Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Contents: Miscellaneous notes on the Manuscript by Hewitt and Mooney, 1918-1928. Typescript and Manuscript Document. 41 pages and slips. Notes and incomplete drafts of Hewitt's introduction to Denig's "Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri," Bureau of American Ethnolgy-AR 46, Washington, D. C., 1930. 1928. Typescript and Autograph Document. 50 pages. Notes on the Denig Manuscript by Hewitt. 1923-1928. Typescript and Autograph document. Approximately 90 pages.
MS 2600-d Correspondence relating to Edwin Thompson Denig and the publication of his "Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri River," Bureau of American Ethnology-AR 46, Washington, D.C., 1930
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1919-1925
Scope and Contents:
Includes correspondence between Denig's descendents and James Mooney, J.N.B. Hewitt, and J.W. Fewkes; and correspondence between C.N. Kessler, Helena, Montana, and Mooney and Fewkes regarding Denig Manuscript.
The John Canfield Ewers Papers document his wide ranging anthropological interests from early White depictions of Native Americans to the material culture of the Plains tribes through correspondence, exhibit catalogs, field notes, illustrations, lectures, maps, photocopies of archival materials, photographs, and writings. The collection includes materials relating to his numerous research projects and publications such as his books on plains sculpture and Jean Louis Berlandier as well as his field research among the Assiniboin and Blackfoot tribes. Ewers' career as an ethnologist based in a museum is amply documented through correspondence, exhibit plans and scripts, notes, and reports showcasing his work for the National Park Service and his fifty plus years at the Smithsonian. The voluminous correspondence file highlights his close collaboration with individuals such as Stu Conner, Hugh Dempsey, Claude Schaeffer, and Colin Taylor. Ewers' graduate studies and his family are featured in Series XI. One special category of materials in this collection is Series XIV, the card files. Ewers pulled information from his field notes and other sources, classified them, and typed or wrote them up on 3x5 or 5x7 inch index cards. He then organized these files alphabetically by subject within large categories such as "Collecting Alpha by Collectors Name" or "Fur Trade and Trade Goods." The card files include correspondence and photographs and closely relate to materials throughout the rest of the collection. Though Ewers' papers are primarily textual in nature, there are graphic materials throughout his files. Series XIII features the graphic materials that Ewers kept separate from his files such as the contents of his slide cabinets. There is overlap within this series as Ewers kept multiple copies of his slides in various locations. This series also includes audiotapes of conferences and symposia at which Ewers spoke and three scrapbooks. Of note are original pencil and ink drawings from his book, The Horse in Blackfoot Culture, in Series XV. Transcripts of oral history interviews with John Canfield Ewers are also available at the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Arrangement note:
This collection was organized into 15 series - Correspondence, Research & Subject Files, Research Projects, Trips and Presentations, Artists of the Old West, North American Indian Art, Plains Sculpture Book, Berlandier Project, Smithsonian Institution, National Park Service, Personal, Writings by Ewers, Audiovisual Materials, Card Files, and Art Work.
Biographical/Historical note:
John Canfield Ewers (1909-1997) earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1931 and an M.A. in Anthropology from Yale University in 1934. Ewers began his career in museums as a Field Curator for the National Park Service. He helped design exhibits at Vicksburg National Battlefield and Ocmulgee National Monument among others. In 1941, the Bureau of Indian Affairs hired Ewers to design and establish the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning, Montana. After a short stint in the Navy during World War II, Ewers joined the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. He worked at the Smithsonian for over fifty years in numerous capacities including Director of the National Museum of History and Technology (now called the National Museum of American History). Ewers' research dealt with the Plains Indians and the Blackfoot tribe in particular. Ewers wrote several books on a wide variety of topics including White artists depictions of Native Americans, Plains Indian sculpture, and the horse in Blackfoot Indian culture.
Restrictions:
The John Canfield Ewers papers are open for research.
Negatives of two pages of this Manuscript were made and prints furnished Mr. J.C. Ewers, for the purpose of comparing the handwriting of Mr. Denig with a Manuscript in St. Louis. Negatives and prints in envelope with photostats; also copy of Vicker's letter.
Photostat copy
Citation:
Manuscript 2600-e, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
MS 2600-b-2 Partial Abridged copy of "A Report to the Hon. Issac I. Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory, on the Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri"
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
ca. 1854
Scope and Contents:
Includes marginal note by J. Owen Dorsey and partial typescript of the section "Legends and Fables," probably made for J.N.B. Hewitt, no date, typescript document, 5 pages.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2600-b-2
Local Note:
Manuscript document
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this