 1978-1990, 14.3: Fundraising, 1973-1990, 14.4: Grants, 1970-1990, 14.5: Subject Files, 1976-1990)
Series 15: Other Departments, 1914-1990 (15.1: Archives, 1914-1990, 15.2: Conservation, 1972-1989, 15.3: Education, 1921-1990, 15.4: Indian Information Center, 1977-1989, 15.5: Museum Shop, 1947-1989, 15.6: Photography, 1918-1990, 15.7: Physical Anthropology, 1919-1956)
Series 16: Huntington Free Library, 1926-1991Series 17: Museum Relocation, 1969-1992 (17.1: Subject Files, 1979-1990, 17.2: American Museum of Natural History, 1980-1987, 17.3: Dallas, Texas, 1984-1987, 17.4: Smithsonian Institution, 1979-1990, 17.5: U.S. Custom House, 1977-1990, 17.6: Other Locations, 1974-1987)
Series 18: MediaSeries 19: PhotographsSeries 20: Miscellaneous, 1837-1990Series 21: Oversize, 1873-1972 (21.1: Maps, 1873-1975, 21.2: Miscellaneous, 1884-1982)
History of the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation:
The Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation was established by wealthy collector George Gustav Heye in 1908. Heye began collecting American Indian artifacts as early as 1897 and his collection rapidly increased over the next several years. Based in New York, Heye bought collections and documentary photographs, sponsored expeditions, and traveled and collected items himself. In addition, once MAI was established he sponsored numerous expeditions across the Western Hemisphere, including North American, Canada, South America and Central America.
From 1908 to 1917 Heye housed his artifacts on temporary loan at the University of Pennsylvania's University Museum, Pennsylvania, in lofts on East 33rd Street in New York City, and at other depositories. In 1917, the collections moved from his apartment to their permanent museum location at Audubon Terrace, at 155th Street and Broadway in New York City. The museum, containing ethnographic and archaeological collections from North, Central and South America, opened to the public in 1922. Less than ten years later, Heye completed a storage facility in the Pelham Bay area of the Bronx, known as the Research Branch. Heye served as Chairman of the Board and Museum Director until his death in 1957. After growing concern about the financial and other management of the collections came to a head, the museum became part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1989 and in 1994 opened exhibit space in the U.S. Customs House at Bowling Green near New York City's Battery Park. The Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Maryland later opened in 1999 and the main Washington, DC museum opened in 2004.
Please visit the following links for more information about the history of the museum; History of the Collection, Collections Overview, and Significance of the Collection. Moreover, for information about how the museum currently cares for and exhibits the collection, please see the Conservation department and recent entries regarding Exhibitions and Conservation on the NMAI Blog. In addition, see portions of the NMAI Archive Center's collections highlighted in the SIRIS Blog.
Related Materials:
In 2004, the Huntington Fee Library, once part of the MAI/Heye Foundation, was transferred to the Cornell University Library Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. While this collection mainly contained books, it also contained a significant amount of archival materials. The Huntington Free Library's Native American Collection contains outstanding materials documenting the history, culture, languages, and arts of the native tribes of both North and South America, as well as contemporary politics and human rights issues are also important components of the collection. Further information about the collection and links to finding aids can be found here: rmc.library.cornell.edu/collections/HFL_old.html.
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 the 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/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographic negatives shot by George H. Pepper and George G. Heye during farm excavations in New York and New Jersey in 1914.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes 141 glass plate negatives shot in 1914 and 1915 related to New Jersey and New York farm excavations led by George G. Heye and George H. Pepper. Although George Gustav Heye is listed as the photographer it is much more likely that the photographs were shot by George Hubbard Pepper.
Photographs in this collection include: Images from the excavation of a cemetery site during summer of 1914 on the Burson W. Bell Farm in Montague, NJ and Milford, Pike County, PA (N00316 - N00361); Object photography taken circa 1915 for the publication "Exploration of a Munsee Cemetery near Montague, New Jersey" by George G. Heye and George H. Pepper (N00362 – N00463). It appears that all objects in this set were excavated from Burson Bell Farm; Images of the excavation at Cleary Farm, Avon, Livingston County, New York during October 1914 (N00437-N00439); Images of the excavation at George Marsh Farm, Canandaigua, Ontario County, New York during October 1914 (N00440 - N00450); Images of the excavation at W.G Raines and H. Reichelt Farms in Wheeler Station, East Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York during October 1914 (N00451 - N00456). N34267 is a copy negative of N00357. There are also acetate copy negatives (with the same N numbers) of all the glass plate negatives made in the 1960s during a large photographic conservation project.
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
In the summer of 1914, George Gustav Heye and George Hubbard Pepper took a crew to the Burson Bell Farm in Montague, New Jersey to excavate a Munsee Cemetery which contained over 60 burials. In early July, the men working the site were arrested for grave robbing on charges of violating a statute prohibiting the disturbance of human burials. Though Heye and Pepper were not there at the time, a warrant was issued for George Heye's arrest. George Heye faced trial and was convicted and fined $100 but he successfully appealed the conviction to the New Jersey Supreme court where the decision was reversed. Heye and Pepper resumed their excavations in October of 1914 in New York State at the Cleary Farm in Avon, Livingston County, the George Marsh Farm in Canandaigua, Ontario County, and the W.G Raines and H. Reichelt Farms in Wheeler Station, East Bloomfield, Ontario County.
It should be noted that since the passing of the NMAI Act in 1989, which governs the repatriation of human remains and funerary objects, as well as scared objects and cultural patrimony, many of the materials that were collected by George Heye during these 1914 excavations have now been repatriated to their source communities. Any photographic materials related to these repatriated materials are restricted.
Separated Materials:
See George Pepper's field notes from the New Jersey and New York excavations in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation records (NMAI.AC.001) in Box 190, Folders 11-12, and Box 191, Folder 1.
Provenance:
The field photographs accompanied the lots of archeological material that arrived at the Heye Museum in 1914, the object photography (N00362-N00463) was shot at the museum by staff in 1915.
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 York (State) Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New Jersey -- Photographs Search this
Genre/Form:
Negatives (photographic)
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); George Gustav Heye's New York and New Jersey Farm excavation photographs, Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution
Edwin F. Coffin collection of negatives and photographs
Creator:
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Coffin, Edwin F. (Edwin Francis), b. 1883 Search this
Names:
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation -- Photographs Search this
Extent:
93 Acetate negatives
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Acetate negatives
Photographs
Negatives
Photographic prints
Albumen prints
Place:
Hawikuh (N. M.)
Date:
1918-1932
Scope and Contents:
The Edwin F. Coffin collection consists of photographs made by Coffin on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Aside from a number of views of New York real estate owned by the Museum (1924), the remainder of the collection contains Museum of the American Indian excavation photographs made in the Bee Cave Canyon rockshelter in Brewster County, Texas (1929); in the Burson Bell Farm in Montague, New Jersey (1932); and in the Bronx and on Staten Island, New York City (1918 and 1922 respectively).
Around 1922, George G. Heye hired former racecar driver Edwin F. Coffin to be the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation's first official staff photographer, a position he retained until 1932. Coffin was a capable archaeological photographer--in 1918, 1921, and 1923, he also photographed the activities of the Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku Expedition excavations--and eventually conducted fieldwork in Texas.
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:
Some materials are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Topic:
Excavations (Archaeology) -- Texas -- Photographs Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New Jersey -- Photographs Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New York (State) -- Photographs Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Negatives
Photographic prints
Albumen prints
Citation:
Edwin F. Coffin collection of negatives and photographs, 1918-1932, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
37 Photographic prints (gelatin silver, 4 x 5 inches.)
43 Acetate negatives (black and white, 5 x 7 inches.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Acetate negatives
Black-and-white negatives
Photographs
Gelatin silver prints
Place:
Bruneau Canyon (Nev. and Idaho) -- photographs
Date:
1933
1937
Summary:
This collection contains 43 black-and-white negatives and 37 gelatin silver prints taken by Godfrey J. Olsen. The images depict several archaeological excavations in West Long Branch and Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, circa 1933. Also present are images from a survey of Bruneau Canyon, Owyhee County, Idaho, which was undertaken in 1937 for the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation.
Scope and Contents:
The Godfrey J. Olsen collection consists of 43 black-and-white negatives and 37 gelatin silver prints made by Olsen around 1933 and in 1937. The circa 1933 images depict several archaeological excavations in West Long Branch and Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, and the 1937 a survey of Bruneau Canyon, Owyhee County. Olsen made the 1937 materials for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.
Arrangement note:
Negatives Arranged by negative number (N20646-N20650, N20678-N20690, N21435-N21459).
Prints Arranged by print number (P10305-P10311, N10444-P10452, N12676-N12696).
Biographical/Historical note:
Godfrey J. Olsen was an archaeologist for the Fort Ticonderoga Museum and the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Over the course of his career, he excavated several sites in New Jersey, and in 1937 surveyed Idaho's Bruneau Canyon for the Museum of the American Indian.
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:
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 are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Topic:
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New Jersey -- Photographs Search this
Archaeological surveying -- Idaho -- Photographs Search this
Genre/Form:
Black-and-white negatives
Photographs
Gelatin silver prints
Citation:
Godfrey J. Olsen collection of negatives and prints, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
129 Negatives (photographic) (black and white, 4.5 x 6.5 inches.)
22 Lantern slides (black and white, color.)
19 Albumen prints
129 Acetate negatives (Duplicates, black and white, 5 x 7 inches.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Lantern slides
Albumen prints
Acetate negatives
Photographs
Black-and-white negatives
Place:
New Jersey
Inwood (New York, N.Y.)
New York (N.Y.)
Date:
1895-1936
Summary:
This collection contains 22 lantern slides in black and white and color, 129 black-and-white glass negatives and 19 albumen prints taken by William L. Calver between 1895-1936. The images primarily depict archaeological excavation sites in Inwood, New York City, and the broader New York City area. Also present are 129 duplicate acetate negatives.
Arrangement note:
Slides: organized in individual sleeves; arranged by image number.
Glass negatives: organized in individual sleeves; arranged by image number.
Acetate negatives: organized in individual sleeves; arranged by image number.
Prints: organized in folders; arranged by image number.
Biographical/Historical note:
William L. Calver was an engineer living in New York with a strong interest in preserving local history. As an amateur historian and archaeologist, he conducted excavations with Reginald Pelham Bolton to document Native and colonial sites. Along with Bolton, he was a member of the Field Exploration Committee of the New York Historical Society.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Rights:
Restricted: cultural sensitivity and copyright. Please contact the archivist for further information.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- New York (State) Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New Jersey Search this
Indians of North America -- New Jersey Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New York (State) Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Black-and-white negatives
Albumen prints
Lantern slides
Citation:
William L. Calver slides, negatives and prints, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (slide, negative or catalog number).
