Davis, E. H. (Edwin Hamilton), 1811-1888 Search this
Artist:
Squier, E. G. (Ephraim George), 1821-1888 Search this
Extent:
18 Linear feet (21 folders and 1 box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Works of art
Drawings
Place:
North America
Central America
South America
Date:
circa 1855-1937
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists primarily of a portfolio of 92 drawings of Davis' collection of artifacts and related documentation. The collection also contains letters to Davis, notes, and drawings relating to Peruvian, Mexican, and Central American artifacts, as well as drawings by Ephraim G. Squier presumably used as references for some of the drawings in the portfolio.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Biographical Note:
Edwin Hamilton Davis (1811-1888) was an archaeologist and physician who is best known for his evcavation of the mounds in the Mississippi Valley and his collection of prehistoric artifacts.
Davis graduated from Cincinnati Medical College in 1838, and practiced medicine in Chillicothe, Ohio. In 1850, he joined the faculty of New York Medical College. He also served as an editor of the American Medical Monthly.
A self-taught archaeologist, in 1836 Davis aided Charles Whittlesey in his explorations of mounds in Ohio. From 1845 to 1847 with Ephraim G. Squier, Davis surveyed nearly one hundred earthworks, including the Serpent Mound in Peebles, Ohio and the Mound City Group in Chillicothe, Ohio. The results of these surveys were published as "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" in the Smithsonian's first publication, Contributions to Knowledge, v. 1. In 1854 he delivered a series of lectures on archaeology at the Lowell Institute Boston, and also in Brooklyn and New York City. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1858. Davis gathered a large collection of mound relics, which became part of the collection at the Blackmore Museum in Salisbury (UK). The collection was acquired by the British Museum in 1931.
Davis died in 1888 in New York City and was buried at the Grandview Cemetery, Chillicothe in Ohio.
Exhibition Note:
The portfolio was exhibited by the Florida Archaeology Society and Tampa Bay Museum in 1937.
Related Materials:
The British Museum holds Davis' collection of artifacts, many of which are illustrated in the portfolio.
Documents related to Sketches of Monuments and Antiques...
Collection Creator:
Davis, E. H. (Edwin Hamilton), 1811-1888 Search this
Collection Artist:
Squier, E. G. (Ephraim George), 1821-1888 Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1928-1937
Scope and Contents:
Consists of an inventory of the portfolio Sketches of Momuments and Antiques..., as well as brochures from an exhibit of the portfolio held by the Florida Archaeological Society and Tampa Bay Museum in 1937.
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
MS 3146 Edwin Hamilton Davis papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Davis, E. H. (Edwin Hamilton), 1811-1888 Search this
Collection Artist:
Squier, E. G. (Ephraim George), 1821-1888 Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 2
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1856-1867
Scope and Contents:
Letters to Davis from Thomas Jennings Hand and Joseph Hawes, as well as notes related to Incan artifacts.
Also includes a copy of Prospectus of Messrs de Schlagintweits' Collection of Ethnographical Heads from India and High Asia, a catalogue produced by John Ambrose Barth, Bookseller and Publisher, Leipzig. Germany, of plaster casts made from living people of heads and hands. Published in 1859 by C. and F. Unger, Berlin.
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
MS 3146 Edwin Hamilton Davis papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sketches of Monuments and Antiques Found in the Mounds, Tombs, and Ancient Cities of America
Collection Creator:
Davis, E. H. (Edwin Hamilton), 1811-1888 Search this
Collection Artist:
Squier, E. G. (Ephraim George), 1821-1888 Search this
Extent:
1 Item (black portfolio, 19 x 27 inches)
92 Pages
Container:
Folder 1-21
Type:
Archival materials
Graphic Materials
Pages
Date:
1858
Scope and Contents:
A portfolio containing 92 drawings of objects found in mounds, tombs, and ancient cities of the Mississippi Valley, Mexico, Central America, and Peru arranged, classified, and described by Davis. The drawings were made by James Plunkett. Most of the objects were in Davis' personal collection.
Five deteriorating acetate negatives that originally came with the collection have been discarded. Four were copy negatives of some of the drawings. The fifth negative, which has been digitized, is a photograph of an artifact not found among the drawings. The image is a side view of a pipe carved in the shape of a frog crouched to spring. A print made from the digital image has been placed with the collection.
Variant Title:
North American (Mississippi Valley and Ohio), Central American and Peruvian antiquities - North American (Mississippi Valley and Ohio)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
MS 3146 Edwin Hamilton Davis papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Ephraim G. Squier drawings of gold artifacts found in Panama
Collection Creator:
Davis, E. H. (Edwin Hamilton), 1811-1888 Search this
Collection Artist:
Squier, E. G. (Ephraim George), 1821-1888 Search this
Extent:
4 Drawings
Container:
Box 1, Folder 4
Type:
Archival materials
Graphic Materials
Drawings
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Four drawings by Ephraim G. Squier of gold artifacts found in Panama. Copies of these drawings appear in Sketches of Momuments and Antiques. The original objects were destroyed.
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
MS 3146 Edwin Hamilton Davis papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
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
Davis, E. H. (Edwin Hamilton), 1811-1888 Search this
Extent:
1 Photographic print (004 in x 005 in mounted on 010 in x 012 in)
Type:
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Photographs
Date:
1855
Scope and Contents:
Copy of a daguerreotype
Local Numbers:
NAA INV.02854800
OPPS NEG.42565
USNM ACC.31588
Local Note:
Black and white photoprint on cardboard mount
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
Davis, E. H. (Edwin Hamilton), 1811-1888 Search this
Extent:
1 Photographic print (004 in x 006 in mounted on 004 in x 007 in)
Type:
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Photographs
Date:
1855
Local Numbers:
USNM ACC.31588
NAA INV.02854900
OPPS NEG.42565A
Local Note:
Black and white photoprint on standard card
Place:
New York -- New York
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
No access restrictions. Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
Concerns certain views of Sir John Lubbock regarding mounds and including a brief sketch of Davisʹs career as a mound explorer. Also, a Kenyon College commencement program of September 4, 1833, attached.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 7065
Citation:
Manuscript 7065, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
