Photographs made by Carol F. Jopling documenting the Kuna, Choco, and Guaymi peoples of Panama, as well as the Panama Canal and scenery. Jopling's photographs depict Choco and Kuna dwellings (including their construction), Choco people waiting to receive vaccinations from Navy personnel, agriculture (including coconut harvesting), boats in the Panama Canal, and city buildings. Photographs and textual materials used for an exhibit in 1998 at the American Institute of Architects Baltimore Gallery, entitled "Contrasting Vernacular Architecture: Kuna and Choco Houses of Panama," are also available with the collection.
Biographical/Historical note:
Carol Farrington Jopling (ca. 1917-2000) was a librarian and anthropologist. As a librarian, she mostly worked for government agencies, including the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology in 1961 and 1962. In 1973, she received her doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Massachusettes, writing her disseration on the "Women Weavers of Yalalag; Their Art and Its Process." After spending four years as a research associate at Harvard's Peabody Museum, she became chief librarian of the Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute in Panama (1981-1984). There, she developed a focus on the anthropological study of architecture, publishing a book on the "Art and Aesthetics in Primitive Societies" in 1971.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 98-37
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds the papers of Carol F. Jopling.
Jopling also donated artifacts to the Department of Anthropology collections in accession 368048.
Photo Lot 98-37, Carol F. Jopling photographs of Kuna, Choco, and Guaymi peoples of Panama, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Includes: "Cuna Glossary," 8 pages; "[Choco] Glossary [and ethnographic notes]," 11 pages; "Snapshots [captions and background information]," 8 pages; 57 snapshots of Cuna and Choco Indians. Notes on John Verrill, recorded by C. Evans from telephone conversation with M. W. Stirling, 2/62. 1 page typed. (Added 2/62)
Photograph depicting Antonio Zarco with his traveling companion, botanist H. Morgan Smith, in the Department of Anthropology Processing Lab, National Museum of Natural History. This photograph was made after Zarco's last donation to the museum of items from his tribal community (accession 349818). The photograph may have been made by Robert Elder of the Processing Lab or a Smithsonian photographer.
Biographical/Historical note:
Antonio Zarco is an elder of the Choco Tribe of Panama. He served on the staff of the United States Air Force Tropic Survival School in the Canal Zone and worked with American astronauts for part of their training. In 1970, Zarco was at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama assisting in a course involving intercultural contact. After attending one of Zarco's seminars, Wilton Sterling Dillon, who was director of the Smithsonian Office of Symposia and Seminars, helped arrange for him to visit Washington, DC. When Zarco found no Choco material in the National Museum of Natural History, he donated items he had with him and made an additional donation after his return to Panama.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 82-49
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Items donated by Zarco can be found in the Department of Anthropology in accessions 296264, 307730, and 349818.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 82-49, Photograph of Antonio Zarco and H. Morgan Smith, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
This collection consists of the papers of John Verrill and is comprised of ethnographic notes on the Jivaro (23 leaves), a report entitled "Results of Preliminary Survey of the Archeology and Ethnology of the Atrato Valley of Colombia, South America" (28 leaves), 5 maps of grave fields, 47 black-and-white photographs (apparently Cuna Indians, plus one of Verrill), 61 black-and-white postcards and a letter from Verrill to his parents.
