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 As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology.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.
Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico -- Missions
Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico
Date:
1913-1928
bulk 1914-1919
Summary:
This collection of photographs, shot by Reverend James O. Arthur while serving as a missionary for the Reformed Church of America, documents the activities on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska in 1913 as well as Mescalero and Chiricahua Reservation in White Tail, New Mexico from 1914-1919. Additional images depict vacations and travels throughout the United States by the Arthur family and friends between the years 1913-1928.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains 701 photographs shot by Reverend James O. Arthur while serving as a missionary for the Reformed Church of America and documents the activities on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska in 1913, and on the Mescalero Apache and Chiricahua Apache Reservation in White Tail, New Mexico from 1914-1919. The photographs depict informal portraits of Winnebago, Mescalero Apache, Chiricahua Apache, and Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache people; Reverend James O. Arthur, his family, and friends on the reservations and their travels throughout the United States between the years 1913 to 1928; groups such as Indian school children, quilt sewing circles, and Indian police and fire brigade; activities such as church life, fairs, picnics, sports, hunting, horticulture, agriculture, and building construction; and animals such as cattle, deer, turkeys, and wolves. Notable images include those of an elderly Chief Naiche (Chiricahua Apache), Jasper Kanseah [nephew of Goyathlay (Geronimo)], and Eugene Chihuahua (son of Chihuahua).The majority of the images were photographed by Rev. James O. Arthur himself, except for the few images in which he appears. This collection also contains Reverend Arthur's negative envelopes which include his typed notes about the photographs such as dates, subject matter, and his ratings of the photographs. Arthur used a Vest Pocket Kodak camera from circa 1913-1914 and a 3A Folding Kodak camera from circa 1914-1928.
The titles of the photographs were assigned by the photographer.
Arrangement note:
The collection is intellectually arranged in 15 series by location and then chronologically.
The nitrate negatives were originally physically organized by Reverend James O. Arthur in two sets of envelopes first by image size and then by chronology. Upon donation, NMAI image numbers where assigned to the nitrate negatives and then physically stored according to this number in four boxes; Box 1 (N53103-N53272), Box 2 (N53273-N53460), Box 3 (N53461-N53663), Box 4 (N53664-N53801). The 2 prints are stored in Photo Folder 1. Box 5 contains the envelopes in series 5. In 2008 the nitrate negatives were moved to an offsite storage facility.
Biographical/Historical note:
Reverend James Osborne Arthur (1887-1971) and his wife Katherine Arthur (1883-1960) were missionaries for the Reformed Church of America, working on the Nebraska Winnebago Reservation from 1912 to 1914 and among the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches in the Whitetail section of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico from June 1914 to 1919.
Arthur was born in South Dakota in 1887 to Frank G. Arthur (1861-1948) and Jean O. Schuler (Scouller; 1863-1914), but spent his early life in Iowa. James had 5 siblings Margaret W. Arthur (b. 1889), F. Gale Arthur (1892-1952), Dorothy M. Arthur (b.1894), Jeanie (Jeanne) Arthur (1896-1961), and Jessie M. Arthur (1899-1992).
On June 26, 1911, James Arthur married Katherine Magdeline Gottberg Rhoades (1883-1960). The Arthurs had five children who are documented in this collection: Margaret Jean (1913-2010), James, Jr. (1915-2002), John Paul (1917-1987), Robert Lee (1919-2000) and Kathryn (1923-). Reverend Arthur died in August 1971 in Lomita, California.
Related Materials:
The following book documents the Arthurs' work and life on the Mescalero Apache Reservation: Herbert, D. and R. K. Herbert. Yah Et-Te: A Struggling Missionary's Record of Work Among Geronimo's People on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in 1914-1919. Philadelphia: Xlibris Corporation, 2000.
Provenance:
This collection was donated to NMAI in 2007 in memory of Reverend James O. Arthur and Katherine Arthur by Barbara Jane Arthur Jacobs (the Arthurs' granddaughter) and family.
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).
Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. 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 nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Reverend James O. Arthur photograph collection; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographic prints and negatives taken by Seventh-day Adventist missionary Ferdinand Anthony Stahl amongst indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon. These include the Asháninka (Campa/Chuncha), Yagua (Yahua) and Amahuaca communities.
Scope and Contents:
The majority of the photographs in this collection include portraits of indigenous community members in the Peruvian Amazon taken by Ferdinand Anthony Stahl while on Mission for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Some of the photographs include images of Ferdinand Stahl and his wife Ana posing with community members and it is unclear who the photographer was for these images. The photographs were shot in 1925 and 1928 in the Ucayali (Atalaya Province), Junin (Chanchamayo Province) and Loreto regions in Peru. The bulk of the photographs were taken among the Asháninka (Campa/Chuncha) and includes images of women weaving; group portraits along the Río Perené with canoes; as well as posed group portraits in front of the Stahl's Mission. There are also photographs of Yagua (Tahua) tribal members posed in traditional dress.
Negatives include N14915-N14917. Prints include P07956-P07965, P08614-P08619, P09483-P09484. Copy negatives include N36121-N36124, N36262-N36263. The copy negatives were created by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (NMAI's predecessor museum).
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
Ferdinand Anthony Stahl, 1874-1950, was a Seventh-day Adventist missionary to South America. Along with his wife Ana, Stahl converted to Seventh-day Adventism in 1902 and trained as a nurse at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. In 1909 the Stahls, along with their children, were sent as missionaries to La Paz, Bolivia by the General Conference in order to evangelize the indigenous communities in the area. In 1911, they moved to the Peru side of Lake Titicaca, establishing schools among the Aymara and Quechua communities. In 1920 the Stahls moved from Lake Titicaca to the headwaters of the Amazon in Iquitos, Peru where they established the Metraro Mission Station and launched mission boats downriver. They returned to the United States in 1939.
See "Ferdinand Stahl, Missionary to Peru" Adventist Heritage - Vol. 12, No. 2, summer 1988 by Robert G. Wearner for more information.
Related Materials:
See Box 307, Folder 7 in the Museum of the Amrican Indian, Heye Foundation records (NMAI.AC.001) for an original catalog list of Peruvian and Bolivian Artifacts purchased from Stahl by the MAI in 1927.
Provenance:
Gift of Ferdinand A. Stahl in 1927 (N14915-N14917) and part of a 1929 purchase along with ethnographic objects (P07956-P07965). It is unclear when the remainder of the prints (P08614-P08619, P09483-P09484) were acquired by the Museum.
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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Ferdinand Anthony Stahl photographs from Peruvian Amazon, image #, NMAI.AC.141; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
