The Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill collection includes photographic negatives, photo albums, lantern slides, journals, scrapbooks and other documents created and compiled by the Churchills over the course of Frank's career as a special agent and Indian Inspector for the Department of the Interior between 1899 and 1909. Initially assigned as a revenue collector to the Cherokee Nation and later as an Indian Inspector reviewing boarding schools, Frank's assignments took him all over the United States including Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma), Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, California, Florida, North Carolina and Alaska. During this time the Churchills visited over 80 different Native communities shooting photographs and taking notes.
Scope and Contents:
The Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill collection includes 1430 photographic negatives, 29 photo albums containing 3710 photographic prints, 325 lantern slides, and 3 linear feet of journals, scrapbooks, and other documents created and compiled by the Churchills over the course of Frank's career as a special agent and Indian Inspector for the Department of the Interior between 1899 and 1909.
Series 1: Photographs in Indian Territory (Oklahoma): Muskogee, Tahlequah, Sulphur Springs and Other Assignments, 1899-1903, includes 11 photo albums and 357 negatives from Frank Churchill's original assignment as revenue collector to the Cherokee Nation. Locations include Indian Territory (Oklahoma) [bulk], Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Arkansas, and Missouri. The Native communities visited and photographed in this series include— Oklahoma Cherokee, Oklahoma Muskogee (Creek), Quapaw, Osage, Miami, Wyandotte [Oklahoma], Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne), Winnebago [Nebraska], Eastern Shawnee [Quapaw Agency, Oklahoma], Ponca, Chaticks Si Chaticks (Pawnee), Oto, Sioux [Crow Creek], Kaw (Kansa), Chickasaw, Modoc, Kiowa, Choctaw.
Series 2: Photographs in the Southwest and Midwest: Arizona, New Mexico, Califonia, Minnesota and Wisconsin, 1903-1907, includes 9 photo albums and 832 negatives from Frank Churchill's assignment as an Indian Inspector. Because the Churchills visited some of the same locations on multiple occasions, it has been hard to date some of the negatives. For that reason, all the negatives made in the Southwest have been included in this series, though there are two photo albums with Southwest photographs included in Series 4. Locations in this series includes Arizona, New Mexico, California, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Native Communities visited and photographed in this series include—A:shiwi (Zuni), Diné (Navajo), Acoma Pueblo, Akimel O'odham (Pima), Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Cochiti Pueblo, Hopi Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Kumeyaay (Diegueño), Laguna Pueblo, Luiseño (Luiseno), Mescalero Apache, Mojave (Mohave), Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), Picuris Pueblo, Piipaash (Maricopa), Puye Pueblo, Quechan (Yuma/Cuchan), San Carlos Apache, Taos Pueblo, Tohono O'odham (Papago).
Series 3: Photographs in Alaska and Oregon, 1905-1910 (bulk 1905), includes four photograph albums and 71 negatives from Frank Churchill's appointment as special agent, by President Roosevelt, to investigate the condition of the school & reindeer service and other affairs in Alaska in the summer and fall of 1905. Two of the albums were not made by the Churchills. The first of these (Box 20) includes photographs by William Hamilton and the second (Box 21) includes photographs by W. T. Lopp. Locations in Alaska include St. Lawrence Island, Nuwukmiut/Point Barrow, Teller, Diomedes Islands, Nome, Kotzebue, Wrangell, Port Clarence Bay, Unalaska Island and Baranof Island. There are a number of photographs aboard the U.S. Cutter "Bear" and aboard the mailboat "Georgia." Native communities photographed include—Yuit (Siberian Yup'ik), Inupiaq (Alaskan Inupiat Eskimo), Bering Strait Inupiaq [Diomedes], Alutiiq (Pacific Eskimo), Tlingit.
Series 4: Photographs in Arizona, Utah, North Carolina, Montana, North Dakota, Florida and Miscellaneous, 1907-1909, includes five photograph albums and 163 negatives from Frank Churchill's assignment at Indian Inspector. Because the Churchills visited some of the same locations in the Southwest (Arizona and Utah) on multiple occasions, it has been hard to date some of the negatives. For that reason, all the negatives made in the Southwest have been included in Series 3. Locations include Arizona, Utah, North Carolina, Montana, North Dakota and Florida. Native communities visited and photographed include-Diné (Navajo), Hopi Pueblo, Kaibab Paiute, Quechan (Yuma/Cuchan), Eastern Band of Cherokee, Pikuni Blackfeet (Piegan), Wahpetonwan Dakota [Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe], Turtle Mountain Chippewa, Seminole. There is restricted material in Box 23 (Album P23380).
Series 5: Non-Native Photographs: Colorado Vacation, Lebanon, New Hampshire, and other Materials, 1898-1913, includes four photograph albums from vacations and other visits made by the Churchills unrelated to Frank's activities as Indian Inspector.
Series 6: Manuscripts: Journals, Documents and Scrapbooks, 1880-1928 (bulk 1899-1909), includes three linear feet of materials arranged in three subseries. Subseries 6.1, Clara Churchill, includes 16 journals, 12 scrapbooks and various other manuscript materials written and accumulated by Clara Churchill during their travels. Many of the journals include personal writings as well as several photographs that are duplicated in the photograph albums. The journals and scrapbooks encompass the full range of the Churchills' travels and include notes from Indian Territory, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast, Plains and Alaska. Subseries 6.2, Colonel Frank C. Churchill, includes official documents around Churchill's assignments as well as the reports Frank submitted back to the Secretary of the Interior (Box 41 and 42). Subseries 6.3, Churchill Museum and Miscellaneous, includes catalogs and other notes related to the large collection of Native American objects amassed by Frank and Clara. Clara also collected other items such as shells, minerals, and sand.
Series 7: Lantern Slides for Lectures, 1899-1909, includes 325 hand colored glass lantern slides. These were made by the Churchills from existing negatives and used for lectures. Lantern slides #1-#121 include views photographed in Alaska in 1905. Sldes #122-#325 include an assortment of views from Oklahoma (Indian Territory), Nebraska, Montana, Minnesota, California, Arizona and New Mexico photographed between 1900 and 1909.
Arrangement:
The Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill collection has been arranged in seven series by material type and then chronologically. The first five series are then divided into subseries by "Photo Albums" and "Negatives." These include--Series 1: Photographs in Indian Territory (Oklahoma): Muskogee, Tahlequah, Sulphur Springs and Other Assignments, 1899-1903; Series 2: Photographs in the Southwest and Midwest: Arizona, New Mexico, California, Minnesota and Wisconsin, 1907-1907; Series 3: Photographs in Alaska and Oregon, 1905-1910 (bulk 1905-1905); Series 4: Photographs in Arizona, Utah, North Carolina, Montana, North Dakota, Florida and Miscellaneous, 1907-1909; Series 5: Non-Native Photographs: Colorado Vaction, Lebanon, New Hampshire, and other Materials.
Series 6: Manuscripts: Journals, Documents and Scrapbooks, 1880-1928, is arranged in three subseries. Subseries 6.1: Clara G. Churchill, Subseries 6.2: Frank C. Churchill, and Subseries 6.3: Churchill Museum and Miscellaneous. Series 7: Lantern Slides for Lectures, 1899-1909, is arranged in orginal number order from the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College.
Biographical / Historical:
Frank Carroll Churchill was born August 2, 1850 to Benjamin P. Churchill and Susanna Thompson in West Fairlee, Vermont. Frank was educated at Thetford Academy in Thetford, VT and worked as a clerk for D.C. Churchill & Co. in Lyme, NH between 1869-1870. Between 1870 and 1877, Churchill was employed by H.W. Carter as a wholesale merchant in Lebanon, New Hampshire. During this time, Churchill met Clara Corser Turner and they were married on June 11, 1874.
Clara G. (Turner) Churchill was born December 16, 1851, to Colonel Francis H. Corser and Sarah Hook (Perkins) Corser. Colonel Corser and his wife died young, and Clara was adopted by George and Abby H. Turner of Concord, New Hampshire.
In 1877, in association with William S. Carter, Frank Churchill opened the business "Carter & Churchill" which was in this business for 21 years. Churchill held various political offices from 1879-91. He served as chairman of the Republican town committee of Lebanon and of the Republican State committee in 1890 and 1891. He served on the staff of Governor Natt Head in 1879 and 1880, with the rank of Colonel. He was chairman of the New Hampshire delegation at the Republican National Convention which nominated President Harrison and represented the Fourth District in the Executive Council in 1889-1890 during the administration of Governor David. H. Goodell.
In 1899 Frank was appointed revenue inspector for the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory and was later appointed a special agent for the Interior Department to formulate a system of public schools in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and across the Southwest. In 1905, he was appointed special agent, by President Roosevelt, to investigate the condition of the school & reindeer service and other affairs in Alaska and was reappointed Indian Inspector between 1905-1909. In 1909, Churchill resigned due to failing health and died November 5, 1912. Clara accompanied Frank on all his travels between 1899 and 1909 (see below chronology for full details) maintaining journals and writing articles for publication in "WHAT." Clara was also a painter, producing watercolors and hand-painting many of the photographs she and Frank made on their travels. Following Frank's death, Clara maintained their collection of Native artifacts and photographs in their home in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Clara died April 16, 1945, bequeathing the full collection to Dartmouth College.
Frank Churchill's assignments as Special agent and Indian Inspector from 1899-1909 took him all over the United States including Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma), Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, California, Florida, North Carolina and Alaska. During this time the Churchills visited over 80 different Native communities. For more details, see the chronology below.
Travels in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and other assignments, 1899-1903
1899, June 29 -- Churchills arrive in Muskogee, Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
1899, July-October -- Visit to Fort Gibson, Tahlequah, Sallisaw, and Vinita (Indian Territory/Oklahoma). Visit to Noel and South west City, Missouri. Visit to Chelsea and Coffeyville, Kansas. Visit to Fort Smith, Arkansas.
1899, November -- Visit Tahlequah while the Cherokee Nation legislature was in session.
1899, December -- Travel in Colorado.
1900, March -- Return to Muskogee and Fort Gibson.
1900, Sept 17-Oct 5 -- Dawes Commission in Vinita.
1901, Mar-Apr 3 -- Visit to the Quapaw Agency, Wyandotte Reservation and school, Modoc reservation and the town of Miami.
1901, April -- Visit to Denison, Texas. Visit to Checotah, Eufaula, South McAlester (Choctaw nation).
1901, Summer -- Visit to Pawhuska, Osage Nation.
1901, October -- Visit to Tishomingo, seat of government of the Chickasaws.
1902, January -- Trip to the Chickasaw Nation Visit to Anadarko, Indian Agency of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache, Fort Sill, Wichita Mountains, and Lawton.
1902, May -- Frank is dispatched to Sioux City, Iowa.
1902, July -- Visit to St. Paul, Minnesota and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, (Chippewa Falls). Frank is sent to Sulphur Springs, Texas, to author a report.
1902, August -- Churchills return to Muskogee, IT.
1902, September-October -- Trip to White Eagle, Ponca Agency for a month. Visit to Otoe school, Pawnee School, Shawnee, Sac and Fox reservations.
1902, November-December -- Visit to Crow Creek Agency.
1903, January -- Return to Sulpher Springs, Texas.
1903, March -- Visit to Pawhuska, Osage Nation.
1903, April -- Visit to Colorado.
1903, May-October -- Visit to 23 towns in Oklahoma (IT) with the Secretary of the Interior.
Travels in New Mexico, Arizona and California, 1903-1905
1903, November -- Frank receives orders to proceed to Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico.
1903, December 9 -- Visit to Zuni, followed by Canyon de Chelly, Hubbell's Ranch, Keams Canyon.
1903, December 21 -- Visit to Hopi Pueblo. Walpi, Polacca Day School, Oraibi, Shumopavi (Shungopavi/Songoopavi), Shipaulovi (Supawlavi) and Mishongnovi (Musungnuvi).
1903, December 28 -- Visit to Fort Defiance.
1904, January -- Travel in New Mexico. Visit to Gallup, Laguna Pueblo, Acomita, Paraje, Acoma, Albuquerque, Isleta Pueblo, Santa Fe, Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo).
1904, February -- Visit to Sacaton, Akimel O'odham (Pima) Reservation and Casa Grande ruins in Arizona.
1904, March -- Visit to Lehi Day School, Salt River Day School, Phoenix Indian School, Gila River Crossing Day School and Maricopa Day School, Arizona.
1904, March 10-26 -- Visit to Fort Mojave and Chemehuevi.
1904, March 30-April -- Visit to Riverside, California, Sherman Institute and Perris School. Side trip to Yuma, Arizona.
1905, January-February -- Visit to Sulphur, IT.
1905, March -- Visit to Mescalero Apache Agency, San Carlos Apache Agency, Geronimo Settlement, Rice Station School at Talkalai.
1905, April 10-20 -- Return to Sherman Institute in Riverside, California. Visit to San Jacinto, Perris, Saboba, Cahuilla, San Manuella (Band of Mission Indians), Coachella, Torres Reservation, Martinez Reservation Day School, Cabazon Reservation, Protrero Reservation and Day School.
1905, April 22-May -- Visit to Temecula, Pechanga Day School, Pala Mission, Campo Reservation, Mission of San Luis Rey, Rincon Day School, Mesa Grande School, Santa Ysabel (Diegueno), Volcan Mountain Day School.
Travels in Alaska, 1905
1905, June -- Frank receives an assignment in Alaska.
1905, July -- Board the U.S. Revenue Cutter "Bear" in Nome. Visit to Reindeer Station in Teller, Cape Prince of Wales, Kotzebue Sound, Cape Thompson, Point Hope and Point Barrow.
1905, August -- Visit to Wainwright Inlet, return to Nome. Visit to Anvil Creek, Gologin (Golovin) Bay, St. Lawrence Island, Pribilof Islands (Seal Islands), St. George, Dutch Harbor and Unalaska.
1905, September -- Board the "Dora" anchored near Belkofski, Cold Bay, Karluk, Afgonak, and Kodiak. Stop in Homer, Seldovia and Seward. Visit to Sitka.
1905, September 28 -- Board the steamer "Georgia" to Juneau and Skagway via Hoonah.
1905, October -- Return to Lebanon, NH.
Travels in Arizona, New Mexico, Minnesota, Wisconsin, California and Utah, 1906-1907
1906, March-April -- Re-assigned to Southwest and arrive in Tucson, Arizona. Visit to San Xavier Mission, Tohono O'odham (Papago) reservation, Casa Grande, Sacaton, Maricopa, Gila Crossing, Salt River and Phoenix schools.
1906, May -- Return to New Mexico to visit Gallup and Zuni Day School.
1906, June -- Visit to St, Paul, Minnesota and the White Earth (Ojibwe) reservation and Wild Rice River School in Boliere.
1906, July -- Visit to Ashland, Wisconsin, Lac Courte Oreilles, Hayward, and Lac de Flambeau (La Pointe Agency.
1906, July-September -- Return to Lebanon, New Hampshire.
1906, September -- Visit to Fond du Lac (Winnebago Lake), Wabeno, and Carter, Wisconsin.
1906, October -- Visit to Phlox, Wausau, Minocqua, Star Lake, Bark River and Wausaukee, Wisconsin.
1906, November-December -- Visit to Keshena (Green Bay Indian School), Menominee Reservation and Ashland, Wisconsin.
1906, December-January -- Stay in Washington, DC.
1907, February -- Return to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1907, March -- Visit to Santa Fe and various Pueblos (Cochiti, Tesuque, San Ildefonso, Ohkay Owingeh [San Juan], Toas and Picuris).
1907, April -- Return to Albuquerque, visit to Pueblos (Isleta, Laguna, Mesita, Acomita, Paraje, Acoma, Seama).
1907, April -- Visit to Phoenix, Arizona (Phoenix Indian School), Fort McDowell and Salt River Day School.
1907, May -- Visit to Sacaton, Maricopa, Casa Grande, and Yuma, Arizona.
1907, June -- Visit to Riverside (Sherman Institute), and Pomona, California.
1907, June-July -- Travel to Salt Lake City, Utah. Visit Panguitch, Orton, Kanab, Escalante and Marysvale, Utah.
1907, July-August -- Return to Arizona. Visit Flagstaff, Tuba Indian School, as well as Hopi Pueblo (Walpi, Moencopi, and Oraibi).
1907, September-October -- Return to Lebanon, NH.
Travels in North Carolina, Montana and Florida, 1907-1909
1907, October 22 -- Assigned to Cherokee, North Carolina, to make a new roll of the Eastern Band of Cherokee.
1907, November -- Arrive in Cherokee, North Caolina.
1908, February -- Visit to Robbinsville and Big Cove
1908, April -- Cherokee council meeting regarding Churchill's new roll.
1908, May -- Completes assignment in North Carolina.
1908, June-September -- Return to Washington, DC and Lebanon, New Hampshire.
1908, September-October -- Trip to Montana. Visit to Browning, Blackfeet Reservation, Harlem, Fort Belknap and Fort Peck.
1908, November -- Visit to Spirit Lake (Devil's Lake) and Wahpeton, and Fort Totten, North Dakota.
1908, December -- Visit to Morris, Minnesota.
1909, January -- Trip to Washington, DC for the inauguration of President Taft.
1909, February -- Visit to Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
1909, March-April -- Trip to Florida. Visit to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg, Gainesville, and St. Augustine.
1909, May -- Visit to Soco Creek and Cherokee, North Carolina.
1909, July -- Return to Lebanon, New Hampshire.
1909, August -- Resignation as Indian Inspector.
Related Materials:
A large collection of Native American cultural objects and archaeology bequeathed by Clara Churchill can still be found at the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College.
Provenance:
Frederick Dockstader, former director of the Museum of the American Indian (MAI), Heye Foundation, illegally removed the majority of the photographs (photo albums, negatives) and manuscript material (journals, reports) from the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in 1955, before depositing them at the MAI. Those materials were officially gifted to NMAI in 2018 by the Hood Museum. Additional materials from the Churchill collection that remained at the Hood Museum (lantern slides, photographs, scrapbooks, journals) were donated in 2020. These materials have been noted in the finding aid.
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:
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 Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill collection, NMAI.AC.058, National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
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.
Photo Lot 90-1, George V. Allen collection of photographs of Native Americans and the American frontier, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs documenting Native American Public Programs events, including images of Native American artists and examples of their work during demonstrations and lectures at the National Museum of Natural History. Photographs were mostly made by Smithsonian photographers, including Carl C. Hansen, Richard Strauss, Chip Clark, Laurie Minor-Penland, Eric Long, Alan Hart, Rick Vargas, Dane Penland, and Christina Taccone. Included are a large number of photographs of Don Tenoso (Hunkpapa), an artist-in-residence at the National Museum of Natural History, and performances by James Luna (Luiseno/Digueno), Guillermo Gomez-Pena (Chicano), and Coco Fusco. Crafts and arts depicted include beadwork, basket weaving, dollmaking, peyote fanmaking, weaving, hand games, quilting, clothing making, leatherwork, woodcarving, saddlemaking, sculpture, painting, story-telling, and performance art. There are also images of Dolores Lewis Garcia and Emma Lewis Garcia (daughters of Acoma potter Lucy M. Lewis) and their pottery, Joallyn Archambault with artists, and the 1990 American Indian Theater Company reception.
Other depicted artists include Maynard White Owl Lavadour (Cayuse/Nez Perce), Evangeline Talshaftewa (Hopi), Lisa Fritzler (Crow), Marian Hanssen, Vanessa Morgan (Kiowa/Pima), Marty Good Bear (Mandan/Hidatsa), Katie Henio and Sarah Adeky (Navajo), Geneva Lofton and Lee Dixon (Luiseno), Chris Devers (Luiseno), Mary Good Bear (Mandan), Robert and Alice Little Man (Kiowa), Lisa Watt (Seneca), Jay McGirt (Creek), Bill Crouse (Seneca), Kevin Johnny-John (Onondaga), Rose Anderson (Pomo), Francys Sherman and Margaret Hill (Mono), Thelene Albert and Annie Bourke (White Mountain Apache), Bob Tenequer (Laguna), Jimmy Abeyeta (Navajo), Lou Ann Reed (Acoma), Melissa Peterson (Makah), Jennifer and Kallie Keams Musial (Navajo), Joyce Growing Thunder-Fogarty and Juanita Fogarty (Assiniboine/Sioux), David Neel (Kwakiutal), Mervin Ringlero (Pima), Jhon Goes-In-Center (Oglala), D. Montour (Delaware/Mohawk), Rikki Francisco (Pima), Annie Antone (Papago), Angie Reano-Owen (Santo Domingo Pueblo), Carol Vigil (Jemez), Gregg Baurland (Miniconjou), Greg Colfax (Makah), Lydia Whirlwind-Soldier (Sicangu Dakota), Martin Red Bear (Oglala), Michael Rogers (Paiute), Alta Rogers (Yurok/Paiute), Dorothy Stanley (Miwok), Lisa Little Chief (Dakota), Tom Haukaas (Sicangu Dakota), Nora Navanjo-Morsie (Santa Clara Tewa), Seneca Women's Singing Society, Molly Blankenship and Martha Ross (Eastern Cherokee), Julia Parker (Miwok/Pomo), Candy and Claudia Cellicion (Zuni), Sally and Lorraine Black (Navajo), Carmen Quinto-Plunkett (Tlingit), Ina McNeil (Hunkpapa), and Ellen and Faye Quandelancy (Zuni), and Rikki Francisco (Pima).
Biographical/Historical note:
Native American Public Programs was founded in 1989 as a part of the Department of Education in the National Museum of Natural History. Under the directorship of Aleta Ringlero, its main activity was the arranging of demonstrations by Native American artists and craftsmen in the exhibition areas of the museum.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 91-26
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Audio of James Luna's lecture for the Native American Public Programs office held in National Anthropological Archives in MS 7514.
Dolls made by Don Tenoso for the Native American Public Programs office held in Department of Anthropology collections in accession 390905.
Additional photographs of Tenoso held in the Smithsonian Institution Archives in SIA2009-2222 and 90-13726.
Photo Lot 91-26, Native American Public Programs photograph collection relating to Native American artists and art, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Basin Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Albums
Photographs
Date:
circa 1877
Scope and Contents note:
Albums probably assembled by William Henry Jackson, mostly containing portraits of Native American delegates in Washington, D.C. and photographs made on US Geological Surveys (including the Hayden and Powell surveys). Photographs from the field include John K. Hillers' photographs of the Southwest, photographs of Fort Laramie (possibly by Alexander Gardner), Orloff R. Westmann's photographs of Taos Pueblo, and Jackson's photographs of Crow, Shoshoni, Pawnee, and Nez Perce Tribes and related sites. Most of the photographs were made circa 1860s-1870s.
The albums were probably by Jackson while working under Ferdinand V. Hayden for the United States Geological Survey of the Territories. The reason for their creation is uncertain, though it may have been a project set up by Hayden or a continuation of William Henry Blackmore's tradition of publishing albums. Some of the albums include captions pasted from Jackson's Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians (1877) while others have handwritten captions.
Biographical/Historical note:
William Henry Jackson (1843-1942) was an American painter, photographer and explorer. Born in New York, he sold drawings and retouched photographs from an early age. After serving in the Civil War, he opened a photography studio in Omaha, Nebraska, with his brother Edward. As photographer for the US Geological and Geographical Surveys (1870-1878), he documented the American west and published the first photographs of Yellowstone. When the surveys lost funding in 1879, Jackson opened a studio in Denver, Colorado, and also worked for various railroad companies. Many of Jackson's photographs were displayed at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago (1893), for which he was the official photographer.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 4420
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Original negatives for many of the photographs in this collection can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in the BAE historical negatives.
The National Museum of the American Indian Archives holds William Henry Jackson photographs and negatives.
Additional Jackson photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 4605, MS 4801, Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 29, Photo Lot 37, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 60, Photo Lot 93, Photo lot 143, Photo Lot 87-2P, Photo Lot 87-20, and Photo Lot 90-1.
Correspondence from Jackson held in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4517, MS 4881, MS 4821, and collections of personal papers.
Photo Lot 4420, William Henry Jackson photograph albums based on his Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The collection contains individual and group portraits of Native American people. Tribal affiliations include Apache, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Delaware, Isleta, Kickapoo, Mescalero Apache, Navajo, San Carlos Apache, Sioux, Taos, and Tohono O'odham. There are also includes images of weavers, dancers, tipis, Canyon de Chelly, Taos Pueblo, and Taos cemetery, as well as a self-portrait of Gary Auerbach. Also included is one autostereoscopic multidimensional platinum print. Additionally, the collection contains Auerbach's book, We Walk In Beauty, which pairs the portraits with excerpts of interviews that Auerbach conducted with the individuals, and promotional materials including exhibit announcements and catalogs.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into two series: 1. Photographs, and 2. Printed material.
Biographical Note:
Following a career as a chiropractor, Gary Auerbach became a professional photographer in 1991. Concerned about the long-term permanence of his photographs, Auerbach taught himself the platinum printing process. From 1992 to 2003, Auerbach made portraits of a number of Native American people, also asking each individual a series of biographical questions. He published the photographs and short biographies in his book, We Walk in Beauty.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 2004-13
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use and access.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 2004-13, Gary Auerbach portraits of Native American people, National Anthropological Archives, 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
Lantern slides
Place:
Montezuma Castle National Monument (Ariz.)
Casa Grande (Ariz.)
Date:
circa 1871-1913
Scope and Contents note:
The collection includes hand-colored glass lantern slides collected by Dr. Carlos Montezuma and used for his lectures on Native American rights. Many of the photographs are portraits, some made at Ft. McDowell and Fort Apache. Other images show schools, reservations, dwellings, Charles Dickens (a Yavapai store owner), Montezuma's Castle, Casa Grande, and scenic views. A special series includes photographs made during a 1913 hunting and sightseeing trip that he organized, probably including photographs made by Montezuma's guests, John T. McCutcheon and Charles B. Gibson.
Some of the images were made by Charles (Carlos) Gentile, the photographer and benefactor of Montezuma in his early years. There are also several by Father Peter Paulus Prando and John N. Choate, and one portrait each by Napoleon Sarony and Matthew Brady. Otherwise, the photographers are unidentified.
Biographical/Historical note:
Carlos Montezuma (1866-1923, also called Wassaja) was an Native American activist and physician. He was Yavapai, though he often identified himself as Apache. He was captured by Pima Indians at a young age and sold in 1871 to Italian-immigrant and pioneer photographer Carlo (or Charles) Gentile, who adopted the child and took him to New York. Montezuma graduated from the University of Illinois (1884) and received his MD from the Chicago Medical College (1889). He developed a friendship with Richard Henry Pratt, head of the Carlisle Indian School, and took a post as reservation physician for the Bureau of Indian Services. During this time he developed an opposition to BIA policies and became an Native American advocate, speaking out against reservations. He gave numerous lectures on Native Americans at institutions around the United States, helped organize the Society of American Indians, and published a personal newsletter entitled Wassaja (1916-1922). In 1896, Montezuma established a medical practice in Chicago. He died in Arizona in 1923.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 73
Varying Form of Title:
Carlos Montezuma-Doris Collester Collection of Lantern Slides
General note:
The handwriting on the slides has been identified as that of Dr. Carlos Montezuma by John Larner, the editor of Montezumaʹs papers. Information in this catalog record has been taken from Cesare Marino, Solving the Mystery: The Carlos Montezuma-Doris Collester Collection of Lantern Slides in the NAA : Report of Background Research and Interview with Mrs. Doris Collester, Donor of the Carlos Montezuma Collection of Hand-tinted Lantern Slides to the Smithsonian Institution, conducted in Williamstown, West Virginia, August 2013.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Correspondence from Montezuma is held in the National Anthropological Archives in the records of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Carlos Montezuma's papers are held in the Newberry Library, Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections; Arizona State University Libraries, Charles Trumbull Hayden Library; and University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections.
Photographs relating to archeology, most of which were made by Bureau of American Ethnology photographers and ethnologists. Much of the collection consists of photographs by Cosmos and Victor Mindeleff of Southwest pueblos. Images depict mounds and excavations (including Grant Mound in Pennsylvania and additional mounds in West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, and elsewhere); Hopi Sipaulovi village; petroglyphs in Wind River, Wyoming; ancient artifacts; Standing Rock; Tohono O'odham Indians; Canyon de Chelly; and Clear Creek. Photographers represented include John K. Hillers; C. H. Bryan of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky; the Mindeleff brothers; Henry Bascom Collins; L. C. Rennick; J. W. Milner; Hattons Studio in Lansing, Michigan; and a drawing by W. A. Rogers.
Collection may contain images of human remains.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 28
Location of Other Archival Materials:
William Dinwiddie photographs documenting Papago Indians, previously filed in Photo Lot 28, have been relocated to National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 89.
Additional Mindeleff photographs can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 4362, Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 78, and the BAE historical negatives.
Additional Hillers photographs can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 143, Photo Lot 83-18, Photo Lot 87-2N, Photo Lot 90-1, Photo Lot 92-46, and the BAE historical negatives.
Additional Collins photographs can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 82-23, Photo Lot 86-42, Photo Lot 86-43, and Photo Lot 86-59.
See others in:
Photograph collection relating to archeology, burial mounds, and the Southwest, 1880s-1920s
Photo Lot 28, Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collection relating to archeology and burial mounds, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Series 2: Photographs in the Southwest and Midwest, 1903-1907, includes nine photo albums and 832 negatives from Frank Churchill's assignment as an Indian Inspector. Because the Churchills visited some of the same locations on multiple occasions, it has been hard to date some of the negatives. For that reason, all the negatives made in the Southwest have been included in this series, though there are two photo albums with Southwest photographs included in Series 4. Locations in this series includes Arizona, New Mexico, California, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Native Communities visited and photographed in this series include—A:shiwi (Zuni), Diné (Navajo), Acoma Pueblo, Akimel O'odham (Pima), Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Cochiti Pueblo, Hopi Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Kumeyaay (Diegueño), Laguna Pueblo, Luiseño (Luiseno), Mescalero Apache, Mojave (Mohave), Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), Picuris Pueblo, Piipaash (Maricopa), Puye Pueblo, Quechan (Yuma/Cuchan), San Carlos Apache, Taos Pueblo, Tohono O'odham (Papago).
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:
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 Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill collection, NMAI.AC.058, National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This album contains 126 photographic prints taken by Frank Churchill in April 1905 on various reservations in Riverside County, California, March-April 1906 in Arizona, 1905 in Crater Lake, Oregon and September-November 1906 in Wisconsin during Frank Churchill's assignment as U.S. Indian Inspector to visit Indian day schools and boarding schools. The album was later compiled and captioned by Clara Churchill. Some of the photographs were also later hand colored by Clara Churchill. The majority of photographs were taken among the Cahuilla communities at the Torres Martinez, Cabazon and San Manuel reservations in San Jacinto Valley, California; the Akimel O'odham (Pima), Tohono O'odham (Papago) and Maricopa in Arizona; and the Potawatomi and Menominee in Wisconsin.
Photographs in California include—Cahuilla Indian School and graveyard; the original "Ramona" and son Condino Diego; Tule houses; Saboba School; and views of San Jacinto Valley including orange groves near Banning. Torres Martinez photographs include—Wells and barley in the desert; Indian Agent Dr. L.A. Wright; Martinez Indian School, Home of Captain Joaquim Alamos; Frank Churchill with L.A. Wright; and an Old woman with tools. Cabazon photographs include—Captain Poncho Romero; Judge Bob Mullin's House; and views of "Old Cabazon".
Photographs in an around Sacaton among the Akimel O'odham and Maricopa include—Women making baskets; School girls peeling vegetables; Pima houses; Agency views; girls' school; "Lish Bechard's" trading post; Irrigation ditch; and a series of images on Issue day of groups coming to Sacaton for rations. Individuals photographed include—Sepia Banks; Reverend C.H. Cook; Melissa Jones and her mother Mary; Florence Babel; Mr. and Mrs. Churchill; Miss Maud Squier; and Jack McCoy (US Mail). There are a few photographs on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa reservation of a grist mill and women making pottery with Clara Churchill. Additional photographs in Arizona include—San Xavier Mission; John M. Berger and W.S. Sturges "Chuck Wagon is Tucson; Tohono O'odham (Papago) Kee's; Mojave Apache camp outside of Phoenix.
Photographs in Crater Lake, Oregon include—Annie Creek Canyon; Girls' School; and the Superintendent of the Phoenix Indian School at Crater Lake. Photographs in Wisconsin include—Potawatomi Indians and the depot in Wabeno; A hotel; railroad station, Mr. Morstad's home and family in Carter; Wausaukee; Menominee Agent's office, Green Bay Indian School, Thanksgiving Day and Spirit Rock in Keshena; and views of Keshena falls. There is an additional photograph of Christmas dinner in 1909 from the Keshena Indian School which was most likely not taken by the Churchills. Many of the photographs in this album, particularly those from Oregon and Wisconsin, do not have corresponding negatives.
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:
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 Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill collection, NMAI.AC.058, National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The Helga Teiwes photograph collection contains over 7,000 negatives, slides and prints made by Teiwes between 1965 and 2002. For over thirty years Teiwes worked as a staff photographer for the Arizona State Museum, photographing and documenting Native American communities across the American Southwest. During this time, Teiwes also privately took photographs and built personal relationships among members of the Akimel O'odham, Tohono O'odham, Apache, Diné (Navajo) and Hopi tribes. These photographs include portraits of artists at work, families in their homes, daily life on the reservation, special events and landscape photography. Additionally, the Teiwes collection includes photographs from a 1975 trip to Peru and photographs of the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) community in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Scope and Contents:
The Helga Teiwes photograph collection contains over 7,000 negatives, slides and prints made by Teiwes between 1965 and 2002 across the American Southwest, Mexico and Peru. The majority of the photographs document daily life and activities, artists at work, and special events among members of the Akimel O'odham, Tohono O'odham, Apache, Diné (Navajo) and Hopi tribes in Arizona and New Mexico. A smaller amount of photographs documents trips Teiwes made to Mexico to photograph the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) community in Chihuahua and a 1975 summer trip to Peru. The collection is arranged into seven series with additional subseries.
Series 1, Akimel O'odham (Pima), 1965-1993, 2001, contains photographs mostly taken among the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. These include intimate portraits, landscape views and views of farming and agriculture. Of particular note are photographs of Patricia "Pat" Stone and her family and basket weaver Julia Francisco. The majority of the photographs in Series 2, Apache, 1973-1994, are from two San Carlos Apache coming of age ceremonies, or "Changing Woman" ceremonies, from 1992 and 1994. The 1992 ceremony for Leia Tenille Johnson was held in Whiteriver, Arizona and the 1994 ceremony for Vanessa Jordan of Bylas, Arizona. A selection of 50 photographic prints from these ceremonies were later exhibited in "Western Apache Sunrise Ceremony" at the University of Kansas Museum of Anthropology. The largest series, Series 3, Diné (Navajo), 1969-2002, is divided into seven subseries by topics. This includes artists and artisans, families and individuals across the Navajo Nation, industry and agriculture, trading posts and markets, places, schools, and other topics. Of particular note are the photographs of the Greyeyes family from Tsegi Canyon, Arizona. In addition to photographing matriarch Bessie Salt Greyeyes at home with family, weaving, cooking, shopping around town and herding sheep and goats, Teiwes accompanied Pete Greyeyes to work at the Peabody Coal Mining Company. Other places and events of note include photographs of Monument Valley, Window Rock, seat of the Navajo Nation, the Hubbell and Shonto trading posts and the 1990 graduation from Navajo Community College (Now Diné College).
Series 4, Hopi, 1968-2002, highlights the work and artistry of Hopi basket weavers. Many of the photographs in this series were included in Teiwes's 1996 book Hopi Basket Weaving: Artistry in Natural Fibers. Coiled basket weavers from the Second Mesa include Madeline Lamson, Joyce Ann Saufkie, Evelyn Selestewa and Bertha Wadsworth, among others. Wicker basket weavers from the Third Mesa include Eva Hoyungowa, Abigail Kaursgowva, Vera Pooyouma and Vernita Silas, among others. Teiwes also photographed additional artists and events on the Hopi reservation including Maechel Saufkie's 1995 wedding. Series 5, Peru, 1975 includes photographs from Teiwes's 1975 summer trip to Peru. Teiwes visited and photographed several pre-Colombian archaeological sites including Sacsahuaman and Machu Piccu in addition to photographing in larger cities such as Cuzco, Lima and Quito (Ecuador). A large number of photographs in this series are from the Inti Raymi parade and festival held in Cuzco during their winter solstice. Series 6, Tarahumara (Rarámuri), 1971, 1977-1979 contains photographs from three trips to Chihuahua, Mexico to photograph the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) people for an Arizona State Museum exhibition held in 1979. Also included are photographs from the exhibition opening in Arizona. Series 7, Tohono O'odham, 1969-1995, 2002 contains photographs of the saguaro cactus harvest in addition to other special events among the Tohono O'odham people. Teiwes documented Juanita Ahill, and later her niece Stella Tucker, throughout the process of harvesting and processing the saguaro cactus plant to make jam and ceremonial wine. Additional events photographed in this series include the San Xavier Elders parade and Tumacacori festival.
The photographs in this collection range all media types: 6x6cm color/black and white negatives; 35mm color/black and white negatives; 35mm and 6x6cm color slides; 6x6cm transparencies; contact sheets; and 3x5, 4x6, 8x10 and larger color/black and white photographic prints, some matted for sale or exhibition purposes. Teiwes did include handwritten notations on the backs of some photographs and slide mounts. There is also a small amount of paper documentation.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into seven series by culture group or location. Series 1: Akimel O'odham (Pima), Series 2: Apache, Series 3: Diné (Navajo), Series 4: Hopi, Series 5: Peru, Series 6: Tarahumara (Rarámuri), Series 7: Tohono O'odham.
Biographical / Historical:
Helga Kulbe Teiwes was born in Büderich, near Düsseldorf, in Germany in 1930. In 1950 Teiwes began a trade apprenticeship in photography under Master photographer Erna Hehmke-Winterer, a specialist in black and white portraiture, architectural and industrial photography. In 1957 Teiwes earned her master's degree in photography and worked as an industrial photographer in Düsseldorf until she emigrated to New York in 1960. During her four years in New York City, Teiwes worked as a darkroom worker, an assistant photographer for Cartier Jewelers and as a transparency retoucher. She also continued to build her portfolio through free-lance work. In 1964, a trip to Mesa Verde inspired Teiwes to seek work in the Southwest. The same year she was hired by Dr. Emil Haury of the University of Arizona to photograph his excavation of Snaketown on the Gila River Indian Reservation. Following Snaketown, Teiwes was hired as a museum photographer for the Arizona State Museum (ASM) at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She was also sought after for other archaeological projects during the 1960s and 1970s to take publication and studio shots. During this time, Teiwes developed a deep interest in the people and cultures of the Southwest and spent a significant amount of time on reservations building personal relationships among the Hopi, Apache, Tohono O'dham and Diné (Navajo) among others. Teiwes took a particular interest in documenting Native artists and the work they produced, including basket weavers, potters, jewelers and carvers. Teiwes also worked to capture everyday life among the Native people of the Southwest in addition to documenting special events like the Apache coming of age ceremony and the Tohono O'odham Saguaro Cactus harvest. Teiwes retired from the Arizona State Museum in 1993 but continued to work as a freelance photographer and writer in Tuscon.
Throughout her career Teiwes's photographs and essays were published nationally and internationally. Her photographic study Navajo was published by the Swiss publisher U. Bar Varlag in 1991 and published in English in 1993. Her books Kachina Dolls: The Art of the Hopi Carvers and Hopi Basket Weaving: Artistry in Natural Fibers were published by the University of Arizona Press in 1991 and 1996. From October 2003 to June 2004, the Arizona State Museum held an exhibition titled "With an Eye on Culture: The Photography of Helga Teiwes" highlighting the broad scope of her career.
In 2013, Teiwes donated her collection of personal photographs, not taken for the Arizona State Museum, to the National Museum of the American Indian, Archive Center. Teiwes's photographs taken for the Arizona State Museum are housed in the ASM's photographic archives.
Related Materials:
There is a large collection of photographs at the Arizona State Museum where Teiwes worked from 1964-1993. These photographs include harvesting of mesquite, cholla, and saguaro; traditional farming of corn at Hopi and of tepary beans among the Tohono O'odham; and craftspeople and their art in basketry, katsina carving, pottery, and weaving.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Helga Teiwes in 2013.
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:
Please contact the NMAI Archive Center (NMAIArchives@si.edu) regarding the use of this collection, donor restrictions apply.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Helga Teiwes Photograph Collection, Box and Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The Helen Peterson collection includes correspondence, notes, miscellaneous administrative documents, financial records, calendars, questionnaires, notes from interviews, survey forms, copies of resolutions, proceedings, speeches, programs, press releases, printed and processed material, and many other types of documents. Mainly these relate to Petersons's career and special interests between 1953 and 1970. There are also a few documents that concern the organizations which Peterson served for periods preceding or following her periods in office. Of special interest are the materials related to the NCAI, many of which supplement the records in that organization's files. The collection also includes documents that concern a wide range of Indian interests and activities.
Scope and Content:
These papers reflect the professional and personal life of Helen L. Peterson from her birth in 1915 until her 80th Birthday in 1995. Peterson worked for the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), 1953 through 1961; the City and County of Denver Commission on Community Relations (CCR), 1962 to 1970; and American Indian Development, Inc. (AID), 1967 to 1970. Peterson worked for the Bureau of Indian (BIA), 1970 through 1985. She was founder of the Church of the Four Winds which started as the Ecumenical Indian Congregation. She was leader of the Church of the Four Winds starting in 1989. She also served as chair of the National Committee of Indian Work (NCIW) beginning in 1980. Peterson also served as chair of the Province of the Pacific (Province VIII) Indian Commission.
Professional materials in this collection include information from Peterson's time working for NCAI, CCR, AID, BIA, Church of the Four Winds/Ecumenical Indian Congress, Province of the Pacific, and NCIW. Personal materials in the collection include personal documentations (baby book, yearbooks, etc.), personal letters, personal photographs, and news articles about her personal life, among other materials related to her personal life.
Arrangement note:
The Helen Peterson papers are organized into 13 Series. Series 1: National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is divided into four subseries; Subseries 1.1: Executive Council, Subseries 1.2: NCAI Conventions, Subseries 1.3: Chronological Correspondence, Subseries 1.4: Subject Files. Series 2: Commission on Community Relations (CCR), City and County of Denver, Colorado is divided into three subseries; Subseries 2.1: Subject Files, Subseries 2.2: Denver Indian Study Project, Subseries 2.3: Jobs for Indians. This is followed by Series 3: American Indian Development, Inc. (AID), Series 4: White Buffalo Council, Series 5: Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Series 6: Religious Organizations is divided into five subseries; Subseries 6.1: Church of the Four Winds, Subseries 6.2: Province of the Pacific (Province VIII), Subseries 6.3: Episcopal Church, Subseries 6.4: Other Religious Organizations, Subseries 6.5: Subject Files. This is followed by Series 7: Organizations, Series 8: Events and Series 9: Individuals. Series 10: Newspapers and Newsletters is divided into three subseries; Subseries 10.1: Native American Owned Newspapers and Newsletters, Subseries 10.2: Indian Related News Items, Subseries 10.3 Religious News Items. This is followed by Series 11: Indian Tribes, Series 12: Miscellaneous Subject Files and Series 13: Personal Materials.
Biographical/Historical note:
Helen L. Peterson, born in 1915 on the Pine Ridge Reservation, was an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux tribe. She attended Chadron State College in 1932, beginning an educational process that included course work at Colorado State College of Education and the University of Colorado. She received a B.S. degree in Business Education from Chadron State College in 1957. In 1935 she began working with the Department of Agriculture's Resettlement Administration, a New Deal Agency. She served as director of the Rocky Mountain Council on Inter-American Affairs at the University of Denver Social Science Foundation and set up the Colorado Inter-American Field Service Program which later came under the Extension Division of the University of Colorado.
In 1948, she was appointed as the first director of the Mayor's Committee on Human Relations in Denver, Colorado. As the "Commission on Human Relations," the committee became a permanent part of city government in 1949 transitioning to the "Commission on Community Relations" in 1959. Peterson acted as an adviser to the United States Delegation to the Second Inter-American Indian Conference in Cuzco, Peru in 1949 and in 1953 she was selected as the executive director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), a position she held through 1961. During these years, NCAI experienced tremendous growth, becoming firmly established as a national organization during her tenure.
Peterson returned to Denver in 1962 as the director of the Commission on Community Relations. From 1967 to 1970 she served as part-time executive director to American Indian Development, Inc. She was appointed Assistant to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1970 and remained with the Bureau of Indian Affairs until 1985.
Throughout her career, Peterson was an active member in the Episcopal Church and in later years served various Episcopal organizations. She was a chair of the National Committee of Indian Work (NCIW) beginning in 1980, chair of the Province of the Pacific (Province VIII) Indian Commission, and founder of the Ecumenical Indian Congregation. Ecumenical Indian Congress became the Church of the Four Winds in 1989. During that year Peterson became the chair of Church of the Four Winds.
Peterson received many awards and honors throughout her life. In 1955, Peterson was named "Outstanding American Indian of 1955" at the Anadarko Exposition. She received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Colorado in 1973. She was also the recipient of distinguished service awards from Columbia University, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Congress of American Indians, the White Buffalo Council of Denver, the Multnomah County Commissioners, and the National Institute for Women of Color. She passed away on July 10, 2000.
Provenance:
This collection was received by the National Anthropological Archives from Helen Peterson in June 1987. It was then transferred from NAA to the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center in 2007.
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:
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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Helen L. Peterson Papers, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
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.
Photo Lot 28, Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collection relating to archeology and burial mounds, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photo Lot 28, Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collection relating to archeology and burial mounds, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs made and collected by Harris M. McLaughlin during his travels in the American southwest and other parts of North and South America, as well as Asia and Europe. Photographs made in Texas include images of the 1928 American Legion National Convention, the dirigible "Los Angeles" floating over San Antonio, the first train in Rio Grande City, cowboys and ranchers, missions, and city and scenic views. McLaughlin also took photographs at the Grand Canyon, Canyon del Muerto, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Park, and collected Frashers Foto postcards with photographs of Apache and Navajo people, a Papago dwelling, a Pueblo potterymaker, and a Hopi Snake Dance. Photographs from Guatemala include images of villages and cities (including Antigua and Zacapa), as well as a harvest ceremony in Chichicastenango. McLaughlin also took photographs during a trip to Monterey, Mexico, which include images of towns and scenic views. Additional photographs depict flood damage in Aurora, Indiana; city views and scenery of Merida, Mexico; Chichen Itza; a banana plantation in Honduras; and wartime China and Europe.
Photographs of Cuba in 1898, probably not made by McLaughlin, include images of the USS Maine wreck, and funeral services for the sailors of the ship and residents of Havana. The collection also contains photographs of trees and a dwelling in Honduras made by H. E. Chapman in 1933, photographs of people and scenery in Sumatra made by J. H. Zimmermann, and commercial photographs of archeological collections at the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Historia y Etnografia in Mexico. There are also images of scenery and architecture in Japan, Panama and the Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Belgium, England, and other places in Europe. Depicted individuals include Charles A. Lindbergh, as well as McLaughlin and his family.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 2000-04
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional Frashers photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 59.
Restrictions:
Nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require advanced notice for viewing.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 2000-04, Harris M. McLaughlin photographs of the Americas and Asia, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photo Lot 4420, William Henry Jackson photograph albums based on his Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photo Lot 4420, William Henry Jackson photograph albums based on his Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
