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Edmund Snow Carpenter papers

Creator:
Carpenter, Edmund, 1922-2011  Search this
Names:
De Menil, Adelaide  Search this
Flaherty, Robert Joseph, 1884-1951  Search this
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957  Search this
McLuhan, Marshall, 1911-1980  Search this
Schuster, Carl, 1904-1969  Search this
Extent:
26.25 Linear feet
Culture:
Arctic peoples  Search this
Iglulingmiut Inuit (Iglulik/Iglulirmiut Eskimo)  Search this
Inuit  Search this
Inuit -- Canada  Search this
Inuit -- Greenland  Search this
Iroquois  Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
Canada
Greenland
New Guinea (Territory)
Papua New Guinea
Date:
circa 1938-2011
Summary:
Edmund Snow Carpenter (1922-2011) was an archaeologist and visual anthropologist who worked extensively with the indigenous peoples of the Canadian Arctic as well as Papua New Guinea. With his colleague and close collaborator Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), he laid the groundwork for modern media theory. Carpenter is also known for his work as an ethnographic filmmaker and as a collector of Paleo-Eskimo art. The Papers of Edmund Carpenter, circa 1938-2011, document the research interests and projects undertaken by Carpenter in the fields of cultural anthropology, ethnographic filmmaking, media theory, archaeology, and indigenous art.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Edmund Carpenter, 1940-2011, document the research interests and projects undertaken by Carpenter in the fields of cultural anthropology, ethnographic filmmaking, media theory, archaeology, and indigenous art. Specific research projects and interests documented are: his 1950s fieldwork among the Aivilik Inuit in the Canadian Arctic as well as his studies into Inuit concepts of space, time, and geography; his partnership and collaboration with media theorist Marshall McLuhan and his ethnographic studies of Papua New Guinean tribal communities; his early-career archaeological digs at Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) burial mounds in Sugar Run, Pennsylvania, as well as later archaeological interest in Arctic peoples, Siberia, and the Norwegian artifact dubbed the "Norse Penny"; his reflections on the disciplines of anthropology and media studies; his editing and completion of the work of art historian Carl Schuster at the Museum der Kulturen (Museum of Ethnology) in Basel, Switzerland; his editing of The Story of Comock the Eskimo, as told to Robert Flaherty; and his museum exhibitions compiled on the topics of surrealist and tribal art. The collection also documents Carpenter's correspondence with fellow scholars, ethnographers, filmmakers, and colleagues; his published writings; and elements of his personal life, such as obituaries and personal photographs.

Materials in this collection include artifact and burial records; correspondence; drawings and illustrations; essays; interviews and oral histories; inventories and catalogues; manuscripts and drafts, and fragments of drafts; maps; memoranda and meeting minutes; notes, notebooks, and data analysis; obituaries and memorials; photographic prints, slides, and negatives, including personal photographs and portraits; proposals and plans for museum exhibits; reports; resumes and bibliographies; reviews; and sound recordings on CD-Rs and audio cassettes. Additional materials include books and book chapters; journal copies and journal excerpts; magazine, newspaper, and article clippings and excerpts; museum and gallery catalogues, brochures, and guides; pamphlets; and reprints. A portion of the material collected here consist of consolidated research into specific topics, gathered from archival repositories, museums, correspondence, and published works. This material consists of research reprints and archival reference photocopies and photographic prints from various repositories.

Items worthy of special mention in this collection include: annotated draft chapters from Marshall McLuhan's seminal work on media theory, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (Series 2); a 1957 letter from e. e. cummings to Carpenter, written in verse (Series 3); an undated thank-you note addressed to "Sadie" from Helen Keller (Series 3); and a transcript of an interview of Carpenter by his former student, Harald Prins (Series 2).
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into the following 6 series:

Series 1. Fieldwork and drafts, 1940-2011 (bulk 1940-1959)

Series 2. Research and project files, 1940-2011

Series 3. Correspondence, circa 1938-2011

Series 4. Publications and lectures, circa 1942-circa 2006

Series 5. Personal, 1942-2011

Series 6. Writings by others, 1960-2009, undated
Biographical Note:
Edmund Snow Carpenter (1922-2011) was an archaeologist and visual anthropologist who worked extensively with the indigenous peoples of the Canadian Arctic and Papua New Guinea. With his colleague and close collaborator Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), he laid the groundwork for modern media theory. Carpenter is also known for his work as an ethnographic filmmaker and as a collector of Paleo-Eskimo art.

Born in 1922 in Rochester, New York, Edmund (nicknamed "Ted") Carpenter served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II before receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1950 under Frank Speck for work on Iroquoian prehistoric archaeology. Carpenter began teaching at the University of Toronto in 1948 while simultaneously working as a programmer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). In the 1950s, he undertook fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic among the Aivilik (an Inuit Igloolik subgroup). This fieldwork resulted in several publications in the field of cultural anthropology, including Time/Space Concepts of the Aivilik (1955), Anerca (1959), and Eskimo (1959, republished as Eskimo Realities in 1973).

Also in the 1950s, Carpenter began a working relationship with media theorist Marshall McLuhan. Together, they received a Ford Foundation grant (1953-1955) for an interdisciplinary media research project into the impact of mass communications and mass media on culture change. Carpenter and McLuhan's partnership resulted in the Seminar on Culture and Communication (1953-1959) and the journal series Explorations. In 1957, Carpenter was the founding chair in the interdisciplinary program "Anthropology and Art" at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge). There, he collaborated with Bess Lomax Hawes and other colleagues in the production of several ethnographic films, including Georgia Sea Island Singers about Gullah (or Geechee) songs and dances. During this period, Carpenter worked with McLuhan on the latter's seminal book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). The article published as "Fashion is Language" in Harper's Bazaar under McLuhan's name (1968) was actually written by Carpenter. It was later published in book form under Carpenter's name, with the title They Became What They Beheld (1970).

In 1969, Carpenter took a research professorship at the University of Papua and New Guinea sponsored by the government of Australia. Alongside photographer Adelaide De Menil (whom he would later marry), he applied many of the ideas about media literacy and culture change to indigenous communities of Papua New Guinea. These activities led to developments in the field of media ecology, as well as the publication of Carpenter's best-known work, Oh, What a Blow the Phantom Gave Me! (1976).

Carpenter taught intermittently at various universities throughout his career, including Fordham University, the University of California-Santa Cruz, Adelphi University, Harvard University's Center for Visual Anthropology, the New School for Social Research, and New York University. He spent eight years associated with the Museum of Ethnology in Basel, Switzerland (1973-1981), editing art historian Carl Schuster's research.

In addition to his teaching and research, Carpenter, with his wife Adelaide De Menil, collected tribal art, eventually amassing the largest private collection of Paleo-Eskimo art in the United States. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Carpenter curated various exhibitions on art and visual culture, including the Menil Collection's Witness to a Surrealist Vision and the Musée du Quai Branly's Upside Down (later reconstructed at the Menil Collection). In later years, Carpenter resumed his archaeological interest in Arctic peoples, researching and collaborating on the Zhokhov Island Mesolithic site in the Russian Arctic with Russian scientists from the Institute for the History of Material Culture and archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.

Carpenter died on July 1, 2011 at his home in New York.

Sources consulted:

"Edmund Snow Carpenter." https://edmundsnowcarpenter.com/about

Grimes, William. "Edmund Carpenter, Archaeologist and Anthropologist, Dies at 88." The New York Times. 2011 July 7. https://www.nytimes.com

Prins, Harald E. L. and John Bishop. "Edmund Carpenter: Explorations in Media and Anthropology." Visual Anthropology Review 17:2 (Fall-Winter 2001-2002): 110-140.

Chronology

1922 September 2 -- Born in Rochester, New York

circa 1940-1941 -- Archaeological field work, Sugar Run mounds, Pennsylvania

1942-1946 -- Served in the United States Marine Corps

1948-1957 -- Anthropology Department, University of Toronto

circa 1950 -- Began work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

1950 -- Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania (Anthropology)

1950s -- Fieldwork among the Aivilik Inuit

1953-1959 -- Ran the Seminar on Culture and Communication with Marshall McLuhan

1957-1967 -- "Anthropology and Art" program at San Fernando Valley State College (California State University, Northridge)

1967-1968 -- Schweitzer Chair, Fordham University (with Marshall McLuhan)

1968-1969 -- Carnegie Chair in Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz

1969-1970 -- Research Professor, University of Papua and New Guinea

1973-1981 -- Associated with the Museum of Ethnology in Basel, Switzerland for Carl Schuster papers project

circa 1989-2005 -- Collaboration regarding Zhokov Island archaeological site

2011 July 1 -- Died in East Hampton, New York
Separated Materials:
Film and video recordings are retained by the Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) as the Edmund Carpenter-Adelaide de Menil Collection (HSFA 2004-04).
Provenance:
The Edmund Snow Carpenter papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives in 2017 by Adelaide de Menil on behalf of the Rock Foundation.
Restrictions:
The Edmund Snow Carpenter papers are open for research.

Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.

Digital media in the collection is restricted for preservation reasons.

Access to the Edmund Snow Carpenter papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Archaeology  Search this
Cartography  Search this
Ethnographic films  Search this
Indigenous art  Search this
Inuit art  Search this
Menil Collection (Houston, Tex.)  Search this
Museum exhibits  Search this
Paleo-Eskimos  Search this
Visual anthropology  Search this
Citation:
Edmund Snow Carpenter papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Identifier:
NAA.2017-27
See more items in:
Edmund Snow Carpenter papers
Archival Repository:
National Anthropological Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3d15a171a-af5d-4b66-914f-55bc819d7b76
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-naa-2017-27
Online Media:

Necklace

Donor Name:
Victor J. Evans  Search this
Culture:
Eskimo, Inuit, Inuinnait (Copper)  Search this
Object Type:
Necklace
Place:
Canada, North America
Accession Date:
20 Mar 1931
Topic:
Ethnology  Search this
Accession Number:
113605
USNM Number:
E359200-0
See more items in:
Anthropology
Data Source:
NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/362c5b9fb-7ddd-473e-bfea-d1de7556b54d
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8405871
Online Media:

A history of the original peoples of northern Canada [by] Keith J. Crowe

Author:
Crowe, Keith J  Search this
Author:
Arctic Institute of North America  Search this
Physical description:
226 pages illustrations 23 cm
Type:
Books
History
Place:
Canada, Northern
Canada
Amérique du Nord
Canada du Nord
Canada (Nord)
Northern Canada
Kanada
Nord
Kanada (Nord)
Date:
1974
Topic:
History  Search this
Inuit--History  Search this
Inuit  Search this
Indiens--Histoire  Search this
Inuits--Histoire  Search this
Indiens d'Amérique--Histoire  Search this
Indians of North America  Search this
Geschichte  Search this
Indigenes Volk  Search this
Inheemse volken  Search this
Ureinwohner  Search this
Histoire  Search this
Canada, Northern--History  Search this
Indians of North America--Canada, Northern--History  Search this
Inuit--Canada--History  Search this
Call number:
E78.C2 C76X
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_47574

Skins : contemporary indigenous writing / compiled by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and Josie Douglas

Author:
Akiwenzie-Damm, Kateri 1965-  Search this
Douglas, Josie 1970-  Search this
Physical description:
x, 177 p. ; 24 cm
Type:
Books
Date:
2000
C2000
20th century
Topic:
Short stories, Australian--Aboriginal Australian authors  Search this
Short stories, New Zealand--Maori authors  Search this
American fiction--Indian authors  Search this
Australian fiction  Search this
New Zealand fiction  Search this
American fiction  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_797782

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