This collection consists of 105 photographic images of Native American peoples throughout the U.S., primarily in Arizona and New Mexico. A number of the postcards and photographs were sent back and forth between non-Native family members who worked in Indian Boarding Schools in Fort Defiance, AZ, among other locations.
Scope and Contents:
The Arizona and New Mexico postcard and photograph collection consists of postcards, photographic prints, and stereographs, totaling 105 photographic items. Many of the postcards and photographs date to between the early 1900s and the late 1920s and were sent between non-Native family members who worked in Indian Boarding Schools, including those at Fort Defiance and Chinle in Arizona, Chilocco in Oklahoma, Haskell in Kansas, and Lac du Flambeau in Wisconsin.
These items have been organized into three series. Series 1: Postcards, 1908-1916, includes 79 postcards. Approximately 10 postcards contain images taken by the photographer Simeon Schwemberger of Diné (Navajo) people on the Navajo Reservation, and were sold out of his studio in St. Michaels, Arizona. Series 2: Photographs, 1896-1926, includes 18 photographs. Several of these include depictions of Native and non-Native peoples in Fort Defiance in Arizona, Haskell in Kansas, and Lac du Flambeau in Wisconsin. Series 3: Stereographs, 1865-1875, includes 8 stereographic images. These stereographs contain images taken by the photographer William Stinson Soule (Will Soule) of Kiowa-Apache, Niuam (Comanche), and Southern Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne) men near Fort Sill in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), between approximately 1865 and 1875.
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 As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology.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 three series. Series 1: Postcards, 1908-1916, Series 2: Photographs, 1896-1926, and Series 3: Stereographs, 1865-1875.
Biographical / Historical:
Photographer William Stinson Soule (Will Soule) lived and worked in the region of Fort Sill, in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), in the 1860s and 1870s, regularly photographing U.S. Army personnel and Southern Plains Indian communities.
Simeon Schwemberger was a photographer originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, who settled near the St. Michaels mission church in Arizona in 1901. There he took many photographs of the Native communities of the region, later selling the images as postcards.
Provenance:
Gift from Jenene Garey in 2018 and 2021.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 3:30 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.
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Arizona and New Mexico postcard and photograph collection, NMAI.AC.127; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Many of the postcards were sent between non-Native family members who worked in Indian Boarding Schools, including those at Fort Defiance and Chinle in Arizona, Chilocco in Oklahoma, Haskell in Kansas, and Lac du Flambeau in Wisconsin. Approximately 10 postcards contain images taken by the photographer Simeon Schwemberger of Diné (Navajo) people on the Navajo Reservation, and were sold out of his studio in St. Michaels, Arizona.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 3:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Arizona and New Mexico postcard and photograph collection, NMAI.AC.127; 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.
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Citation:
Photo Lot 90-1, George V. Allen collection of photographs of Native Americans and the American frontier, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Lantern slides depicting the people and landscape of the American Southwest. Images include those of Puebloan people, dwellings, churches, dances and ceremonies, archaeological excavations (including Pueblo Bonito and Neil M. Judd with his excavation party), pictographs, and landscapes. Tribes represented include Acoma, White Mountain Apache, Hopi (Mishongnovi), Laguna, Navajo, Taos, and Santa Clara. The slides were largely commercially distributed by the George W. Bond, Chicago Slide Company, Chicago Transparency Company (for the Santa Fe Railroad), Detroit Slide Company, Edward H. Kemp, National Geographic Society, and United States Bureau of Reclamation. The collection was listed as the "Casey collection" by Father John Montgomery Cooper when it was brought to the museum.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 32, USNM ACC 211312
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Artifacts donated by the Department of Anthropology, Catholic University of America in accession 211312 held in the anthropology collections of the National Museum of Natural History. Additional photographs donated by Catholic University of America can be found in Photo Lot 20 in the National Anthropological Archives.
Three photograph albums made by Victor Mindeleff documenting pueblo architecture, villages, and people. Some photographs, including those published in the Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, were made by Hillers, according to notations on file prints in Bureau of American Ethnology.
Biographical/Historical note:
In the 1880s, Victor Mindeleff (1860-1948) was employed by the Bureau of American Ethnology to conduct studies of Pueblo architecture. He hired His brother, Cosmos Mindeleff (1863-1938), to be his assistant. They worked at Zuni, Acoma, and Hopi villages, as well as among the Navajo; at ruins at Kin Tiel, Canyon de Chelly, and Chaco Canyon; and at Etowah Mound in Georgia. Victor Mindeleff left the BAE in 1890 for a career in architecture.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 4362
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Original negatives for some of these photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 14.
Additional Mindeleff photographs can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 28, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 78, and the BAE historical negatives.
Victor Mindeleff's manuscript, Origins of Pueblo Architecture (1887), and correspondence describing his fieldwork can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in the records of the Department of Anthropology.
Aditional Mindeleff sketches, plans, and drawings relating to Pueblo architecture held in MS 2138 and MS 2621] in the National Anthropological Archives.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Sketches and ground plans, also made by Victor Mindeleff or his brother Cosmos, were sent to the Bureau of American Ethnology with these photograph albums. They now form MS 2926 in the National Anthropological Archives.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Portfolios
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Songs sung by Philip Sanchez, translated by Wilbert Hunt, and recorded by Anthony Wilding for M. W. Stirling, Washington, D. C., October, 1928. Songs numbered 1A-24A. Three copies of list, as follows: original, in handwriting of M. W. Stirling, Anthony Wilding, and ; typescript, annotated by Leslie A. White; typescript carbon, edited in writing of M. W. Stirling.
The collection consists of twenty (20) drawings of Acoma kachina masks and other ceremonial objects collected by Leslie A. White. The drawings have been mounted on boards for publication.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4607
Publication Note:
Reproduced in White, L. A. (1932). "The Acoma Indians." Bureau of American Ethnology Annual Report to the Smithsonian Institution. 47. 17-192.
Variant Title:
Drawings by Acoma Indians, of Kachina masks and other ceremonial objects
The collection consists of photographs collected by the Albertype Company for their postcards and viewbooks, including portraits, scenery, camps, Native Americans schools, and some paintings and composites for postcard printing. Additional subjects include rock drawings in Maine; a statue in Kansas City, Missouri; Standing Rock Monument in North Dakota; people in Atlin, British Columbia; Carib rock drawings in the Virgin Islands; and totem poles in Vancouver.
Included are works of Charles Milton Bell, E. A. Benson, C. R. Bourne, H. E. Brown, William Bull, H. H. Clarke, George B. Cornish, Frank Bennett Fiske, H. Lee Flood, N. W. Halsey, Fred Harvey, H. R. Hazeltine, Kiser Photograph Company, W. H. Martin, C. W. Mathers, Frank Matsura, W. H. Matthewson, Charles E. Morris, Ernest Moses, J. S. Myers, M. OʹConnor, G. W. Parsons, Roland W. Reed, C. B. Robinson , J. E. Stimson, W. M. Stoltz, and H. H. Watkins. Clarke and Fiske, however, are the only photographers with more than a few images.
Biographical/Historical note:
The Albertype Company, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, published viewbooks and postcards for national distribution. Founded by Adolph and Herman Witteman, the company began publishing souvenier photographic albums as early as 1867. The Wittemans established Witteman Brothers in 1885, and then the Albertype Company in 1890. From 1890 to 1950, the firm published collotypes made from the photographs of its agents (including Adolph Witteman), other companies, and independent photographers. The firm was purchased in 1952 by Art Vue Post Card Company.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 25
Reproduction Note:
Modern copy negatives and prints made by Smithsonian Institution, circa 1972.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The Library of Congress, Wisconsin Historical Society, and Historical Society of Pennsylvania also hold original Albertype Company prints and negatives.
Albertype Company views are also held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 88-37, Photo Lot 92-37, and Photo Lot 92-3.
Restrictions:
Original nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require advanced notice for viewing. Modern copy prints and copy negatives for nearly all images are available.
This collection consists of 145 postcards and 11 photographs depicting Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with dates ranging 1890 – 1930s. The bulk of the collection consists of postcards of Native communities throughout the United States, and includes portrait images, dwellings, basket-making, weaving, and crafts.
Scope and Contents:
The Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection consists of 145 postcards and 11 photographs with dates ranging 1890 – 1930s. The images depict Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and spans a large geographical breadth extending from the Arctic in the north to Chile and Peru in South America. The bulk of the collection consists of postcards of Native communities throughout the United States, with a significant number of images depicting various Pueblo and Southwest cultural groups; many of these latter postcards were produced by the Fred Harvey Company. A number of the postcards and photographs include portrait images, dwellings, basket-making, weaving, and crafts. Also of particular note are 13 scenes of daily life at a number of different Indian Boarding Schools at the turn of the twentieth century. Finally, in addition to the postcard images are 11 photographs consisting of cabinet cards and other photographic prints.
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 11 series, organized thematically (Indian Boarding Schools) and then regionally by location or culture group. Series 1: Indian Boarding Schools, Series 2: Arctic/Subarctic, Series 3: Northwest Coast,
Series 4: California, Series 5: Great Basin/Plateau, Series 6: Southwest, Series 7: Plains, Series 8: Northeast/Great Lakes, Series 9: Southeast, Series 10: Mexico/Central America, Series 11: South America
Biographical / Historical:
Dale Jenkins is a retired Financial Planner living in California, having previously worked in the Aerospace industry. He has collected late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American photographs and postcards for over 30 years. In addition to archival collections donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, Jenkins has also donated postcard and photograph collections to the California Museum of Photography, the California Historical Society, and the Museum of the City of New York.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Dale Jenkins in 2013 and 2014.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 3:30 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 Archives Center's Digital Image request website.
Indians of Central America -- Guatemala Search this
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection, NMAI.AC.069, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This series contains 45 postcards and 6 photographic prints. The images include depictions of activities such as weaving, basket making, pottery making, bread-baking, and selling crafts. Communities represented include Acoma Pueblo, Akimel O'odham (Pima), A:shiwi (Zuni), Chimayo, Cochiti Pueblo, Diné (Navajo), Havasupai (Coconino), Hopi Pueblo, Hualapai (Walapai), K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Laguna Pueblo, Mojave (Mohave), Tesuque Pueblo, and Tohono O'odham (Papago). The only individual specifically identified is Elle of Ganado [Diné (Navajo)], a well-known and celebrated weaver of the time. A large number of these postcards were produced by the Fred Harvey Company which partnered with the Santa Fe Railroad in the early 20th century to generate tourism in the American Southwest.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 3:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archives Center's Digital Image request website.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection, NMAI.AC.069, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
