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.
Photographs in this collection include indoor and outdoor portraits, domestic scenes, landscapes of Gwich'in (Kutchin), Seminole and Cheyenne Indians taken by Deaconess M. Bedell from her work as missionary between 1907-1939.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists of photographs made by Deaconess Bedell while she worked as an Episcopal missionary among the Southern Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne), Gwich'in (Kutchin), and Seminole peoples in Oklahoma, Alaska, and Florida respectively. Although Bedell work in Oklahoma from 1907 to 1916, the Southern Tsitsistas/Suhtai photographs are dated from 1910 to 1915 and consist of informal group portraits of men, women, and children dressed in both traditional and Anglo American clothing; group pictures of school children--boys and girls--at the Whirlwind Mission school and the mission campus itself; and traditional and Anglo American dwellings of Southern Tsitsistas/Suhtai individuals. Among these photographs are studio portraits collected but likely not made by Bedell. Bedell worked in Alaska from 1916 to 1931; the Alaska photographs in the collection date from 1926 to 1931. Among the photographs are informal, outdoor group portraits of Gwich'in men, women, and children, and photographs depicting the landscape, dog sled teams, and Gwich'in dwellings, summer camps, and men fishing and boxing.The Florida photographs date from 1933 to 1939 and depict informal, outdoor group and single portraits of Seminole men, women, and children in traditioanl clothing, photographs depicting men rowing dugouts, Seminole dwellings (chickees), camps, and baskets. Most of these photographs were made at the Glade Cross Mission in the Everglades. The negatives are primarily copy negatives.
Arrangement note:
Prints: organized in folders; arranged by print number
Negatives: organized in envelopes; arranged by negative number
Biographical/Historical note:
Harriet Mary Bedell was born on March 19, 1875, in Buffalo, New York, to Horace Ira Bedell and
Louisa Sophia Oberist. Bedell was confirmed in the Episcopalian church and graduated from Normal School in 1894. Following graduation, Bedell worked as a school teacher before deciding to enroll in the New York City Training School for Deaconesses in 1906. She also spent several months in Buffalo at a local hospital learning the rudiments of nursing. Between 1907 and 1916 Bedell was sent to the Whirlwind mission in Blaine County, Oklahoma. There, she worked as a missionary-teacher among the Cheyenne alongside Deacon Oakerhater (Cheyenne). During her time in Oklahoma Bedell contracted Tuberculosis and spent some time in Denver, Colorado recovering. By 1916 plans were made to close the Mission and Bedell was told she was to be transferred to Alaska where her teaching skills were needed. She accepted the remote post in Stevens Village, Alaska, among the Gwich'in (Kutchin) people. In 1922, Bedell left Alaska briefly to be officially ordained as a Deaconess in Portland, Oregon. During her time in Alaska, Bedell also established a boarding school in nearby Tanana but due to the stock market crash of 1929 and the scarcity of funds the boarding facility was unable to remain open. In 1931, following an unsuccessful trip to Buffalo to try and raise money, it was decided that there was no reason for Bedell to return to Alaska.
In 1933, Bedell travelled to Florida by invitation to speak and was appalled by the living conditions she witnessed among the Seminole in southern Florida. Bedell worked to reopen the Glade Cross Mission in Everglades City which had closed in 1914 as well as opening a new Mission in Collier City. In addition to focusing on health and education, Bedell encouraged the Seminole women she worked with to revive traditional doll-making, basket-weaving and intricate patchwork designs. Bedell worked in South Florida until 1960 when hurricane Donna destroyed her home and the Glade Cross Mission and she decided to retire. Bedell lived to be 94 and spent her final years at the Bishop Gray Inn in Davenport, Florida until her death on January 8, 1969. In the year 2000 Bedell was named a "Great Floridian" and in the diocese of Southwest Florida celebrate Harriet Bedell Day annually on January 8th.
Related Materials:
The Harriet Bedell Collection of 126 prints of Bedell working among the Seminole Indians in South Florida from 1933 to 1960 is located at the State Library and Archives of Florida. Information can be found here: Harriet Bedell Collection.
Provenance:
In 1940 Harriet Bedell sent her negatives to the Museum of the American Indian, via William Stiles, to be made into prints. These prints are the bulk of the collection [P14817-P14911, P14955-P15050]. Later in 1940 Bedell presented the museum with an additional 29 prints [P14913-P14941] and in 1941and 1942 Bedell sent two additional gifts totaling 13 prints [P15328-P15330, P15355-P15364].
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
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 Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Topic:
Gwich'in Indians -- Missions -- Photographs Search this
Cheyenne Indians -- Missions -- Photographs Search this
Seminole Indians -- Missions -- Photographs Search this
The collection consists of photographs collected by the Albertype Company for their postcards and viewbooks, including portraits, scenery, camps, American Indian 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.
See others in:
Albertype Company photograph collection relating to American Indians, circa 1890-1910
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.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Volumes
Ledger drawings
Date:
bulk ca. 1903-1904
Scope and Contents:
Notes and drawings by Native artists relating to heraldry, as Mooney termed tipi and shield designs. Also some myths and linguistic data from these and other Plains tribes. The manuscript is a compilation of materials created over a period of years, assembled under the current number by the BAE archivist. Bound volumes (since disbound for lamination) were placed under this manuscript number; loose notes and drawings on the same topics were primarily assembled under manuscript number 2538.
Biographical / Historical:
James Mooney (1861-1921) was a self-taught ethnologist. He was employed by the Bureau of American Ethnology from 1885 until his death. In this capacity, he worked extensively among the Cherokee and Kiowa. Among the Kiowa his studies focused on pictorial calendars, the peyote religion, and heraldry, the term he used to refer to the designs on shields and painted tipis. In the course of his study of Kiowa and Cheyenne heraldry, he commissioned illustrations of shield and tipi designs, as well as miniature shields and tipis. For additional biographic information on James Mooney see: Christopher Winters, General Editor, International Dictionary of Anthropologists, Garland Publishing, 1991. Neil M. Judd, The Bureau of American Ethnology - A Partial History, University of Oklahoma Press, 1967. L.G. Moses, The Indian Man - A Biography of James Mooney, University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2531
OPPS NEG 57,508-A---521-A
OPPS NEG 71-3046-A
OPPS NEG 71-3046
OPPS NEG 72-1801 CN-1818 CN
Local Note:
The John M. Seger Referred to in Vol VIII (and also in Mooney's peyote files) was a teacher of agricultural methods. Walter Campbell edited his autobiography, "Early Days among the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians," Univ. of Okla. press. Genevieve Seger, his daughter, lives at Geary, Okla.; she may be a trustee of the Okla. Historical Soc. --Information from Althea Bass, here May 1959.
Mrs. J. H. Bass (Althea Bass) here May 6, 1959, thinks that the "Paul" referred to occasionally in Vols. III, IV, and V may be Paul Boynton, an interpreter who spoke both Cheyenne and Arapaho. His family still lives at El Reno. His father had something to do with the Agency. Paul Boynton is mentioned in one of the letters in Mooney corresponence for 1902-06 (Smithsonian Institution - Bureau of American Ethnology correspondence files.)
Date written on several pages by Mooney; almost certainly drawings done by same artist at same time and place as Ms. 2531, Vol. 10, identified by Mooney as "Drawn by Nakoim' eno = Bear Wings/alias Charles Murphy, Cheyenne Cantonment, Okla."
Photographs of various subjects, including portraits of American Indians made from negatives by the Bureau of American Ethnology and United States National Museum. Depicted individuals include Lamar Richards (also known as Ostin, Tonkawa) and Grant Richards (also known as Sentele, Tonkawa); Turning Hawk, Crow Dog, Spot Tail, Red Leaf, and White Thunder. There are also images of Shuswap Indians dressing hides; Smohalla and Sokulk followers at Priests Rapids, Washington; and American Indians around a campfire at Fort Marion, Florida.
Additionally, there are photographs of St. Columba's Church, White Earth Reservation, Minnesota; Otoe Industrial School; a chapel at the Cheyenne Mowerʹs place, with Mower's son; a sketch of Fort Cummings, New Mexico; buildings and a mound at Charleston, West Virginia; the Tabernacle at Salt Lake City; an American Indian camp with hides drying; American Indians dragging brush in preparation of a medicine lodge; and a wood engraving of a Dakota Ghost Dance, taken from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.
Photographers include William Dinwiddie; De Lancey W. Gill; Sumner W. Matteson; Thomas William Smillie; Cross, of Hot Springs, South Dakota; and C. C. McBride.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 66F
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs by Dinwiddie can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 60, Photo Lot 78, Photo Lot 89, Photo Lot 141A, Photo Lot 144, Photo Lot 80-18, the BAE historical negatives, and the Herbert William Krieger Papers.
Additional Gill photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 33, Photo Lot 65, Photo Lot 70, Photo Lot 85, Photo Lot 79-4, Photo Lot 87-2P, and Photo Lot 90-1.
The National Museum of the American Indian Archives holds the Sumner W. Matteson collection of photographs, negatives and lantern slides.
Additional Smillie photographs held in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 60, Photo Lot 79, and the BAE historical negatives. The Archives Center, National Museum of American History also holds the Frances Benjamin Johnston and Thomas W. Smillie Glass Plate Negatives.
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 American Indian 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 Indians, 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 Indians 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 collected 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.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 90-1
See others in:
George V. Allen photograph collection of American Indians and the American frontier, circa 1860-1935
Photo Lot 90-1, George V. Allen photograph collection of American Indians and the American frontier, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Date:
ca. 1867-74
Scope and Contents:
Photos are of Arapaho, Cheyenne, Commanche, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, and Wichita Indians; portraits, villages, and landscape views, including (miscellaneous ?) views of Fort Sill, Indian Territory. [Oklahoma]. Believed to have been taken by William S. Soule at and near Fort Sill, Indian Territory [Oklahoma] and possibly in the vicinity of Fort Dodge [Kansas], and Camp Supply [Oklahoma], ca. 1867-74. Prints placed in album at Smithsonian Office of Anthropology-A, numbered 1-40 with original captions.
The William Wildschut photograph collection contains 183 photographic negatives, and 89 post cards. From 1917 to 1928 William Wildschut studied the Apsáalooke people through interviews, photography, and the collection of cultural objects. In 1921 Wildschut was hired as a field man by George Gustav Heye the director of the Museum of the American Indian, Wildschut officially collected and conducted field expeditions in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada, and North Dakota on behalf of the Museum until 1928. Wildschuts photographs include portrait style photos of Apsáalooke people, special events, daily reservation life, interments, and encampments. Tribes represented in this collection are primarily Apsáalooke, the postcard collection consists of other tribes including Lakota, Arapaho, and other unidentified tribes.
Scope and Contents:
The William Wildschut collection contains 183 photographic negatives, and 21 photographic prints. The photographic negatives were made by Wildschut between 1917 and 1928. The majority of the photographs in this collection are of Apsáalooke people and their reservation, however the postcard collection consists of over 14 instances of people from unidentified tribes. Wildschut photographed Apsáalooke chiefs, leaders and their families in portrait style poses and his subjects are usually dressed in their finest. He also photographed events such as Crow fair, veteran celebrations, parades, ceremonies, and interments.
The Apsáalooke are a people of the northern plains, their ancestral territory is in Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming, through Montana and into North Dakota, where it joins the Missouri River. Today the Crow Indian Reservation in located in south-central Montana which covers roughly 2,300,000 acres of land and it is the fifth-largest Indian reservation in the United States. The Crow are known for their horsemanship, exquisite beadwork, clan system, historic war societies, 7th Calvary scouts, prolific chiefs, and beautiful homeland.
Series 1: Apsáalooke chiefs and leaders photographed in portrait style taken between 1917-1928. Wildschut captured images of many of the last Apsáalooke war chiefs who were, at the time, adjusting to a new life on the reservation. Many of the chiefs and leaders Wildschut photographed were dealing with new issues such as the Allotment Act, the Indian Citizenship Act, implementation of boarding schools, and government imposed regulations on traditional practices.
Series 2: Groups of Apsáalooke people in various situations. These photographs were taken at social events such as parades, dances, celebrations, and at the 45th annual Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Series 3: Apsáalooke people (individuals and families) in various situations. Some photographs are portrait style poses and others are casual instances. The Crow, who call themselves Apsáalooke or Biiluuke, are people of the Northern Plains. The Apsáalooke people continue to maintain their language and remain resilient in their cultural practices, they still identify themselves through a clan system, these clans are Ashshitchíte/the Big Lodge, Ashhilaalíoo/ Newly Made Lodge, Uuwatashe/ Greasy Mouth, Ashíiooshe/ Sore Lip, Xúhkaalaxche/ Ties the Bundle, Biliikóoshe/ Whistling Waters, Ashkápkawiia/ Bad War Deeds, and the Aashkamne/ Piegan clan.
Series 4: Photographs of the reenactment of the Battle of the Little Big Horn in Garryowen, MT in 1921. The Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought along the banks of the Little Bighorn River, in south central Montana on June 25-26, 1876. The 7th Regiment of the U.S. Cavalry engaged in armed combat with the Lakota, Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. The site of the battlefield is located on the Crow Indian reservation which is where Wildschut photographed the re-enactment. This event involved actual survivors of the event and many other re-enactors.
Series 5: Casual photographs of non-ceremonial dances, parades, fairs, races and rodeos. The Apsáalooke enjoy a very social culture, they revel in coming together to sing, dance, and celebrate as often as possible. This is called baasaxpilúua (Celebration). Baasaxpilúua allows families and clans to reunite and solidify their bonds. One such occasion is the annual Crow Fair celebration that takes place on the Crow reservation, on the third week of August. The Crow parade is a stunning exhibition of beadwork adorning people, horses and various types of floats. The beadwork of the Crow people is among the most technically proficient and visually exquisite in the world.
Series 6: Encampments with tipis (ashtáale) and tents. Wildschuts photographs of encampments are on the Crow reservation, Fort Custer, and at the Billings fair (a fair that Crows would go to parade, dance, camp and watch races and rodeos). The Apsáalooke call the tipi ashtáale, which translates to real home. Wildschut was not allowed into the tipi to photograph, there is only one photographic instance where he took photographs of a family in a tipi [N31145] and [N31146].
Series 7: Restricted Photographs of interments, ceremonies, sacred spaces and objects). As an ethnographer William Wildschut spent time studying Crow culture. He interviewed Crow people and even witnessed ceremonial events. Wildschut developed relationships with certain Crows who allowed him the honor of being present when private sacred bundles where opened. In some cases Wildschut was allowed to photograph these sacred events. Not all Apsáalooke people agree with these permissions, however the Crow people understand that those who allowed Wildschuts presence did so for their own purposes. The Apsáalooke come from a living culture and still maintain their language, culture and beliefs. They have respectfully requested that these photographs not be made public.
Arrangement note:
This collection is arranged into eight series by people, events, locations and postcards.
Series 1: Apsáalooke Chiefs (Bacheeítche), Series 2: Apsáalooke Groupings, Series 3: Apsáalooke People, Series 4: 45th Annual Battle of the Little Big Horn, Series 5: Parades, Dances, and Events, Series 6: Encampments, Series 7: Restricted Content, Series 8: Postcards.
Biographical/Historical note:
William Wildschut was born Willem Wildschut on March 30, 1883, in Jisp, Holland. He married in 1909 in Leicester, England, and moved with his wife to Trier, Germany, where he was in charge of a cigarette factory. This began a long period during which Wildschut and his family moved frequently between Holland, Canada, and the western United States, usually while Wildschut was managing factories. In 1917 Wildschut moved his family to Billings, Montana where he worked in Farm Mortgages, this work took him to Hardin, Mt. (a small farming community 43 miles east of Billings), which borders the Crow Indian reservation and once served as an economic hub for the Apsáalooke people. William was fascinated with the Crow and began purchasing medicine bundles, war shirts, and various other items from the Crow which he found a market for with George Gustav Heye the founding Director of the Museum of the American Indian. In 1922, Heye purchased Wildschut's medicine bundle collection and hired him as a field man. From 1921 to 1928 Wildschut officially collected and conducted field expeditions in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada, and North Dakota on behalf of the Museum. Wildschut was also a collector of photographs. In the late 1920's he distributed a series of postcards that featured Native American people. These postcards featured his own photos as well as those of other photographers. During his employment with the Museum of the American Indian he was made a member of the Explorer's Club, and published several articles in the Museum's series "Indian Notes". On May 1, 1928, after the death of two of Heye's major benefactors, Wildschut was let go. In 1929 Wildschut and his family relocated to California where he worked for different mortgage companies. 1936 he was transferred to Oakland, California where he remained until his passing on January 7, 1955.
According to letters from him wife, William Wildschut was given a Crow name and was close friends with many Crow people. She also wrote that he believed it was his calling to do the work with Indians, however when he was released from employment with MAI he became distraught and never spoke of Indian people again. There are few stories about William Wildschut that remain in Crow Country, one is that his name was "Xaapaliiashilish" (Bundle Buyer) which is fitting considering he purchased and hundreds of sacred bundles from the Crow, which are now in Museums and Private Collections all over the world.
William Wildschut wrote several book manuscripts during his time with the Crow, three were later edited and published, these include: Crow Indian Beadwork (New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation: 1959), Crow Indian Medicine Bundles (New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation: 1960) and Two Leggings: The Making of a Crow Warrior which was published in 1967.
Related Materials:
Additional William Wildschut papers (WA MSS S-2386) are located at Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and The Yale Collection of Western Americana, New Haven, Connecticut.
The National Museum of the American Indian holds additional William Wildschut material such as letters, notes, receipts, and objects descriptions in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation records, 1890-1989. They can be found in Series 6: Collectors, Box 284, Folder 14 to Box 286, Folder 6.
Separated Materials:
Originally, a collection of Fred E. Miller photographs purchased by William Wildschut were marked as William Wildschut photographs and were included in this collection. They have since been identified by Dorothy Munson, curator of the Fred E. Miller Collection, in Housatonic, Massachusetts, and have been processed separately as the Fred E. Miller photograph collection.
Provenance:
The Wildschut photograph collection was purchased from William P. Wreden of Palo Alto, California, by Frederick Dockstader, director of the Museum of the American Indian, in 1964. Mrs. Wildschut had given the negative collection to Frederick Moore, a friend of the Wildschuts, for his personal collection. However, when Moore's bookselling business went bankrupt the Wildschut images ended up as part of the bankruptcy sale and were purchased by Wreden. Many of the postcards in this collection were taken years after Wildschuts death, these post cards were possibly added to the collection by Fredrick Moore or William P. Wreden.
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). Certain photographs have been restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
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.
Topic:
Crow Indians -- Social life and customs -- Photographs Search this
Crow Indians -- Montana -- Crow Indian Reservation -- Photographs Search this
Genre/Form:
Postcards
Negatives (photographic)
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William Wildschut photograph collection, Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographs from an album compiled by Christian Barthelmess for a fellow soldier, O.S. Gordon. The bulk of the images relate to American Indians and the United States army and include studio portraits; images of dwellings and camps; cowboys; Zuni and Navajo performing daily activities; Cheyenne and Zuni dances; a Cheyenne travois; fishing and hunting parties; and American Indian scouts for the army. There are also scenic views of Colorado, Zuni Pueblo, Santa Fe, Custer (Little Bighorn) Battlefield, Camp Proctor, and Forts Merritt and Keogh. The collection also includes some images from Germany, including images of a German singing club and the Bavarian town of Klingenberg on the Main. One photograph was made by W. J. Carpenter, a Colorado photographer.
Biographical/Historical note:
Christian Barthelmess (1854-1906) was born in Bavaria and immigrated to the United States in the early 1870s. Enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1876, he directed military bands and was an official army photographer. Barthelmess retired from the Army in 1903, but remained post photographer for Fort Keogh until his death in 1906.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot R87-1
Reproduction Note:
Copy negatives made by Smithsonian Institution, 1989.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs by Barthelmess can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4423, Photo Lot 24, and the BAE historical negatives.
The Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University hold photographs by Barthelmess.
The Montana Historical Society Archives holds the Barthelmess Family Papers, 1926-1971, including a series relating to Christian Barthelmess.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
This copy collection has been obtained for reference purposes only. Contact the repository for terms of use and access.
Photo Lot R87-1, Copies of Christian Barthelmess photographs of American Indians and United States Army, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Early Birds of Aviation (Organization). Search this
Wiseman-Peters (Fred Wiseman and J. W. Peters) (Aircraft manufacturer) Search this
Extent:
0.59 Cubic feet (1 flatbox)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Tickets
Correspondence
Clippings
Date:
1909-1968
bulk [ca. 1910s, 1950s]
Summary:
Fred Wiseman, along with J. W. Peters and D.C. Prentiss, built a biplane named the Wiseman-Peters. During July 1910, both Peters and Wiseman flew the Wiseman-Peters and the following year Wiseman entered the 1911 Aviation Meet at Selfridge Field, Michigan. On February 17, 1911, Wiseman made the first airplane-carried mail flight officially sanctioned by any local U.S. post office and made available to the public when he carried mail, a bundle of newspapers and a sack of groceries from Petaluma, CA, to Santa Rosa, CA. After the 1911 season, Wiseman gave up flying.
This collection consists of a large scrapbook. Inside the scrapbook are newspaper clippings, correspondence, 1st Day Covers, race tickets, and photographs chronicling both Wiseman's automobile and aviation careers.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of a large scrapbook. Inside the scrapbook are newspaper clippings, correspondence, 1st Day Covers, race tickets, and photographs chronicling both Wiseman's automobile and aviation careers.
Note: The digital images in this finding aid were repurposed from scans made by an outside contractor for a commercial product and may show irregular cropping and orientation in addition to color variations resulting from damage to and deterioration of the original objects.
Arrangement:
Materials are in the order the donor attached them to the scrapbook. Correspondence is often located within the envelope that is attached to the scrapbook. Some materials are loose and have been left in the arrangement in which they were found, unless a portion of a newspaper article could be matched to its other parts.
Biographical / Historical:
Fred Wiseman (1875-1961) was born in Santa Rosa, California, and after attending local schools he engaged in both the bicycle and automotive businesses. Wiseman won considerable fame racing Stoddard-Dayton cars on the West Coast as well as in the Chicago area. He became interested in aviation after attending the Wright brothers' homecoming celebration in 1909 and the first Los Angeles aviation meet at Dominguez Field in 1910.
After these two events, Wiseman was convinced he wanted to learn to fly and so he returned to his home in Santa Rosa and persuaded Ben Noonan to put up $10,000 to build a plane. Wiseman, along with J. W. Peters and D.C. Prentiss, built a biplane named the Wiseman-Peters. During July 1910, both Peters and Wiseman flew the Wiseman-Peters and the following year Wiseman entered the 1911 Aviation Meet at Selfridge Field, Michigan.
On February 17, 1911, Wiseman made the first airplane-carried mail flight officially sanctioned by any local U.S. post office and made available to the public when he carried mail, a bundle of newspapers and a sack of groceries from Petaluma, CA, to Santa Rosa, CA. (The first air mail flight sanctioned by the U.S. Post Office in Washington, D.C., took place on September 23, 1911, when Earle Ovington carried mail from Garden City, Long Island, to Mineola; and the first continuously scheduled U.S. air mail service began on May 15, 1918, with routes between Washington, Philadelphia, and New York.)
During 1911, Wiseman had an active season of exhibition work, including flying for one week at the California State Fair. However, after this season Wiseman gave up flying because he thought there was no future in it. He sold his plane and returned to the automobile business. He later worked for Standard Oil Company of California. Wiseman was a member of the Early Birds of Aviation, an organization of pilots who flew solo in an aircraft prior to December 17, 1916.
Weldon Cooke, another pioneer aviator from California, bought and modified the Wiseman-Peters aircraft, renaming it the Wiseman-Cooke. Cooke flew the Wiseman-Cooke for exhibition and air mail flights. The Wiseman-Cooke aircraft is currently part of the Smithsonian Institution's collections.
Provenance:
No donor information, Gift?, unknown, XXXX-0618, unknown
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
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
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Field notes
Folklore
Narratives
Manuscripts
Place:
Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation (Mont.)
Date:
1910
Scope and Contents:
Cheyenne stories and ethnological notes collected by Truman Michelson at the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. Michelson worked with William Somers, White Bull, White Eagle, Albert Duster, Wolf Chief, Left Hand Bull, American Horse, Grasshopper, Iron Shirt, Medicine Top, Handing Crow, Sweet Medicine, and Bull Thigh. The topics include camp divisions, war societies, weapons, dances, camp circle, personal narratives, and origin myths. Somers, who served as translator for Michelson, also authored many of the stories in this collection. These include: "Story of Great Foolish Dogs Society," "Morning Star or White Rabbit," "The Star Husband," "Indian looking for work," and "Story of Pipe and Smoke."
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2822
Local Note:
Title changed from "Ethnological notes on Cheyenne origin myths, camp divisions, war societies, weapons, dances, camp circle, and personal narratives and stories, August-September 1919" 4/1/2014.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Stereographs
Photographs
Date:
late 19th century-early 20th century
Scope and Contents note:
Stereographs documenting American Indians and their built and natural environments, including studio portraits and depictions of camps and dwellings, graves, infants in cradleboards, and pottery. Specific images portray Sitting Bull's camp at Fort Randall, Curly at the Custer monument, and a Southern Plains delegation at the White House Conservatory. Photographed tribes include the Winnebago, Tuscarora, Tesuque, Seneca, San Juan, Pecos, Ojibwa, Oglala, Ute, Kaibab, Sisseton, Arikara, Mandan, Hopi, Shoshoni, Isleta, and Laguna Indians, as well as natives of Alaska and Labrador. Frequently commissioned by railroad companies, the photographs were published by a variety of firms including E. & H. T. Anthony & Company, George Barker, H. H. Bennett, Bennett & Brown, W. Henry Brown, Caswell & Davy, Childs Art Gallery, B. B. Brubaker, Continent Stereo Company, W. R. Cross, H. A. Doerr, J. Gurney & Son, Haynes, H. T. Hiester, John K. Hillers, William H. Jackson, J. F. Jarvis, Keystone View Company, B. L. Singley, S. J. Morrow, H. T. Payne, H. N. Robinson, C. R. Savage, John P. Soule, Underwood & Underwood, Whitney's Gallery, Whitney & Zimmerman, and Ben Wittick.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 140
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs by these photographers can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in additional collections of stereographs relating to American Indians (MS 4551 and Photo Lot 90-1)
See others in:
Bureau of American Ethnology collection of stereographs relating to American Indians, late 19th century-early 20th century
Photo lot 140, Bureau of American Ethnology collection of stereographs relating to American Indians, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs made as part of Joseph C. Farber's project to document modern American Indian everyday life. Represented tribes include the Acoma, Apache, Blackfoot, Chehalis, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Cocopa, Dakota, Eskimo, Haida, Kiowa, Kutenai, Lummi, Mohave, Mohawk, Navaho, Northern Athabascan, Onandaga, Pima, Pueblo, Quinalt, Seminole, Taos, Tlingit, and Zuni. Subject coverage is broad and varies from tribe to tribe. Included are portraits, as well as totem poles, carving, weaving, pottery, painitng, landscapes, boats and canoes, ceremonial regalia, camps, classes and vocational training, homes and traditional dwellings, construction projects, rodeos and powwows, dances, industries (including lumber), herding and ranching, agriculture, stores and storefronts, cliff dwellings, parades, crab cleaning, fishing, games, health care, legal processes, music, office work, sewing, vending, and a funeral. There are also photographs of R. C. Gorman (and a letter from Gorman to Farber) and Fritz Shoulder (some in color).
Farber's travels included Alaska (Point Barrow, Dead Horse, Glacier Bay, Haines, Hoona, Hydaberg, Ketchikan, Mount McKinley, Prudhoe Bay, Saxman, and Sitka); Alberta (Blackfeet Reservation); Arizona (Canyon de Chelly, Cocopa Reservation, Flagstaff, Kayenta, Monument Valley, Pima Reservation, Quechan Reservation, Mojave Reservation, and Yuma); California (Alcatraz, Oakland, and San Francisco); Florida (Big Cypress Reservation; Miccosukee Reservation); Minnesota (Minneapolis and Nett Lake); Montana (Northern Cheyenne Reservation); New Mexico (Acoma, Gallup, Navajo Forest, Picuris, Puye, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Santa Fe, Taos, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, and Tesuque); New York (New York City and Onandaga Reservation); North Carolina (Cherokee Reservation); Oklahoma (Anadarko, Apache, Lawton, Stilwell, and Tahlequah); South Dakota (Rosebud and Wounded Knee); and Washington (Lummi Reservation, Nisqually River, Puyallup River, and Quinalt Reservation).
Biographical/Historical note:
Joseph C. Farber (1903-1994) was a successful New York businessman and professional photographer. He studied with Edward Steichen at the New York Camera Club in the 1920s. The prints in this collection resulted from a five-year project that involved travelling to Indian communities throughout the United States to document modern American Indian life. The project resulted in a book, Native Americans: 500 Years After (1975), as well as exhibits, including one in the National Museum of Natural History in 1976-1977.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 78-1, NAA ACC 95-3
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Farber's photographs, previously located in Photo Lot 95-3 have been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 78-1. These photographs were also made by Joseph C. Farber and form part of this collection.
The National Museum of American History Archives Center holds the Joseph Farber Papers and Photographs, circa 1962-1990.
See others in:
Joseph C. Farber photographs of American Indian life, circa 1970-1974
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Photographs published in Farber's books still under copyright. Reproduction permission from artist's estate.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Drawings
Ledger drawings
Date:
ca. 1880s
Scope and Contents:
Drawings of scenes of warfare, courting, camps, and geometric figures on pages of a ledger book, now disbound, many with identifying captions in unknown hand. Some of the drawings have been identified as having been created by a different, most likely non-native artist. The following items were received with the ledger book and are now included in the manuscript: a drawing on sheet from a small ruled tablet, now torn in two, and a broadside sheet, now torn in two, with site plan and perspective drawing of the trading post of N. W. Evans and Co., Fort Reno, Indian Territory, March, 1882. Also included are letters regarding the purchase of the manuscript from Mr. Dorsey Griffith.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4653
Place:
United States Indian Territory Fort Reno.
United States Oklahoma Fort Reno.
Album Information:
MS 4653 000
Provenance:
Griffith, Dorsey
Genre/Form:
Ledger drawings
Citation:
Manuscript 4653, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
