The collection consists of photographs depicting Henry Bascom Collins and William W. Fitzhugh standing in front of an exhibit about sea hunting and fishing among Indigenous artic peoples, probably in the National Museum of Natural History.
Biographical/Historical note:
Dane Penland is a photographer for the Smithsonian Institution. He made the photographs in preparation for the 1981 National Smithsonian Associates' tour to Alaska, which was led by Henry B. Collins and William W. Fitzhugh.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 86-42, OPPS NEG 80-12110
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional prints made for the 1981 National Smithsonian Associates' tour to Alaska can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 86-43.
The National Anthropological Archives holds the papers of Henry Bascom Collins.
The Smithsonian Institution Archives holds the records of the Smithsonian Associates.
A paper delivered by Fitzhugh in Alaska in 1981 can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 7307.
An audio recording by Collins of a tour of Eskimo collections on exhibit can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 2011-36.
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 86-42, Dane Penland photographs of Henry Bascom Collins Jr. and William Fitzhugh at exhibit on arctic hunting and fishing, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs relating to archeology, most of which were made by Bureau of American Ethnology photographers and ethnologists. Much of the collection consists of photographs by Cosmos and Victor Mindeleff of Southwest pueblos. Images depict mounds and excavations (including Grant Mound in Pennsylvania and additional mounds in West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, and elsewhere); Hopi Sipaulovi village; petroglyphs in Wind River, Wyoming; ancient artifacts; Standing Rock; Tohono O'odham Indians; Canyon de Chelly; and Clear Creek. Photographers represented include John K. Hillers; C. H. Bryan of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky; the Mindeleff brothers; Henry Bascom Collins; L. C. Rennick; J. W. Milner; Hattons Studio in Lansing, Michigan; and a drawing by W. A. Rogers.
Collection may contain images of human remains.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 28
Location of Other Archival Materials:
William Dinwiddie photographs documenting Papago Indians, previously filed in Photo Lot 28, have been relocated to National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 89.
Additional Mindeleff photographs can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 4362, Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 78, and the BAE historical negatives.
Additional Hillers photographs can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 143, Photo Lot 83-18, Photo Lot 87-2N, Photo Lot 90-1, Photo Lot 92-46, and the BAE historical negatives.
Additional Collins photographs can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 82-23, Photo Lot 86-42, Photo Lot 86-43, and Photo Lot 86-59.
See others in:
Photograph collection relating to archeology, burial mounds, and the Southwest, 1880s-1920s
Photo Lot 28, Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collection relating to archeology and burial mounds, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Group portraits of members of the Department of Anthropology and the Bureau of American Ethnology at the time of their merger in 1965. The photographs were made on the steps of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum building.
Biographical/Historical note:
The Bureau of American Ethnology was disbanded on July 29, 1964 and its members were merged into the Department of Anthropology, United States National Museum, to form the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology. This later became the Department of Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 136
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives also holds the Bureau of American Ethnology records and the Department of Anthropology records.
Additional photographs of Department of Anthropology staff can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 39, Photo Lot 70, Photo Lot 76-127, Photo Lot 77-52, Photo Lot 77-80, Photo Lot 79-51, Photo Lot 80-17, Photo Lot 83-15, and the BAE historical negatives.
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 136, Portraits of staff of Department of Anthropology and Bureau of American Ethnology, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Includes letters, lists, memoranda, and notes written by Herbert William Krieger, Mary E. Maxwell, Alexander Wetmore, Henry Bascom Collins, Jr. Miss Maxwell's collection includes mainly jewelry and medals and musical instruments as well as a miscellany of other items.
The collection consists of copy prints depicting Smithsonian anthropologists, including group portraits of the staff of the United States National Museum Department of Anthropology and mounted individual portraits of department heads in 1904, 1931, 1952, 1959, and 1962. The photographs were possibly made as part of a 1969 event, "The Anthropology of Anthropology, or Everything You Wanted to Know About the Anthropology Department but Didn't Know What to Ask." The announcement for this event is available with the collection.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 39
Reproduction Note:
Copy prints made by the Smithsonian Institution, 1969.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Original negatives for some images are held in the National Anthropological Archives in the BAE historical negatives.
The National Anthropological Archives also holds the Records of the Department of Anthropology.
Additional photographs of Department of Anthropology staff can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 33, Photo Lot 70, Photo Lot 136, Photo Lot 76-127, Photo Lot 77-52, Photo Lot 77-80, Photo Lot 79-51, Photo Lot 80-17, Photo Lot 83-15, and the BAE historical negatives.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Citation:
Photo lot 39, Copies of portraits of Smithsonian anthropologists, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
These papers reflect the professional and personal life of Frederica de Laguna. The collection contains correspondence, field notes, writings, newspaper clippings, writings by others, subject files, sound recordings, photographs, and maps. A significant portion of the collection consists of de Laguna's correspondence with family, friends, colleagues, and students, as well as her informants from the field. Her correspondence covers a wide range of subjects such as family, health, preparations for field work, her publications and projects, the Northwest Coast, her opinions on the state of anthropology, and politics. The field notes in the collection mainly represent de Laguna and her assistants' work in the Northern Tlingit region of Alaska from 1949 to 1954. In addition, the collection contains materials related to her work in the St. Lawrence River Valley in Ontario in 1947 and Catherine McClellan's field journal for her research in Aishihik, Yukon Territory in 1968. Most of the audio reels in the collection are field recordings made by de Laguna, McClellan, and Marie-Françoise Guédon of vocabulary and songs and speeches at potlatches and other ceremonies from 1952 to 1969. Tlingit and several Athabaskan languages including Atna, Tutochone, Upper Tanana, and Tanacross are represented in the recordings. Also in the collection are copies of John R. Swanton's Tlingit recordings and Hiroko Hara Sue's recordings among the Hare Indians. Additional materials related to de Laguna's research on the Northwest Coast include her notes on clans and tribes in Series VI: Subject Files and her notes on Tlingit vocabulary and Yakutat names specimens in Series X: Card Files. Drafts and notes for Voyage to Greenland, Travels Among the Dena, and The Tlingit Indians can be found in the collection as well as her drawings for her dissertation and materials related to her work for the Handbook of North American Indians and other publications. There is little material related to Under Mount Saint Elias except for correspondence, photocopies and negatives of plates, and grant applications for the monograph. Of special interest among de Laguna's writings is a photocopy of her historical fiction novel, The Thousand March. Other materials of special interest are copies of her talks, including her AAA presidential address, and the dissertation of Regna Darnell, a former student of de Laguna's. In addition, materials on the history of anthropology are in the collection, most of which can found with her teaching materials. Although the bulk of the collection documents de Laguna's professional years, the collection also contains newspaper articles and letters regarding her exceptional performance as a student at Bryn Mawr College and her undergraduate and graduate report cards. Only a few photographs of de Laguna can be found in the collection along with photographs of her 1929 and 1979 trips to Greenland.
Scope and Contents:
These papers reflect the professional and personal life of Frederica de Laguna. The collection contains correspondence, field notes, writings, newspaper clippings, writings by others, subject files, sound recordings, photographs, and maps.
A significant portion of the collection consists of de Laguna's correspondence with family, friends, colleagues, and students, as well as her informants from the field. Her correspondence covers a wide range of subjects such as family, health, preparations for field work, her publications and projects, the Northwest Coast, her opinions on the state of anthropology, and politics. Among her notable correspondents are Kaj Birket-Smith, J. Desmond Clark, Henry Collins, George Foster, Viola Garfield, Marie-Françoise Guédon, Diamond Jenness, Michael Krauss, Therkel Mathiassen, Catharine McClellan, and Wallace Olson. She also corresponded with several eminent anthropologists including Franz Boas, William Fitzhugh, J. Louis Giddings, Emil Haury, June Helm, Melville Herskovitz, Alfred Kroeber, Helge Larsen, Alan Lomax, Margaret Mead, Froelich Rainey, Leslie Spier, Ruth Underhill, James VanStone, Annette Weiner, and Leslie White.
The field notes in the collection mainly represent de Laguna and her assistants' work in the Northern Tlingit region of Alaska from 1949 to 1954. In addition, the collection contains materials related to her work in the St. Lawrence River Valley in Ontario in 1947 and Catharine McClellan's field journal for her research in Aishihik, Yukon Territory in 1968. Most of the audio reels in the collection are field recordings made by de Laguna, McClellan, and Marie-Françoise Guédon of vocabulary and songs and speeches at potlatches and other ceremonies from 1952 to 1969. Tlingit and several Athapaskan languages including Atna, Tutochone, Upper Tanana, and Tanacross are represented in the recordings. Also in the collection are copies of John R. Swanton's Tlingit recordings and Hiroko Hara's recordings among the Hare Indians. Additional materials related to de Laguna's research on the Northwest Coast include her notes on clans and tribes in Series VI: Subject Files and her notes on Tlingit vocabulary and Yakutat names specimens in Series 10: Card Files.
Drafts and notes for Voyage to Greenland, Travels Among the Dena, and The Tlingit Indians can be found in the collection as well as her drawings for her dissertation and materials related to her work for the Handbook of North American Indians and other publications. There is little material related to Under Mount Saint Elias except for correspondence, photocopies and negatives of plates, and grant applications for the monograph. Of special interest among de Laguna's writings is a photocopy of her historical fiction novel, The Thousand March.
Other materials of special interest are copies of her talks, including her AAA presidential address, and the dissertation of Regna Darnell, a former student of de Laguna's. In addition, materials on the history of anthropology are in the collection, most of which can found with her teaching materials. The collection also contains copies of photographs from the Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899. Although the bulk of the collection documents de Laguna's professional years, the collection also contains newspaper articles and letters regarding her exceptional performance as a student at Bryn Mawr College and her undergraduate and graduate report cards. Only a few photographs of de Laguna can be found in the collection along with photographs of her 1929 and 1979 trips to Greenland.
Frederica Annis Lopez de Leo de Laguna was a pioneering archaeologist and ethnographer of northwestern North America. Known as Freddy by her friends, she was one of the last students of Franz Boas. She served as first vice-president of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) from 1949 to 1950 and as president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) from 1966-1967. She also founded the anthropology department at Bryn Mawr College where she taught from 1938 to 1972. In 1975, she and Margaret Mead, a former classmate, were the first women to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Born on October 3, 1906 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, de Laguna was the daughter of Theodore Lopez de Leo de Laguna and Grace Mead Andrus, both philosophy professors at Bryn Mawr College. Often sick as a child, de Laguna was home-schooled by her parents until she was 9. She excelled as a student at Bryn Mawr College, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in politics and economics in 1927. She was awarded the college's prestigious European fellowship, which upon the suggestion of her parents, she deferred for a year to study anthropology at Columbia University under Boas. Her parents had recently attended a lecture given by Boas and felt that anthropology would unite her interests in the social sciences and her love for the outdoors.
After a year studying at Columbia with Boas, Gladys Reichard, and Ruth Benedict, de Laguna was still uncertain whether anthropology was the field for her. Nevertheless, she followed Boas's advice to spend her year abroad studying the connection between Eskimo and Paleolithic art, which would later became the topic of her dissertation. In the summer of 1928, she gained fieldwork experience under George Grant MacCurdy visiting prehistoric sites in England, France, and Spain. In Paris, she attended lectures on prehistoric art by Abbe Breuil and received guidance from Paul Rivet and Marcelin Boule. Engaged to an Englishman she had met at Columbia University, de Laguna decided to also enroll at the London School of Economics in case she needed to earn her degree there. She took a seminar with Bronislaw Malinowski, an experience she found unpleasant and disappointing.
It was de Laguna's visit to the National Museum in Copenhagen to examine the archaeological collections from Central Eskimo that became the turning point in her life. During her visit, she met Therkel Mathiassen who invited her to be his assistant on what would be the first scientific archaeological excavation in Greenland. She sailed off with him in June 1929, intending to return early in August. Instead, she decided to stay until October to finish the excavation with Mathiassen, now convinced that her future lay in anthropology. When she returned from Greenland she broke off her engagement with her fiancé, deciding that she would not able to both fully pursue a career in anthropology and be the sort of wife she felt he deserved. Her experiences in Greenland became the subject of her 1977 memoir, Voyage to Greenland: A Personal Initiation into Anthropology.
The following year, Kaj Birket-Smith, whom de Laguna had also met in Copenhagen, agreed to let her accompany him as his research assistant on his summer expedition to Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet. When Birket-Smith fell ill and was unable to go, de Laguna was determined to continue on with the trip. She convinced the University of Pennsylvania Museum to fund her trip to Alaska to survey potential excavation sites and took as her assistant her 20 year old brother, Wallace, who became a geologist. A close family, de Laguna's brother and mother would later accompany her on other research trips.
In 1931, the University of Pennsylvania Museum hired de Laguna to catalogue Eskimo collections. They again financed her work in Cook Inlet that year as well as the following year. In 1933, she earned her PhD from Columbia and led an archaeological and ethnological expedition of the Prince William Sound with Birket-Smith. They coauthored "The Eyak Indians of the Copper River Delta, Alaska," published in 1938. In 1935, de Laguna led an archaeological and geological reconnaissance of middle and lower Yukon Valley, traveling down the Tanana River. Several decades later, the 1935 trip contributed to two of her books: Travels Among the Dena, published in 1994, and Tales From the Dena, published in 1997.
In 1935 and 1936, de Laguna worked briefly as an Associate Soil Conservationist, surveying economic and social conditions on the Pima Indian Reservation in Arizona. She later returned to Arizona during the summers to conduct research and in 1941, led a summer archaeological field school under the sponsorship of Bryn Mawr College and the Museum of Northern Arizona.
By this time, de Laguna had already published several academic articles and was also the author of three fiction books. Published in 1930, The Thousand March: Adventures of an American Boy with the Garibaldi was her historical fiction book for juveniles. She also wrote two detective novels: The Arrow Points to Murder (1937) and Fog on the Mountain (1938). The Arrow Points to Murder is set in a museum based on her experiences at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the American Museum of National History. Fog on the Mountain is set in Cook Inlet and draws upon de Laguna's experiences in Alaska. Both detective novels helped to finance her research.
De Laguna began her long career at Bryn Mawr College in 1938 when she was hired as a lecturer in the sociology department to teach the first ever anthropology course at the college. By 1950, she was chairman of the joint department of Sociology and Anthropology, and in 1967, the chairman of the newly independent Anthropology Department. She was also a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania (1947-1949; 1972-1976) and at the University of California, Berkeley (1959-1960; 1972-1973.)
During World War II, de Laguna took a leave of absence from Bryn Mawr College to serve in the naval reserve from 1942 to 1945. As a member of WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service), she taught naval history and codes and ciphers to women midshipmen at Smith College. She took great pride in her naval service and in her later years joined the local chapter of WAVES National, an organization for former and current members of WAVES.
In 1950, de Laguna returned to Alaska to work in the Northern Tlingit region. Her ethnological and archaeological study of the Tlingit Indians brought her back several more times throughout the 1950s and led to the publication of Under Mount Saint Elias in 1972. Her comprehensive three-volume monograph is still considered the authoritative work on the Yakutat Tlingit. In 1954, de Laguna turned her focus to the Atna Indians of Copper River, returning to the area in 1958, 1960, and 1968.
De Laguna retired from Bryn Mawr College in 1972 under the college's mandatory retirement policy. Although she suffered from many ailments in her later years including macular degeneration, she remained professionally active. Five decades after her first visit to Greenland, de Laguna returned to Upernavik in 1979 to conduct ethnographic investigations. In 1985, she finished editing George Thornton Emmons' unpublished manuscript The Tlingit Indians. A project she had begun in 1955, the book was finally published in 1991. In 1986, she served as a volunteer consultant archaeologist and ethnologist for the U. S. Forest Service in Alaska. In 1994, she took part in "More than Words . . ." Laura Bliss Spann's documentary on the last Eyak speaker, Maggie Smith Jones. By 2001, de Laguna was legally blind. Nevertheless, she continued working on several projects and established the Frederica de Laguna Northern Books Press to reprint out-of-print literature and publish new scholarly works on Arctic cultures.
Over her lifetime, de Laguna received several honors including her election into the National Academy Sciences in 1976, the Distinguished Service Award from AAA in 1986, and the Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. De Laguna's work, however, was respected by not only her colleagues but also by the people she studied. In 1996, the people of Yakutat honored de Laguna with a potlatch. Her return to Yakutat was filmed by Laura Bliss Spann in her documentary Reunion at Mt St. Elias: The Return of Frederica de Laguna to Yakutat.
At the age of 98, Frederica de Laguna passed away on October 6, 2004.
Sources Consulted
Darnell, Regna. "Frederica de Laguna (1906-2004)." American Anthropologist 107.3 (2005): 554-556.
de Laguna, Frederica. Voyage to Greenland: A Personal Initiation into Anthropology. New York: W.W. Norton Co, 1977.
McClellan, Catharine. "Frederica de Laguna and the Pleasures of Anthropology." American Ethnologist 16.4 (1989): 766-785.
Olson, Wallace M. "Obituary: Frederica de Laguna (1906-2004)." Arctic 58.1 (2005): 89-90.
Related Materials:
Although this collection contains a great deal of correspondence associated with her service as president of AAA, most of her presidential records can be found in American Anthropological Association Records 1917-1972. Also at the National Anthropological Archives are her transcripts of songs sung by Yakutat Tlingit recorded in 1952 and 1954 located in MS 7056 and her notes and drawings of Dorset culture materials in the National Museum of Canada located in MS 7265. The Human Studies Film Archive has a video oral history of de Laguna conducted by Norman Markel (SC-89.10.4).
Related collections can also be found in other repositories. The University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania holds materials related to work that de Laguna carried out for the museum from the 1930s to the 1960s. Materials relating to her fieldwork in Angoon and Yakutat can be found in the Rasmuson Library of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in the papers of Francis A. Riddell, a field assistant to de Laguna in the early 1950s. Original photographs taken in the field in Alaska were deposited in the Alaska State Library, Juneau. Both the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress and the American Philosophical Library have copies of her field recordings and notes. The American Museum of Natural History has materials related to her work editing George T. Emmons' manuscript. De Laguna's papers can also be found at the Bryn Mawr College Archives.
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Frederica de Laguna.
Restrictions:
Some of the original field notes are restricted due to Frederica de Laguna's request to protect the privacy of those accused of witchcraft. The originals are restricted until 2030. Photocopies may be made with the names of the accused redacted.
Rights:
Contact repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Photograph of Henry Bascom Collins at Cape Kialegak
Names:
Collins, Henry B. (Henry Bascom), 1899-1987 Search this
Extent:
1 Print (silver gelatin)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Photographs
Place:
Saint Lawrence Island (Alaska)
Date:
1929
Scope and Contents note:
The collection consists of a photograph depicting Henry Bascom Collins removing loose surface dirt at an excavation site at Cape Kialegak, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska.
Biographical/Historical note:
Henry B. Collins began his career in anthropology as an assistant on Neil M. Judd's 1922-1924 expeditions to Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico. In 1924, he became an aid in the United States National Museum Division of Ethnology, and later was appointed to assistant curator, associate curator, and archeologist emeritus. He was also a senior ethnologist and later acting director for the Bureau of American Ethnology. Between 1927 and 1936, Collins did field work on the Bering Sea area and the Arctic coasts of Alaska, studying influences of Eskimo culture. His field work later expanded eastward to Baffin, Cornwallis, and Southampton islands during the period 1948-1955.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 86-59
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs of Collins in the Arctic can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 8, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 82-23, and Photo Lot 86-43.
The National Anthropological Archives holds Collins's papers.
Footage of Yupik Eskimo Life, made by Collins, can be found in the Human Studies Film Archives in HSFA 82.6.1.
The Smithsonian Institution Archives holds audio recordings of oral history interviews with Collins (SIA RU009528) and images of Collins in the Arctic.
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 86-59, Photograph of Henry Bascom Collins in Cape Kialegak, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Collins, Henry B. (Henry Bascom), 1899-1987 Search this
Extent:
6 Prints (silver gelatin)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Photographs
Date:
1960
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs of attendees at a meeting of the International Congress of Americanists in Paris, 1960. The photographs are of Henry B. Collins and his wife, Betty J. Meggers, Clifford Evans, Chester S. Chard and his wife, and Marius Barbeau.
Biographical/Historical note:
The International Congress of Americanists was organized in Paris in 1874 as an outgrowth of the Societe Americaine de France. Its purpose was "to contribute to the progress of ethnographic, linguistic and historic studies relative to North and South America, especially for the period before Christopher Columbus, and to report to those who are interested in these studies." The congress' official meeting for 1960 was held in Vienna.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 134C
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds material relating to the International Congress of Americanists (MS 7068, Photo Lot R76-139, Photo Lot 77-48, and MS 4372).
The National Anthropological Archives also holds the Henry Bascom Collins, Jr. Papers.
Provenance:
Probably donated by Henry B. Collins and his wife.
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 134C, J. Lajournade photographs of International Congress of Americanists in Paris, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographs made on the 1936 expedition to Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, and at Southampton Island, Canada in 1954 or 1955. They include images of Henry Bascom Collins and others gathering bone and botanical specimens and travelling in a umiak. The collection was gathered for use by the Smithsonian National Associates' tour of Alaska in 1981, which was led by Collins and William F. Fitzhugh.
Biographical/Historical note:
Henry B. Collins began his career in anthropology as an assistant on Neil M. Judd's 1922-1924 expeditions to Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico. In 1924, he became an aid in the United States National Museum Division of Ethnology, and later was appointed to assistant curator, associate curator, and archeologist emeritus. He was also a senior ethnologist and later acting director for the Bureau of American Ethnology. Between 1927 and 1936, Collins did field work on the Bering Sea area and the Arctic coasts of Alaska, studying influences of Eskimo culture. His field work later expanded eastward to Baffin, Cornwallis, and Southampton islands during the period 1948-1955.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 86-43
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional prints made for the 1981 National Smithsonian Associates' tour to Alaska can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 86-42.
Additional photographs of Collins in the Arctic can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 8, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 82-23, and Photo Lot 86-59.
The National Anthropological Archives holds Collins's papers, a recording of his tour of Eskimo collections on exhibit (MS 2011-36), and William W. Fitzhugh's material concerning Henry Bascom Collins (MS 7525).
Footage of Yupik community life, made by Collins, can be found in the Human Studies Film Archives in HSFA 82.6.1.
The Smithsonian Institution Archives holds audio recordings of oral history interviews with Collins (SIA RU009528) and images of Collins in the Arctic.
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 86-43, Photographs of Henry Bascom Collins in the Arctic, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Collins, Henry B. (Henry Bascom), 1899-1987 Search this
Extent:
2 Items (ca. inch ca. 2 inch)
90 Photographs
2 Volumes
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Volumes
Date:
1980;1987
Scope and Contents:
The material relates to two events: a dinner in honor of Collins, December 5, 1980, and a memorial service, November 5, 1987. Included are announcements, a guest book for the memorial, xerox copies of photographs of and writings by Collins, messages from many prominent anthropologists and archeologists, and an album of photographs and other memorabilia presented to Collins at the dinner in 1980. Particularly lengthy messages are from Moreau Browne Congleton Chambers, Frederica de Laguna, William G. Haag, Clifford Evans and Betty Jane Meggers, James Bennett Griffin, Stephen Williams, Helge Larsen, James B. Griffin, and William S. Laughlin. The photographs show Henry Bascom Collins (some by Sabra K. McCracken), Douglas H. Ubelaker, James B. Griffin, David Challinor, Richard Fiske, Regina Flannery Herzfeld, Waldo R. Wedel, John C. Ewers, Clifford Evans, Stephen Williams, Margaret Lantis, William W. Fitzhugh, Helge Larsen. Also included are photographs of St. Lawrence Island, 1959 taken by Robert E. Ackerman.
Contents: (F.1) Field notebook containing 73 names with short descriptions, also notes on general health of Choctaw, sanitary conditions, etc. (F.2) Anthropometric tables giving names, ages, and measurements for 73 individuals. Autograph document. 8 pages. (F.3) Tables comparing Choctaw indices with Sioux, Ojibwa, Shoshone and Apache. Autograph document. 2 pages. (F.4) Manuscript for AJPA entitled, "Additional anthropometric observations on the Choctaw." Typescript document. 2 pages. (F.5) Adding machine tapes. (F.6) Henry B. Collins, 1928, "Additional anthropometric observations on the Choctaw," AJPA, volume 11, number 2 (reprint).
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4977
Local Note:
Typescript autograph document
Other Title:
Additional anthropometric observations on the Choctaw
Consists of correspondence, prints showing mounds, bowls, an implement resembling a tomahawk, copies of various papers by Dr. Collins, Mr. Judd, Dr. Wissler, etc., etc.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4116
Citation:
Manuscript 4116, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Contents: (f.1) List of 58 names of subjects of study with 13 different measurements cited for each. Autograph document. 1 page. (f.2) Table of anthropometric measurements on 58 individuals. Manuscript document. 7 pages. (f.3) Comparative indices of group of 18 Choctaw women and 40 men. Typescript document. 2 pages. (f.4) Standard deviation calculations on Choctaw. Autograph document. 78 pages, 5 index cards, 8 slips. Calculations are separated into three groups of papers: Males, females and both sexes. These calculations and results remain unpublished. (f.5) Adding machine tapes. (f.6) Henry B. Collins, Jr., "Anthropometric Observations on the Choctaw," AJPA, October-December., 1925 (reprint).
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4976
Local Note:
Typescript autograph document
Other Title:
Anthropometric Observations on the Choctaw
Other relationship:
Collins, Henry Bascom, 1899-1987 Photographs of Mississippi Choctaw people 1925 AAJ4764NA (GEAC)00109232
Includes the original tape, a rough (literal) transcript, and a polished transcript. The purpose of the interview was to record information and opinions about the naturalist Edward William Nelson. The interview also involved Collins's own career, particularly his interest in the Eskimos.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 7262
Local Note:
Typescript
Xerox copy of typescript
One seven-inch reel-to-reel tape
Genre/Form:
Oral histories (document genres)
Sound recordings
Citation:
Manuscript 7262, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Collins, Henry B. (Henry Bascom), 1899-1987 Search this
Extent:
15 Items (1.5 inches)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Clippings
Seating charts
Notebooks
Lists
Letters
Date:
1980
Biographical / Historical:
The material was accumulated by Nigel Elmore who served as a planner for the party. William Fitzhugh was largely responsible for the idea of a dinner to honor Collins and for carrying it out.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 7399
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Clippings
Seating charts
Notebooks
Lists
Letters
Citation:
Manuscript 7399, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
MS 7324 Draft of a resource guide to the published and unpublished materials on Edward William Nelson, collector and associate for the Smithsonian Institution, 1877-1899
Includes a chronology of Nelson's life, copies of and excerpts from documents concerning Nelson's activities, notes, biographical sketches by Riggs and Henry Bascom Collins, and photographs of Nelson.
Biographical / Historical:
The packet was compiled while Ms. Riggs was a intern with the Department of Anthropology working with the information specialist.
