The collection consists of 124 drawings made by Native Alaskan artists. A few of the drawings are signed by the artist, Stephan Ivanoff; the majority of the drawings are unsigned and the artists have not been identified. The drawings depict scenes of Native Alaskan life, including hunting and fishing, reindeer herding, trade, sledding, games, and ceremonies. The drawings were collected by the United States Bureau of Education for exhibition purposes.
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 As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today.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.
Arrangement:
The drawings are arranged in order by inventory number. The inventory numbers roughly following the thematic organization in Alaskan Eskimo Life in the 1890s as Sketched by Native Artists. Some drawings have been rehoused in conservation mounts and are stored out of sequence.
Biographical Note:
Stephan Ivanoff was born in Unalakleet, Alaska to a Yu'pik mother and Russian father. He filled various roles as a translator, deacon of the Swedish Covenant Church, and teaching assistant at the Swedish Evangelical Mission School at Unalakleet around the turn of the twentieth century.
Historical Note:
The Bureau of Education, also known as the Office of Education or Department of Education, was a unit within the United States Department of the Interior from 1867 to 1972.
Local Numbers:
USNM Accession 51115
NAA MS 260447
Variant Title:
Collection previously titled "Scenes of native life including hunting, sledding, games, animal husbandry and ceremonies."
Publication Note:
Almost all drawings were published in:
George Phebus, Jr., Alaskan Eskimo Life in the 1890s as Sketched by Native Artists, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972.
The collection consists of a drawing by an unidentified artist depicting Northwest River Post and showing corn fields, a graveyard, a signal tower, tents, houses, a missionary church, fence, and various topographic features including hills and a stream. The drawing is identified in Bryant's A Journey to the Grand Falls of Labrador (1892) as "Native Drawing."
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.
Biographical Note:
Henry Grier Bryant (November 7, 1859–December 7, 1932) was an American explorer and writer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1891, he organized an expedition to Grand Falls in Labrador, Canada. Bryant's detailed account of his trek was published in The Century Magazine in 1892, and The Geographical Society of Philadelphia reprinted it as the book A Journey to the Grand Falls of Labrador later that year.
Local Numbers:
NAA INV 08510400
USNM Accession 25288
Separated Materials:
Related artifacts have been retained by the Department of Anthropology (Accession 25288).
Provenance:
Donated to the United States National Museum by Henry G. Bryant January 14, 1892. transferred from the object collections of the Department of Anthropology to the National Anthropological Archives in August 1969.
Genre/Form:
Works of art
Drawings
Citation:
Drawing of North West River Post and scenery (MS 153515), National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Oldman, W. O. (William Ockleford), 1879-1949 Search this
Extent:
899 Digital images
Type:
Archival materials
Digital images
Date:
1902-1916
Collection Restrictions:
Digital access only. For physical access see the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa website. https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/4913
Collection Rights:
Copyright in the business records is owned by the Estate of W. O. Oldman represented by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Media Licensing, at: mediasalesandlicensing@tepapa.govt.nz.
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 changedand the source of the image is identified as the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa/National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Citation:
William Ockleford Oldman Archive research materials, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Collection Citation:
Early Aeronautical Newsclippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection, Acc. NASM.XXXX.0086, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Collection Citation:
Early Aeronautical Newsclippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection, Acc. NASM.XXXX.0086, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Collection Citation:
Early Aeronautical Newsclippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection, Acc. NASM.XXXX.0086, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection consists of twenty (20) drawings by Henry Wood Elliott. There are fifteen large black-and-white watercolor and pencil views of fishing and hunting in Alaska, two small watercolors made in British Columbia, and three ink sketches made while Elliott was serving with the Hayden Survey in Wyoming in 1870.
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.
Biographical Note:
Henry Wood Elliott (1846-1930) was a conservationist, naturalist, artist and scientist. From 1862-1878 he worked for the Smithsonian Institution, studying and sketching natural history. In 1864 he travelled to British Columbia in his first field expedition. From 1869-1871 Elliott worked on the U.S. Geological Survey. Between 1872 and 1890 Elliott made three trips to Alaska to investigate seal conditions on the Pribilof Islands, Bering Sea. His sketches of St. Paul's Island provided persuasive evidence of the need to stop the seal slaughter. He authored the first international wildlife conservation treaty, the Hay-Elliott Fur Seal Treaty of 1911. When not in the field Elliott lived in Cleveland, tending to local business matters and his vineyards.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 7119
Related Materials:
Drawings by Henry Wood Elliott are held by the Smithsonian Institution Archives; Archives of American Art; Cleveland Museum of Natural History; University of Alaska Museum; Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks; and others.
Separated Materials:
An oil painting by Elliott, Tlingit Indians Raking in Eulachon, was transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum (1985.66.397,304).
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Works of art
Drawings
Watercolors
Citation:
MS 7119 Henry Wood Elliott drawings, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The collection documents Hall's Arctic exploration.
Scope and Contents:
Diaries, journals, notebooks, scrapbooks, business cards, correspondence, ships' logs, navigation charts and documents on Hall's Arctic exploration. The correspondence includes letters to and from Henry Grimmell, William Grimmell, J. Carson Brevoont, John Barrow, Cyrus Field, Edward Everett, Clement Markham, Joseph Henry, and the Royal Geographic Society.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into one series.
Biographical / Historical:
The Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall was born about 1821, either Vermont or New Hampshire; there are very few details about his early life. He is most notable for spending over ten years in the Arctic among the Inuit, initially focused on locating evidence of the lost British Expedition under Sir John Franklin, and then, in two later expeditions, searching for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole.
Before becoming a polar explorer, Hall began as a blacksmith's apprentice at a young age in Rochester, NH. Sometime in the 1840's he married and moved westward eventually coming to Cincinnati, where Charles opened a business making engraving plates and seals, in 1849. Later he published a small newspaper in Cincinnati, The Cincinnati Occasional.
While publishing news stories of arctic expeditions related to the Franklin expedition, Hall became enamored with the idea of polar exploration. In 1857 he began collecting any material he could gather on the landscape and survival in the Arctic, previous expeditions, and John Franklin's expedition itself, while at the same time seeking financial support for his expedition.
After detailed preparation and a small amount of financial backing, Hall boarded a ship for Greenland, and then on to the "Terra Incognita" of the Arctic. Despite being an amateur explorer with very little support for his first expedition, Hall believed that by living amongst the indigenous Inuit people, a non-native could survive long periods living in the arctic. In May 1860, Hall arrived in Frobisher Bay, Canada and with not much more than a small boat and basic supplies, Hall met befriended local Inuit who took him in for the next two years.
Over those two years, Hall found little evidence of the Franklin expedition, but what he did find proved to be more valuable. While an avid and writer, Hall lived, learned and daily documented in his journals more about the Inuit people that any visitor before him. His journals describe Inuit society, traditions, oral histories, language and culture, as well as the skills necessary to survive in such an unforgiving climate. He also travelled and mapped much of the unknown Frobisher Bay area, correcting many previously incorrect maps that depicted area as an open strait, rather than a closed bay.
Once Hall returned to the United States, he began working on publishing his writings and preparing for a second expedition to Frobisher Bay. In 1864, he left for his second trip spending almost five years living amongst the Inuit, searching for the Franklin expedition and mapping unknown portions of the Arctic.
As soon as he arrived home in 1869, Hall began again planning his next and bigger expedition, but times had changed in the U.S. The Civil War was over and the United States government was now interested in polar exploration and the race to the North Pole. Gaining the attention of President Grant, Hall was appointed as joint commander of the Polaris Expedition.
Departing in 1871, the expedition began with critical problems. The "joint-command" of the expedition put Hall in direct conflict with the other two expedition commanders, each one believing they should have been appointed as sole commander. This eventually led to incredible disasters throughout the expedition, resulting in the total failure of the mission, loss of the ship, as well as the death of Charles Francis Hall. Hall died on the expedition in November 1871, possibly from poisoning by one of his co-commanders. His body was exhumed in 1969 and tested, revealing the presence of arsenic. While Hall claimed on his deathbed he had been poisoned by a crew member, many 19th century medicines contained arsenic.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Diary written prior to Hall's first Arctic expedition.
Local Numbers:
AC0702-0000018
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Journal with preparations for Charles Francis Hall's first expedition.
Local Numbers:
AC0702-0000019
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Scrapbook of Newspaper clippings on polar exploration.
Local Numbers:
AC0702-0000020
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Journal for the months preceeding Hall's first expedition, with newspaper clippings.
Local Numbers:
AC0702-0000021
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Documents for the legal case, Pomroy v. Hall, May 1860.
Local Numbers:
AC0702-0000022
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Hall's notebook with notes on the expedition by Sir John Franklin.
Local Numbers:
AC0702-0000027
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.