Image number 011 "Holiday Handcraft" has been removed from the slideshow due to culutral sensitivity.
Collection Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographs depicting Native American baskets and portraits of Native Americans with whom C. Hart Merriam worked, as well as scenic views and images of animals and plants, mostly in California. Many of the photographs were made by Merriam himself or his daughter Zenaida Merriam Talbot. In addition, Merriam collected photographs from other researchers and photographers, including J. S. Diller, John Peabody Harrington, Henry Wetherbee Henshaw, and O. E. Meddaugh. There are also images acquired from the Boysen Studio of Yosemite and photographs of Mark Twain, John Muir, basketmaker Maggie James, and Merriam's family.
Biographical/Historical note:
Clinton Hart Merriam (1855-1942) was a Columbia University-educated physician who worked as a naturalist, including as head of the Biological Survey for the US Department of Agriculture. He joined the Harriman Alaska Expedition as a zoologist in 1899. In 1910, he left the USDA and began to conduct research among California tribes. Financed by Mary W. Harriman and the E. H. Harriman Fund administered by the Smithsonian, he researched tribes' vocabularies, history, mythology, crafts (particularly basketmaking) until about 1936. His resarch was assisted by his daughter, Zenaida, who took photographs and painted glass slides for him. Merriam served as President of the Anthropological Society of Washington in 1920-1921.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 74-27
General note:
Additional information supplied by Marvin Shodas.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Merriam's notes held in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 1563 and in the Smithsonian Institution Archives in SIA Acc. 12-264.
Additional photographs by Merriam held in the National Museum of American Indian Archives in the Mary Harriman Rumsey Photograph Collection and the Harriman Alaska Expedition Photograph Collection.
Correspondence from Merriam held in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4558, the Department of Anthropology records (Manuscript and Pamphlet file), Bureau of American Ethnology records, J.C. Pilling Papers, Ales Hrdlicka Papers, and Jesse Logan Nusbaum Papers.
The Bancroft Library at University of California, Berkeley holds the C. Hart Merriam Papers, C. Hart Merriam Collection of Native American Photographs (prints corresponding to negatives in this collection), and C. Hart Merriam pictorial collection.
The collection consists of photographs relating to Native Americans, which were submitted to the copyright office of the Library of Congress in and around the early 20th century. Many of the photographs are studio portraits as well as photographs made as part of expeditions and railroad surveys. It includes images of people, dwellings and other structures, agriculture, arts and crafts, burials, ceremonies and dances, games, food preparation, transportation, and scenic views. Some of the photographs were posed to illustrate literary works, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Hiawatha, while others depict paintings or other artwork.
Collection is organized alphabetically by copyright claimant.
Biographical/Historical note:
The collection was formed from submissions made to the Library of Congress as part of the copyright registration process. In 1949, arrangements were made to allow the Bureau of American Ethnology to copy the collection and some negatives were made at that time, largely from the Heyn and Matzen photographs. The project was soon abandoned, however, as too large an undertaking for the facilities of the BAE. In 1957-1958, arrangements were begun by William C. Sturtevant of the BAE to transfer a set of the photographs from the Library of Congress to the BAE.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 59
Provenance:
In 1965, the Bureau merged with the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology to form the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology, and in 1968 the Office of Anthropology Archives transformed into the National Anthropological Archives.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 59, Library of Congress Copyright Office photograph collection of Native Americans, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- California Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Photographs
Date:
circa 1870
Scope and Contents note:
Studio portraits of Klamath, Modoc, and Tolowa Indians made by surveyor Alexander W. Chase while working for the US Coast Survey. Also included are photographs of artifacts from his ethnographic and archaeological collection. The photographs are mounted on brown paper with handwritten descriptions; two newspaper articles, including Alexander Chase's own article for the Topeka Daily Capitol, are glued to the back of two of the pages.
Biographical/Historical note:
Alexander W. Chase (1843-1888) worked as a surveyor for the US Coast Survey from 1862-1878, during which time he visited several reservations near the San Francisco Bay area and southern Oregon. As an amateur artist, photographer, and ethnologist, he recorded his observations of the daily life on the reservations in a journal. He published his documentation of a visit to the Alsea Reservation in a newspaper article for the Topeka Daily Capitol, dated Sunday, November 27, 1887. He also published a longer paper on the Siletz Reservation in 1869. Additionally, he contributed ethnographic and archaeological data, photographs, and sketches to Stephen Powers' monograph, Tribes of California.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 2003-10
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Photo Lot 24 contains four cartes des visite by Chase of Maidu individuals "Captain Tom" and his wife, daughter, and son.
The records of the NMNH Department of Anthropology contain some of Chase's original sketches for Tribes of California.
Additionally, the NAA also holds MS 3230, a manuscript by Chase on the shell mounds of oregon, and the records of the Bureau of American Ethnology contain correspondence between Chase and BAE anthropologists.
Publication Note:
The photographs in this collection are published in
Thomas Blackburn, "Some Additional Alexander W. Chase Materials," Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 25, no. 1 (2005): 39-54.
Provenance:
Donated by Jean Prentiss through Thomas Blackburn in 2002.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 2003-10, Alexander W. Chase Photographs of Klamath, Modoc, and Tolowa people and material culture, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
