This collection consists of photographic views made by William Stiles in New York, Rhode Island, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Newfoundland and Quebec, among the Attikamekw (Tete De Boule Cree), Eastern Band of Cherokee, Innu, Miccosukee Seminole (Mikasuki), Mohawk [Kahnawake (Caughnawaga)], Mushuaunnuat (Barren Ground Naskapi) [Utshimassit (Davis Inlet)], Narragansett, Niantic, Onondaga, Seminole, and Seneca communities. These were made while Stiles was a staff member of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation from 1938-1974.
Scope and Contents:
The Stiles collection consists of photographs and films made by William Stiles on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation from 1938 to 1974. More than half of these document the life of Innu peoples of Quebec, Canada, in the years 1952, 1958, 1959, and 1964. They depict Innu men, women, and children, and food preparation, dwellings, fishing, canoes, settlements, the preparation of animal skins, and ceremonials. Stiles photographed among the Seminole and Miccosukee peoples of Florida in 1939, 1940, 1941, 1966, and 1974. He also variously photographed the Narragansett and Niantic peoples of Rhode Island, the Onondaga on the Onondaga Reservation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina, the Seneca of New York, the Attikamekw (Tete De Boule Cree) and the Mohawk of Quebec, and the Mushuaunnuat of Labrador. He also photographed various archaeological sites in New York State, Mississippi, and South Carolina. There are also two 8mm film reels titled "Nascapi Indians at Davis Inlet, Labrador, New Foundland" that were made in the summer of 1965.
This collection has been intelectually arranged into four series and subseries geographically and then chronologically within each subseries.
Series 1: Expedtions in New York, 1938-1973; Series 2: Expeditions in Canada, 1940-1965; Series 3: Expeditions in the Southeastern, United States, 1939-1974; Series 4: Nebraska, Rhode Island and Other Locations, 1939-1942, undated.
Physically arranged by negative "N", print "P" or slide "S" number.
Biographical/Historical note:
Before joining the staff of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in May 1938, William F. Stiles was George G. Heye's personal driver. An employee of the Museum for almost forty years, Stiles retired in March 1978 as the Curator of Collections. Although Stiles published very little, he was an active field collector and participated in numerous archaeological expeditions. As is evident from his photographs of the Innu and Seminole peoples, he often visited individual communities more than once and over the course of several years.
Stiles Expeditions for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation
1938 Summer -- Cayuga County Expedition.
1939 October -- Expedition to Pennsylvania and New York.
1939 November – 1940 January -- F. K. Seward and William F. Stiles Florida Expedition.
1941 -- Trip to North Carolina and Florida.
1942 -- Trip to Putnam County, New York.
1946 -- Expedition to Mississippi.
1952 June -- Expedition to Québec, Canada.
1953 June-July -- Expedition to Québec, Canada.
1957 July -- Expedition along St. Lawrence River, Canada.
1959 August -- Expedition to Québec, Canada.
1960-1967 -- William F. Stiles Southeast Expedition. Stiles began expeditions to the Southeastern U.S. in Spring and Fall of 1960. He returned to the Southeast each Oct - Nov. through 1966 conducting investigations and excavations in South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and North Carolina and Florida returning to some sites multiple times.
1961-1965 -- William F. Stiles Savannah Farms Expedition. Preliminary investigation began in Nov 1961 and work continued each year during the fall until 1965.
1964 May-June -- Expedition to Québec, Canada.
1965 June-July -- Stanley R. Grant Naskapi Expedition to Davis Inlet, Labrador, Canada.
1966 June-July -- Expedition to Labrador, Newfoundland, and Québec, Canada
1972 October -- Expedition to Seneca Reservations, New York.
1972 October-December -- Expedition to Tennessee.
1973 April -- Expedition to Seneca Reservations, New York.
1974 November -- Expedition to the Southeast: North Carolina and Florida.
Separated Materials:
Correspondence and field notes from William Stiles can be found in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation records in Box 200.13, Box 201.7, Box 274.3-275.9, Box 305.1-305.2, Box 307.21, Box 312.11-312.17.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Excavations (Archaeology) -- Mississippi Search this
Indians of North America -- New York (State) Search this
Indians of North America -- Rhode Island Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New York (State) Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- South Carolina Search this
Genre/Form:
Negatives
Photographic prints
Color slides
Photographs
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William F. Stiles collection of photographs and films, NMAI.AC.001.014, item #; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The Leuman Maurice Waugh collection contains papers, photographs, and film holdings that were created by Waugh during his dental research expeditions to indigenous communities in Newfoundland and Labrador in eastern Canada and in Arctic Alaska.
Scope and Contents:
The Leuman Maurice Waugh collection contains materials created and compiled by Dr. Leuman Waugh during his research expeditions to Arctic Alaska and the Newfoundland and Labrador regions of Eastern, Canada circa 1909-1963. During these trips, Waugh studied the dental health of Indigenous communities in the region and treated patients.
The collection contains materials that were created and collected by Waugh during his research trips and include raw dental data and community census information; professional and personal correspondence; clippings, articles, and essays; reports and lectures; logistics and trip planning documents; postcards; journals; and sketches and drawings, among other materials.
The collection also contains over 4,000 photographs and 80 16mm film reels that were shot by Waugh during his research trips and document his work with Indigenous communities in Alaska and eastern Canada.
Arrangement note:
Waugh's original order was disturbed over the years after his death and during transfer from the Waugh family to the Rankin Museum. NMAI archivists elected to arrange the collection chronologically.
The records are organized in the following series: I. Dental study data and logistics, II. Correspondence, III. Writings, IV. Realia and ephemera, V. Press clippings and public relations materials, VI. Maps and other oversized materials.Chronological arrangement.
Biographical/Historical note:
Born on March 6, 1877 in New Dundee, Ontario, Canada, Leuman Maurice Waugh, moved to Rochester, New York, with his family at the age of nine. He acquired his love for photography in Rochester, which always attributed as the "Kodak city." Following in his father's dentistry footsteps, Waugh attended the University of Buffalo, from which he received his D.D.S. in 1900. He took post-graduate studies in Histology, Bacteriology, and Pathology at Buffalo's School of Medicine, and within two years was appointed Professor of Histology and Embryology at his alma mater. In 1912, Waugh pioneered the design of a unit-type x-ray machine for use at the dental chair, which was later studied and adopted by large dental apparatus manufacturers. By the time he left Buffalo in 1914 to specialize in the infant field of orthodontics in New York City, he had served as Professor of Special Pathology and Officer of the Governing Faculty at the university.
In 1915, Waugh served on the Organization Committee of the Columbia Dental School and shortly thereafter became its Secretary of the Dental Faculty, and sequentially Secretary of the Administrative Board and Professor of Histology and Embryology. In 1921 he was appointed Professor and Director of the Orthodontic Division of the school, and later served as Associate Director, Acting Director and Associate Dean. Waugh's affiliation with Columbia lasted through 1945. He served as Director of the American Board of Orthodontics from 1949 to 1953, and was asked to serve as Secretary-Chairman of the Orthodontia section of the American Association of Dental Schools in 1930, and as President in 1935. Waugh married Helen "Esty" Marshall, and had a son, Donald (also a dentist), and a daughter, Dorothy.
An active member of the Explorer's Club and Commodore of the Yachting Department of the New York Athletic Club, Waugh volunteered to undertake Alaskan studies on caries research among the Inuit for the U.S. Public Health Service. In 1929, the Health Service appointed Waugh Dental Director (Reserve) at the rank of Colonel. Waugh was apparently inspired by a lecture he heard as a student in 1908 from Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, Smithsonian Curator of Physical Anthropology at the Institute of Dental Pedagogics, on the dental conditions of human populations. Waugh privately carried out a Labrador study between 1921 and d1927 over the course of five summers. Under the sometimes-partial aegis of the U.S. Public Heath Service, Waugh also studied twelve Alaskan Inuit communities between 1929 and 1938. He was the first dental officer in the U.S. Public Service ever assigned to the Coast Guard Cutter Northland's cruise area of the Bering Sea and Alaska Arctic regions. During his trips, Waugh compiled data on the teeth, mouth, and diet of indigenous communities. In addition, he took many photographs and films of both dental subjects and indigenous communities.
Waugh's son, Donald, accompanied him on his 1935 expedition up the Kuskokwim River (Alaska) in their custom designed and built 29 foot yacht Nanuk Mi-kin-inni (Polar Bear Cub). In 1936, Waugh was appointed to a position with the Alaska Health Service by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior via the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This position allowed him to further his studies of tooth decay throughout Alaska and the Bering Sea region. Waugh's 1937 expedition included three dentists (one a biochemist), a physician and a nurse, and involved extensive air travel in small planes.
A popular lecturer and prolific writer, Waugh continued to advocate for the health of the northern indigenous communities he visited long after his trips ended. He spent the remainder of his professional career at Columbia University, where he rose from Professor of Orthodontia (1923-19435) to (concurrently) Chief of Orthodontia and Director of the Department of Orthodontics. Waugh continued to be active in professional organizations well after his retirement, until a few years before his death at his home in Betterton, Maryland, on May 6, 1972.
Related Archival Materials note:
The National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution hold twenty Waugh photographs which located in the Division of Physical Anthropology Photograph Collection #NAA2223a. NAA also has Waugh material in the Henry Bascom Collins, Jr. Papers, #NAA3131. The Archives and Special Collections at the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, Columbia University holds the School of Dental and Oral Surgery Records, 1892, 1915-1976 as well as the School of Dental and Oral Surgery, Historical Collection, 1892-1989.
Provenance:
The National Museum of the American Indian purchased the Waugh collection in 2001 from the Rankin Museum of American and Natural History in Ellerbee, N.C.
Restrictions:
Access restricted. Researchers should contact the NMAI Archivist for an appointment to access the collection.
Access restricted. Some dental records may be restricted from access, reproduction, or publication under personal health information privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Researchers should contact the NMAI Archies Center 301-238-1400 or nmaiarchives@si.edu for an appointment to access the collection.
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.
