50 Stereographs (circa 50 printed stereographs, halftone and color halftone)
1,000 Stereographs (circa, albumen and silver gelatin (some tinted))
239 Prints (circa 239 mounted and unmounted prints, albumen (including cartes de visite, imperial cards, cabinet cards, and one tinted print) and silver gelatin (some modern copies))
96 Prints (Album :, silver gelatin)
21 Postcards (silver gelatin, collotype, color halftone, and halftone)
Photographs relating to Native Americans or frontier themes, including portraits, expedition photographs, landscapes, and other images of dwellings, transportation, totem poles, ceremonies, infants and children in cradleboards, camps and towns, hunting and fishing, wild west shows, food preparation, funeral customs, the US Army and army posts, cliff dwellings, and grave mounds and excavations. The collection also includes images of prisoners at Fort Marion in 1875, Sioux Indians involved in the Great Sioux Uprising in Minnesota, the Fort Laramie Peace Commission of 1868, Sitting Bull and his followers after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
There are studio portraits of well-known Native Americans, including American Horse, Big Bow, Four Bears, Iron Bull, Ouray, Red Cloud, Red Dog, Red Shirt, Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail, Three Bears, and Two Guns White Calf. Depicted delegations include a Sauk and Fox meeting in Washington, DC, with Lewis V. Bogy and Charles E. Mix in 1867; Kiowas and Cheyennes at the White House in 1863; and Dakotas and Crows who visited President Warren G. Harding in 1921. Images of schools show Worcester Academy in Vinita, Oklahoma; Chilocco Indian School; Carlisle Indian Industrial School; Haskell Instittue, and Albuquerque Indian School.
Some photographs relate to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, 1876; World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893; Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, 1903; and Centennial Exposition of the Baltimore and Ohio Railraod, 1876. Expedition photographs show the Crook expedition of 1876, the Sanderson expedition to the Custer Battlefield in 1877, the Wheeler Survey of the 1870s, Powell's surveys of the Rocky Mountain region during the 1860s and 1870s, and the Hayden Surveys.
Outstanding single views include the party of Zuni group led to the sea by Frank Hamilton Cushing; Episcopal Church Rectory and School Building, Yankton Agency; Matilda Coxe Stevenson and a companion taking a photographs of a Zuni ceremony; John Moran sketching at Acoma; Ben H. Gurnsey's studio with Indian patrons; Quapaw Mission; baptism of a group of Paiutes at Coeur d'Alene Mission; court-martial commission involved in the trial of Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds, 1877; President Harding at Sitka, Alaska; Walter Hough at Hopi in 1902; and Mrs. Jesse Walter Fewkes at Hopi in 1897.
Biographical/Historical note:
George V. Allen was an attorney in Lawrence, Kansas and an early member of the National Stereoscope Association. Between the 1950s and 1980s, Allen made an extensive collection of photographs of the American West, mostly in stereographs, but also including cartes-de-visite and other styles of mounted prints, photogravures, lantern slides, autochromes, and glass negatives.
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Citation:
Photo Lot 90-1, George V. Allen collection of photographs of Native Americans and the American frontier, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The collection consists of forty-two (42) drawings created for the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey by Johnson Kelly Duncan, Gustav(us) Sohon, and John Mix Stanley. The majority of the drawings are portraits.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three series by artist: (1) Johnson Kelly Duncan, 1853-1854; (2) Gustav Sohon, 1853-1854; and (3) John Mix Stanley, 1853.
Historical Note:
The Pacific Railroad Surveys (1853–1855) were a series of five explorations designed to find and document possible routes for a transcontinental railroad across North America. The expeditions included surveyors, scientists, and artists and resulted in an immense body of data on the geology, zoology, botany, paleontology of the land as well as ethnographic descriptions of Native peoples.
The Northern Pacific survey, led by Isaac Stevens, traveled between the 47th and 49th parallel from St. Paul, Minnesota to the Puget Sound. Artists documenting the survey included chief artist John Mix Stanley (1814-1872); astronomer, topographer, and artist Johnson Kelly Duncan (1827-1862); and assistant artist Gustav (or Gustavus) Sohon (1825-1903).
Local Numbers:
USNM Accession Number 13050
USNM Catalog Number 130305
Related Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds additional drawings created by Sohon in MS 385668.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Works of art
Drawings
Watercolors
Citation:
Northern Pacific Railroad Survey drawings, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The collection consists of twenty-five (25) drawings in pencil, ink and watercolor by Gustav Sohon. The drawings depict landscapes, missions, forts, council meeting scenes, and native life in the Northwest Plateau. There is also one sketch map.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Biographical Note:
Gustav Sohon, also known as Gustavus Sohon and Gustave Sohon, (1825–1903) was an artist, photographer, interpreter, and topographical assistant best known for his pencil sketches and watercolors of the native people and landscapes of the American Northwest.
Sohon was born in 1825 in Tilsit, East Prussia, and immigrated to the United States in 1842. In the early 1850s, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Over the following decade, he accompanied four historic expeditions across Eastern Washington -- the 1853-1854 Pacific railroad survey, the 1855 treaty tour of Governor Isaac Stevens, the 1858 military campaign of Colonel George Wright against the Plateau tribes, and the construction of a wagon road across the Bitterroot and Rocky Mountains by John Mullan from 1859 to 1862. During this period, Sohon served as an artist, guide, interpreter, and cartographer.
After the completion of Mullan's Road, Sohon accompanied Mullan to Washington, D.C., to assist in the preparation of topographical data, maps, and illustrations for a report on the road's construction. He later operated a photogaphy studio in San Francisco and a shoe business in Washington, D.C. Sohon died in Washington, D.C. in 1903.
Related Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds additional drawings by Gustav Sohon in Northern Pacific Railroad Survey drawings (MS 130305) and vocabularies collected by Sohon in MS 4306-a, MS 4306-b, and MS 4306-c.
This collection consists of 534 glass lantern slides depicting Indigenous groups throughout North America. It also includes a small number of publications written by Elmer E. Higley and others about Native Americans and missionary work during the early twentieth century.
Scope and Contents:
The Elmer E. Higley collection consists of both Lantern Slides and Printed Materials. Series 1: Lantern Slides, 1900-1924, includes 534 glass lantern slides, many hand-colored. The lantern slides were used by Higley in lectures to promote his missionary and reform work with the Joint Committee on Indian Work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was the Superintendent from 1919 to 1923. While Higley was the photographer of some of the lantern slide images, specifically those taken in Mesa Verde, the majority of the photographs were not taken by Higley, but rather collected by him for use in his lectures as he traveled around the country. Series 2: Printed Materials, 1914-1968, includes a small number of early twentieth-century publications written by Higley and others about Native Americans and missionary work in the United States during this time.
Please note that the language and terminology used in this collection reflects the context and culture of the time of its creation, and may include culturally sensitive information. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into two series. Series 1: Lantern Slides, 1900-1924 and Series 2: Printed Materials, 1914-1968.
Biographical / Historical:
Elmer Ellsworth Higley was born in Ohio in 1867. He attended high school and college in northwestern Pennsylvania before marrying Alice C. Dowler in 1892. Higley later also attended the Drew Theological Seminary and afterwards worked as a pastor in a number of Methodist churches around the country. In approximately 1919 Higley was appointed Superintendent of the Joint Committee on Indian Work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with his office based in Chicago, Illinois. Employed in this work until 1923, Higley traveled the United States, visiting Native reservations and promoting Christian reform efforts for American Indian education. While traveling, Higley frequently presented illustrated lectures on his missionary work to audiences, using the glass lantern slides now residing in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. In the years after 1923, Higley continued as a pastor in both Ames, Iowa, and Evanston, Illinois, the latter where he eventually died in 1931.
Provenance:
Gift of Mrs. R. S. Jensen and Family in 2018 and 2019.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Some photographs in this colletion are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Elmer E. Higley collection, NMAI.AC.228; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
1. Lillooet ("Lilowat") vocabulary. March 16, 1859. 8 pages in notebook. Note on page 3: "The Lilowat is spoken on the river which feeds Harrison's Lake, a branch of Fraser River. The vocabulary was obtained from the chief of a village at the mouth through Skehukl, the Soomass [Sumass: dialect of Cowichan group of Coast Salish], and may be relied on as tolerably accurate." The Lillooet River feeds into Harrison Lake. The Interior Salish dialect for west British Columbia is referred to as "Lillooet" in Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
2. "Saamena"vocabularies. 1858 and no date. 10 pages in notebook. Two vocabularies: Vocabulary of the "Saamena or as it is called by the Canadians, "Couteau," was obtained at Fort Hope, Mch. 4, 1858 from Kwee-tah-lich-kan, son of Pa-haa-luk, the Chief of the Kletch-ah-meh'h village at Forks of Fraser & Thompson's Rivers." 7 pages. Includes names for varieties of salmon in "Soomass" (Sumass) and Saamena. pages 12-19. Vocabulary obtained from Te-o-sa-luk, a Saamena of the Chileweyech [--?--]," no date. 3 pages. On page 1 note in Mooney's hand: "alias Nientemewh." Page 11 marked "copied".
3. "Yukeh" vocabulary. No place or date recorded. 3 pages in notebook. The word "Ross" follows the name "Yukeh." This refers to note on page iv: Mr Edward Ross says that the Yukehs have no numerals above five; thus they would say o'-pe mahote, twice five, for ten."
4. "Tai-eet vocabulary. Fort Hope, 1850. 10 pages in notebook. "The following vocabulary of the Tai-eet was obtained at Fort Hope, Sept. 25, 1850 from two men and a woman. It is the dialect intervening between the Kwantlen and the Saamena on Fraser River." page 25.
5. "Nevada or Yuba (Ross)" vocabulary. No date. 2 pages in notebook, pages 35-36. Possibly copied from Ross (?).
6. "Chilowhe'huk (Chilliwack) vocabulary. 4 pages in notebook, pages 36-39. No date. "Not completed as it does not differ sufficiently from the Kwantlen & neighboring dialects in Fraser River to make it an object." Chilliwack belongs to the Cowichan group of Coast dialects, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
7. "Hailt-zuk or Belbella" vocabulary" obtained at Victoria, April 26, 1859, from Capt. Stewart." 10 pages in notebook, pages 40-42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54. Note on page 40: "...obtained at Victoria, April 26, 1859, from "Capt. Stewart" and Indian of the tribe through the medium of Frederic Minni, a Canadian, who partially spoke the language. It is generally reliable...." Page 41 marked "copied;" Another copy by Gibbs of this vocabulary in Ms. Number.
8. "Bel-le-whil-la or Bel'hoo-la" vocabulary. Victoria. 1859. 10 pages in notebook, pages 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 56. Note on page 56: "The vocabulary of the Belhoola was obtained from a woman of that tribe with the assistance of the Indian Stewart through the means of the Belbella vocabulary (cf. 277, part 7). With the exception of a very few words, my rendering of the latter [Belbella] was perfectly intelligible to her. The principal difficulty experienced in this was the excessively gutteral pronounciation of the language. I have classed this without hesitation among the Flathead languages from its obvious analogies. Some words, identical with those of the Belbella are marked with an asterisk. These are probably borrowed the one from the other, or perhaps were given by the woman from having mixed with the Belbellas." Page 41 marked "copied." 8-a Words obtained by Mackenzie at "Friendly Village," page 57.
9-10. Vocabularies of the "Okina'kane (O-Kin-ah-kehn[=Okinagan]) & Similkameen." 1853 & 1859. 17 pages in notebook, pages 58-74. "The incomplete vocabulary of the Okinakane was obtained in 1853. That of the Similkameen in 1859 and the latter is to be retained in place of the first as much more reliable. Given by "Sam" the guide employed by the N.W.B.S." The contents at the beginning of this volume has penciled note indicating that "Okinakane" and "Similkameen" are two dialects of one language.--page 1, note in hand of Mooney.
11. "Additional forms in Yakima," from Rev Marie Charles Pandosy, No date. 1 page in notebook, page 75.
12. "Piskwowse or Winatsha" vocabulary obtained 1853 and revised in 1860. 14 pages in notebook, pages 76-90, & 201. Note on page 76: "Revised at Ft. Colville, March 1860, by the assistance of Lahome's daughter. I have not however confidence in its being entirely correct. There may have been a difference in dialect between her and the first interpreter." Marked "copied" on page 76. Originally a Salish tribe, "Gibbs states that by 1853 they were so largely intermarried with the Yakima as to have almost lost their identity." page 264 of Handbook of American Indians. Page 201 has list of Winatsha Indians in 1853.
13. Vocabulary obtained from Spokane Gerry in 1854. 13 pages in notebook, pages 91-104. Marked "copied" on page 91.
14. Klikatat vocabulary obtained from Yahotowit in 1854. Copy by Gibbs of his original vocabulary, 15 pages in notebook, pages 105-119 and 222. Note in Gibbs' hand: "I am not certain that this is unmixed with the Yakama, as it resembles more closely two vocabularies of that dialect which I obtained then I have been led to expect. It was received from Ya-ho-tow-it." Apparently a copy by Gibbs from his original in Manuscript Number 671. Another copy by Gibbs is cataloged as Manuscript Number 693.
14. "Klikatat" vocabulary, copied from (?) "Tolmie." No date. 1 page in notebook, page 222. 15 Kalispel or Pend Oreille vocabulary, 1860. 15 pages in notebook, pages 119-133. "...vocabulary of the Kalispelm or Pend Oreille obtained from a man at Colville Depot, Jany., 1860. It is spoken by the Indians of Clarke's Fork of the Columbia River." Page 119 marked "copied."
16. "Shoos-whap or She-whap-much" vocabulary, 1860. 15 pages in notebook, pages 134-138. "Obtained at Colville Depot, Jany., 1860 from a woman by the assistance of the man from which the foregoing of the Kalispeln was derived [Manuscript Number 227, part 15], and using that in interpreting. Page 134 marked "copied."
17. "Chepewyan vocabulary" extracted from MacKenzie." No date. 7 pages in notebook, pages 149, 150, 152, 154, 156, 158, 160, 162.
18-19. "Knistinaux" (Cree) (18) and "Algonquin" (19) vocabulary "extracted from MacKenzie." 8 pages in notebook, pages 149, 151, 153, 155, 157, 161, 163.
20. "Kootenay" vocabulary. Place and date not recorded, 33 pages in notebook, pages 164-198, not including page 186 and 192. Page 164 is marked "copied." A copy by Gibbs of this vocabulary, pages 164-176 is filed Manuscript 512 with the note that this vocabulary "was taken from the son of the chief at the Chelenta Depot (Che-tam-towse)" with help of half breed interpreter; "I think the vocabulary can be relied on." Also note in Manuscript Number 512: "additional words of the Algonquin Kootenay in the book." This probably refers to pages 177-198 in Manuscript Number 227. Manuscript Number 512 contains 1 page of "Additional words in Kootenay" not found in Number 227.
21. Vocabulary of the Kalispel & Flathead including geographical names, No date. 2 pages in notebook, pages 199-200.
22. "Similkameen", dialect of the Okinagan, vocabulary, No date,. 9 pages in notebook, pages 202-210. Note in Mooney's hand on page 1 says Okinakane and Similkameen are 2 dialects of 1 language. Note on page 202: "Sam says that the Similkameen, Okin-a-kane, Sin-ke-mah-pe-luks, Skla-kum Methone; Che-lehn, Sin-pai-li-hooch; Se-leh-nich, Sins-peh-lich; Swoi-yehlp, Sche-wuch-hooch all understand one another but not the Soushwap & Couteaux." Sam was informant in 1853, cf. 227, part 10.
23. "Nooksaak" ("Nooksahk") vocabulary. June, 1859. 2 pages in notebook, pages 211 & 228. The Nooksak is a dialect of Squawmish coast group, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
24. "Soomass" vocabulary. Place and date not recorded. 3 pages in notebook, pages 212-214. Sumass is a dialect of the Cowichan group of coast dialects, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
25. "Simiahmoo" vocabulary: animals and proper names. 1 page in notebook, page 215. No date. The Semiahmoo is a dialect of the Songish coast group, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
26. "Saamena" vocabulary. 1 page in notebook, page 216. No date.
27. Skagit vocabulary "(vide Dr Craig's corrections)." No date. 1 page in notebook, page 217. Skagit is a dialect of the Nisqualli group of coast dialects, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
28. "Simiahmoo" vocabulary of 10 terms. Date and place not recorded. 1 page in notebook, page 218. The Semiahmoo is a dialect of the Songish coast group, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
29. "Chiloweyuck" vocabulary. Date and place not recorded. 2 pages in notebook, pages 218 & 223. Chilliwack is a dialect of the Cowichan coast group, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
30. "Nisqually" vocabulary. October, 1858. 6 pages in notebook, pages 219-221, 223 & 226. Note on page 219, "copied."
31. Chehalis vocabulary of 8 words. (Terms for salmon.) No date. page 222. Chinook vocabulary of 9 terms. (Terms for salmon.) No date. Page 224 in notebook. "Cowlitz" vocabulary of 5 terms. (Terms for salmon.) Page 224 in notebook. No date.
32. "Toanhooch" vocabulary. No date. 1 page in notebook, page 227; only 4 terms are recorded.
33. Chimakum- Not filled in; English only.
34. Kwillehyuts- Not filled in; English only.
35. Kwinaiutl- Not filled in; English only.
36. Noo-so-lupsh- Not filled in; English only.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 227
Local Note:
Notes by Gibbs on the source of many of the Salishan vocabularies in this volume are catalogued under Numbers 735 and 742.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Manuscript 227, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded by the National Science Foundation under BCS Grant No. 1561167 and the Recovering Voices initiative at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
Photograph albums prepared by the Bureau of American Ethnology or the photographic lab, possibly for reference purposes by staff. The use of such albums has been mentioned by BAE photographer De Lancey W. Gill. The albums contain photographs made from the Bureau of American Ethnology's collection of negatives, documenting Apache, Arapaho, Assiniboin, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cocopa, Dakota, Flathead, Fox, Iowa, Kalispel, Kiowa Apache, Nez Perce, Omaha, Osage, Ponca, Santa Clara, Sauk, Shoshoni, Spokane Tonkawa, Wichita, and Winnebago people. The bulk of the photographs are studio portraits, made at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898 or during delegation visits to Washington, DC. There are also other photographs made during Victor Mindeleffʹs work in Chaco Canyon, and on W J McGeeʹs expedition to Sonora, Mexico, in 1900.
Photographers include Charles Milton Bell, William Dinwiddie, Alexander Gardner, De Lancey W. Gill, John K. Hillers, William Henry Jackson, Frank Albert Rinehart, Wells Moses Sawyer, Antonio Zeno Shindler, Victor or Cosmos Mindeleff, Julian Vannerson with Samuel A. Cohner. Included are negative numbers formerly used by BAE, but the National Anthropological Archives also annotated them with current negative numbers.
Arrangement note:
Titles of the albums are (1) Omaha and Winnebago; (2) miscellaneous; (3) Sauk and Fox; (4) miscellaneous; (5) Arapaho and Cheyenne; (6) Chiricahua, San Carlos, and Apache; (7) Sauk and Fox; (8) Osage, Shoshoni and Nez Perce, Siouan, Oto; (9) Santa Clara and Flathead; (10) Ponca; (11) Sauk and (12) Wichita and Kiowa Apache; (13) Cocopa; and (14) Assiniboin and Blackfoot
Biographical/Historical note:
The Bureau of American Ethnology was founded in 1879 in part as a result of the federal geological surveys and under the administration of the Smithsonian Institution. Under the directorship of John Wesley Powell (1879-1902), the BAE supported field research by its staff and collaborators, initiated several anthropological publications, and supported the growth of the anthropological discipline, particularly as it related to Native Americans. In addition to its research and publications program, it developed a manuscript repository, library, and an illustrations section that included (in addition to the preparation of artwork for publications) photography and a photographic collection. The BAE commissioned studio portraits of visiting Indian delegates and hired De Lancey Gill served as the its official photographer and illustrator from the 1890s to 1930.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 60
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives also holds the Bureau of American Ethnology records and the BAE historical negatives, as well as Dinwiddie photographs of the W. J. McGee expeditions are held in (Photo Lot 89 and Photo Lot 144), Charles Milton Bell photographs (Photo Lot 80), and additional photographs by most photographers represented in this collection (Photo Lot 59 and Photo Lot 90-1)
See others in:
Bureau of American Ethnology photograph albums of Native Americans, 1858-1905
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina
Date:
1932-1958
Summary:
These are the papers of Washington, D.C. attorney James E. Curry, whose legal career included work both as a government attorney and in his own private practice. The bulk of the papers reflect his private practice in the area of Indian affairs.
Scope and Contents:
The material in the collection includes documents relating to many aspects of Curry's career but most of it relates to his work with Indian tribes and the National Congress of American Indians. For the most, the collection is made up of such materials as letters exchanged with government officials, Indians, and other attorneys; copies of legal documents; published government documents; notes; and clippings and other printed materials. Of particular significance is a subject file relating to Indian affairs. It includes material concerning affairs of Alaskan natives and the Aleut (Akutan, Pribilof Islands), Apache (including Fort Sill, Jicarilla, Mescalero, San Carlos White Mountain), Arapaho (Southern), Assiniboine (Fort Belknap, Fort Peck), Bannock (including Fort Hall), Blackfeet, Caddo, Catawba, Cherokee (Eastern), Cheyenne (Northern, Southern), Chickahominy, Chickasaw, Chippewa (including Lac Courte Oreilles), Choctaw, Cochiti, Cocopa, Coeur d'Alene, Colville, Comanche, Creek, Croatan, Crow, Dakota (Big Foot, Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Devil's Lake, Flandreau, Fort Totten, Lower Brule, Mdewakanton, Oglala, Rosebud, Santee, Sisseton-Wahpeton, Standing Rock, Yankton), Delaware, Eskimo (including Gambell, Kiana), Flathead, Fox, Haida (including Kasaan), Havasupai, Hopi, Iroquois (Caughnawaga, Seneca, St. Regis), Isleta, Jemez, Kalilspel, Kansa (Kaw), Kickapoo, Kiowa, Klamath, Kutenai, Laguna, Lummi, Maricopa (Gila River, Salt River), Menominee, Missouria, Mohave (Fort Mohave), Mohave Apache (Fort McDowell), Muckleshoot, Navaho, Nez Perce, Niska, Nooksak, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Papago, Paiute (Fallon, Fort McDermitt), Moapa, Pyramid Lake, Shivwits, Walker River, Yerington), Pima (Gila River, Salt River), Potowatomi, Quinaielt, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Sandia, Sauk, Seminole (Florida, Oklahoma), Seneca, Seri, Shawnee (Eastern), Shoshoni (including Fort Hall), Sia, Spokan, Stockbridge, Taos (Pyote clan), Tesuque, Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa), Tillamook, Tlingit (including Angoon, Craig, Juneau, Kake, Ketchikan, Klawak, Klukwan, Taku, Wrangell), Tsimshian (Metlakatla), Umatilla, Ute (including Uintah-Ouray), Walapai, Washo, Wesort, Winnebago, Wyandot, Yakima, Yaqui, Yavapai, Yuma, and Zuni. There are also materials relating to Curry's work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Congress of American Indians, and material that reflects his interest in conditions and events in given locations (often filed by state) and in organizations with interest in Indians. The material relating to Curry's work in Puerto Rico has been deposited in the Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, in San Juan.
Arrangement note:
The James E. Curry Papershave been arranged into 6 series: (1) Daily Chronological Files, 1941-1955; (2) Subject Files Regarding Indian Affairs, bulk 1935-1955; (3) Miscellaneous Files Regarding Indian Affairs, bulk 1947-1953; (4) Non-Indian Affairs, n.d.; (5) Puerto Rico Work, 1941-1947; (6) Miscellany, undated.
Biographical/Historical note:
James E. Curry was trained in law in Chicago and practiced in that city from 1930 until 1936, serving part of that time as secretary of the local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. From 1936 to 1938, he was an attorney with the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs, being largely involved with matters of credit affecting Indians. From 1938 to 1942, he continued service with the Interior Department but worked in several capacities involving the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, the department's Consumers' Counsel Division, and the Puerto Rico Water Resources Authority.
In 1945, Curry returned to Washington and set up private practice, also maintaining for a time an office in Puerto Rico. In Washington, he became the attorney for the National Congress of American Indians and from that time until the 1950s his practice increasingly involved representation of American Indian tribes, mostly in claims against the federal government. In this work, for a time, he was involved in business relations with a New York Law firm that included Henry Cohen, Felix Cohen, and Jonathan Bingham.
He also often worked closely with lawyers who lived near the tribes he represented, William L. Paul, Jr., of Alaska, for example. This aspect of his practice--representing Indian tribes--was largely broken up during the early 1950s when the Commissioner of Indian Affairs began to use his powers to disapprove contracts between Curry and the tribes. In 1952 and 1953, his official relationship with the National Congress of American Indians was also ended. After this, while Curry continued until his death to act as a consultant in Indian claims with which he had earlier been involved, his career and life developed in a different direction.
Related Materials:
Additional material relating to James E. Curry can be found in the records of the National Congress of American Indians, also located at the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center.
Provenance:
The Curry papers were originally donated to the National Anthropological Archives by James E. Curry's daughter Mrs. Aileen Curry-Cloonan in December 1973. In 2007 The Curry papers were transferred from the National Anthropological Archives to the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center along with several other records concerning American Indian law and political rights.
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 broadbast 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.
Genre/Form:
Notes
Letters
Clippings
Legal documents
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); James E. Curry papers, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographs depicting tribal delegates, probably made by Robert M. Farring during tribal group visits to the Bureau of Indian Affairs Washington office. Many of the photographs were originally mounted in notebooks with identification of pictured individuals and their affiliations.
Biographical/Historical note:
Robert M. Farring, Jr. is an employee in the Tribal Operations office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 85-21
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs of Native American delegations can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 4286, MS 4638, Photo Lot 87-2P, Photo Lot 90-1, and the BAE historical negatives.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
1890
Scope and Contents:
Replies to correspondence (circular letter) sent to various Indian Agencies relative to marriage customs among the various Indian tribes. The tribes represented are: Flathead, Kalispel, Kootenai, Mescalero Apache, Navaho, Oto, Pend d Oreille, and Shoshoni.
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.
Topic:
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.
This series includes eight folio plates and eight octavo plates depicting Salish (Flathead), Kalispel (Pend d'Oreilles), Yakama (Yakima), and Spokan men and women as well as a Spokan camp. It also has eight proofs made by Classic Gravure from folio plates in the collection.
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.
Collection 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.
This subseries contains 7 glass lantern slides from the Great Basin / Plateau region. Communities depicted include the Kalispel (Pend d'Oreilles), Wasco, and Yakama (Yakima) peoples.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Some photographs in this colletion are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Elmer E. Higley collection, NMAI.AC.228; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
