8 Prints (halftone (including one newspaper clipping))
124 Prints (circa, silver gelatin, albumen, and platinum)
50 Copy prints (circa)
3 copper printing plates
1 Color print
1 Print (wood engraving)
3 Copy negatives (glass)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Copy prints
Color prints
Copy negatives
Photographs
Date:
circa 1860s-1970
Scope and Contents note:
This collection is an artificial collection of photographs, copper plates, and a few notes, all of which depict or relate to anthropologists, many of which were associated with the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Included are portraits of Franz Boas, Q. M. Bond, Arno B. Cammerer, Frank Hamilton Cushing, Edwin Hamilton Davis, J. Woodbridge Davis, Frances Densmore, James Owen Dorsey, Philip Drucker, Jesse Walter Fewkes (including photographs of his home by Frances Densmore), Albert Samuel Gatschet, James A. Geary, De Lancey W. Gill, George Brown Goode, Horatio Hale, Henry Wetherbee Henshaw, John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt, John K. Hillers, William Henry Holmes, William Henry Jackson, Eugene Irving Knez, Alfred Louis Kroeber, Pere Albert Lacomb, Augustus Le Plongeon, James Mooney, Lewis Henry Morgan, Carl Oschsicanes, James Constantine Pilling, John Wesley Powell, Frau Signe Rink, Frank Harold Hanna Roberts, Jr., Charles C. Royce, Robert Lloyd Stephenson, James Stevenson, Matilda Coxe Stevenson, Julian Haynes Steward, Steward Struever, James Gilchrist Swan, John Reed Swanton, Edwin P. Upham, Wilcomb E. Washburn, and Gordon Randolph Willey. Groups depicted include the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1936; the De Soto Commission; officers of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1885; a 1920 expedition group to Hawikuk; staff of the Great Lakes Division, United States Geological Survey, in Salt Lake City, 1882; a group at Moundville, Alabama, 1932; the University of Nebraska archeological field party, 1920; the Pecos conference, 1927; John Wesley Powell with Wild Hank, Kentucky Mountain Bill, and Jesus Aloiso; and the United States Geological Survey staff, ca. 1894.
Among photographers represented are Vernon Orlando Bailey, Blackston Studios of New York, Dana of New York, Frances Densmore, Gene Garrett, C. W. Gilbert, De Lancey W. Gill, John K. Hillers, William H. Jackson, Kets Kemethy, Paul Koby, David McDonough, H. C. Phillips, Rice of Washington, D. C., and J. A. Shuck of El Reno, Oklahoma.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 33
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Four photographs with negatives by Matilda Coxe Stevenson have been relocated to Photo Lot 23.
This collection includes photographs that have been removed from other collections in the National Anthropological Archives, including MS 4970, MS 4851, MS 4780, MS 4250, MS 4751, MS 4516, MS 4860, MS 4695, MS 4970, and MS 4558.
See others in:
Portraits of anthropologists, 1860s-1960s
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Copy prints of original photographs held by the American Philosophical Society, National Geographic Society, and National Archives cannot be copied. Copies may be obtained from these repositories.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 33, Portraits of anthropologists, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Merriam, C. Hart (Clinton Hart), 1855-1942 Search this
Extent:
1 Photographic print (010 in x 014 in)
Type:
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Photographs
Date:
23 FEB 1930
Local Numbers:
NAA INV.02862500
opps neg.88-1247
Local Note:
Black and white photoprint
Place:
Washington, DC/1919 16th Street
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Copy prints of original photographs held by the American Philosophical Society, National Geographic Society, and National Archives cannot be copied. Copies may be obtained from these repositories.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Collection Citation:
Photo lot 33, Portraits of anthropologists, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Bird and Mammal Laboratories Search this
Extent:
18 cu. ft. (18 record storage boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Black-and-white photographs
Manuscripts
Date:
circa 1885-1971
Descriptive Entry:
These records include early correspondence of the Bureau of Biological Survey; general files of the Bird and Mammal Labs including correspondence, project reports,
annual and quarterly reports, memoranda, material of various staff members and material on the organization, history and policy of the Labs; correspondence from the Bird Section
and Mammal Section on specimens and material concerning studies of fur-bearing animals, particularly the nutria.
Correspondents include: John Warren Aldrich, Rudolph Martin Anderson, Frank G. Ashbrook, Oliver L. Austin, Jr., John Wendell Bailey, Vernon Orlando Bailey, Richard Charles
Banks, William Bonar Bell, Irwin Theodore Bode, Thomas A. Bonser, Nelson Gardiner Bump, Jerry E. Burdick, Thomas Dearborn Burleigh, Patrick A. Buxton, George G. Cantwell,
Harl J. Cook, Wells Woodbridge Cooke, Leo King Couch, Edward L. Davis, Herbert L. Dozier, Frank Dufresne, Allan Joseph Duvall, Charles Elton, Francis Hollis Fay, Albert Kenrick
Fisher, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Edward Alphonso Goldman, George Brown Goode, Samuel Alexander Graham, Wallace Byron Grange, Dorr Dudley Green, Arthur Merwin Greenhall, Tappan
Gregory, F. S. Hall, Van T. Harris, Walter Cleaveland Henderson, Henry Wetherbee Henshaw, C. Gordon Hewitt, Paul Hickie, C. F. Hodges, E. O. Holland, Arthur Holmes Howell,
Hartley H. T. Jackson, Clyde J. Jones, Edwin R. Kalmbach, A. Remington Kellogg, Karl Walton Kenyon, Roxie Collie Laybourne, Daniel Loney Leedy, W. S. Lewis, J. Stokley Ligon,
Seth H. Low, Waldo Lee McAtee, A. D. McCall, James M. Macoun, John Macoun, V. Malyshef, Richard Hyde Manville, Martha Ann Dartt Maxwell (Ref.), C. Hart Merriam, J. Paul Miller,
A. W. Moore, Edward William Nelson, Harry Church Oberholser, John L. Paradiso, Harold S. Peters, Edward Alexander Preble, S. F. Rathbun, Paul R. Redington, Clarence J. Rhode,
Chandler S. Robbins, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry J. Rust, Viola Shelly Schantz, William T. Shaw, Lester Leroy Short, Jr., James Silver, Charles C. Sperry, Robert E. Stewart,
P. A. Taverner, Walter P. Taylor, Mary Dartt Thompson, P. Quentin Tomich, G. Vassilliera, Ernest Pillsbury Walker, Alexander Wetmore, Aubrey L. White, Edwin Willets, Stanley
Paul Young.
Historical Note:
The Bird and Mammal Laboratories of the Fish and Wildlife Service are located in the Natural History Building of the Smithsonian Institution. Their main functions are
to "determine the identity and distribution of species and populations of birds and mammals which are of concern" to the Fish and Wildlife Service and to "conduct the basic
research necessary for the more critical and accurate identification of those specimens." In the process of carrying out these functions, the Labs have accumulated and maintained
one of the world's largest specimen collections of birds and mammals.
Organizationally, the Bird and Mammal Labs are part of the Branch of Wildlife Research of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of Interior. They
are headed by a director, and each section has a separate chief. Since 1958, when the Labs were given their present status as an independent research unit in the Branch of
Wildlife Research, the directors have been Stanley Paul Young (1958-1959), Richard Hyde Manville (1960-1970), Richard Charles Banks (1971-1973), and Clyde J. Jones (1973-
). Chiefs of the Section of Birds have been John Warren Aldrich (1958-1959), Thomas Dearborn Burleigh (1959-1963), Lester LeRoy Short, Jr. (1963-1966), Richard C. Banks (1966-1971),
John S. Weske (1971-1974), and Marshall A. Howe (1974- ). Chiefs of the Mammals Section have been Richard H. Manville (1958-1959), Arthur Merwin Greenhall (1963-1968), Clyde
J. Jones (1970-1973), and Don E. Wilson (1973- ). From 1959 to 1963 and 1968 to 1970, the post of Chief of Mammals was vacant. In 1972, a Herpetology Section was formed and
has been under Richard Bruce Bury since that time.
The Bird and Mammal Labs have their origin in the work of C. Hart Merriam and the old Bureau of Biological Survey in the Department of Agriculture. By 1885, the ornithological
work being carried out by the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and other private organizations and individuals had grown to the point where private interests were no longer
able to finance it sufficiently. The Congress was then persuaded to establish a section of ornithology in the Division of Entomology of the Department of Agriculture. Through
the influence of the AOU and Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian Institution, Merriam was appointed ornithologist. The next year, the section attained independent rank as
the Division of Ornithology and in 1888 became the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy.
Merriam's concept of life zones that are fitted by nature for the life of certain associations of plants and animals and his estimation of the value that the delimitation
of such areas would have for agriculture, led him to propose the establishment of a Biological Survey into which his own division would be merged. The 1896 name change of
the division to the Division of Biological Survey was the result. It became a bureau within the Agriculture Department in 1905.
The Bureau of Biological Survey remained within the Department of Agriculture until 1939 when it was transferred to the Department of Interior. The following year it was
combined with the Bureau of Fisheries, which had been transferred to Interior from the Department of Commerce, to form the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Merriam recognized the need for an extensive collection of specimens for the purposes of identification of species and their distribution. The collections he started became
the foundation of the Bird and Mammal Laboratories. These collections became the basis for all the distributional, taxonomic, and identification studies conducted by the Biological
Survey and its successor agencies.
Throughout the history of the Biological Survey and its successors, the collections and supporting staff, now known as the Bird and Mammal Laboratories, have been under
those sections responsible for geographic distribution of birds and mammals. Until 1916, this was the Section of Geographic Distribution. In that year, a reorganization of
the functional set-up of the Bureau put the collections under the control of the Division of Biological Investigations. A consolidation of research activities in 1934 led
to the establishment of the Division of Wildlife Research, to which the work of the former Division of Biological Investigations was assigned. In 1936 the care of the collections
was given to the Section of Wildlife Surveys in the Division of Wildlife Research. This new section was under the supervision of Hartley H. T. Jackson.
This system of responsibility remained basically the same until 1947, when the curation of the bird collections was assigned to the Section of Distribution and Migration
of Birds under John W. Aldrich. In 1941, the Section of Wildlife Surveys became that of Biological Surveys but retained responsibility for the collections until 1947, as noted
above. Stanley P. Young took over in 1949 as acting chief of Biological Surveys. In 1951, the Sections of Biological Surveys and of Distribution and Migration of Birds were
merged to form the Section of Distribution of Birds and Mammals under John W. Aldrich. This new section was given responsibility for both collections. Finally, in 1958, the
Bird and Mammal Laboratories became an independent research unit under the Branch of Wildlife Research, Division of Wildlife, with Stanley P. Young as its first director.
The basis for the connection between the Bird and Mammal Labs and the Smithsonian is the Institution's role as depository for all natural history collections gathered by
the agencies of the federal government and not being used for current research. An 1889 exchange of letters between George Brown Goode, assistant secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, and Edwin Willits, assistant secretary of Agriculture, provides that the Smithsonian will be the depository for the collections of the Division of Ornithology
and Mammalogy of the Agriculture Department, subject to certain conditions relating to access and care.
The collections, although housed in the U.S. National Museum, were kept separate from the museum's collections until the 1950s when first the bird and then the mammal collections
were merged and curated jointly. Another aspect of cooperation with the Smithsonian is a practice whereby the Fish and Wildlife Service collects chiefly North American specimens
and the Smithsonian concentrates on all other areas, although neither is limited to those areas.
