Collection is open for research but Series 11 and films are stored off-site. Special arrangements must be made to view some of the audiovisual materials. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Western Union Telegraph Company Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company Search this
Photographer:
Beam, George L. (George Lytle), 1868-1935 Search this
Extent:
45 Prints (silver gelatin and photostat)
3 sketches on graph paper
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Photographs
Maps
Drawings
Place:
Mesa Verde National Park (Colo.)
Colorado -- Antiquities
Date:
circa 1919-1921
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs, drawings, and maps relating to Jesse Walter Fewkes' excavations in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Photographs depict the ruins and paths through the park before and after excavation and repair. There are also original photographs by George L. Beam made for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Some of the drawings are original illustrations for Fewkes' publications.
Biographical/Historical note:
Jesse Walter Fewkes (1850‐1930) was a naturalist, anthropologist, and archeologist who served as chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology from 1918 to 1928. Fewkes received a Ph.D. in marine zoology from Harvard in 1877, and was curator of lower invertebrates at the Museum of Comparative Zoology until 1887. Some of his research focuses on the culture and history of the Pueblo Indians, an interest he developed while on a collecting trip in the western United States. In 1891, Fewkes became director of the Hemenway Southwestern Archeological Expedition and editor of the Journal of American Archeology and Ethnology. Embarking on various archeological explorations for the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1895, he conducted excavations in the Southwest, the West Indies, and Florida. During the summers of 1908‐1909, 1915‐1916, and 1918-1922, Fewkes worked almost exclusively on excavations and repairs of ruins in Mesa Verde National Park.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 30
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional Fewkes photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 4321, Photo Lot 1, and Photo Lot 86 (negatives).
The National Anthropological Archives also holds Fewkesʹs field notes and papers (MS 4408).
Correspondence from Fewkes held in the National Anthropological Archives in the George L. Beam papers (MS 4517), the Henry Bascom Collins, Jr. papers, the Anthropological Society of Washington records (MS 4821), the Herbert William Krieger papers, the J.C. Pilling papers, the Walter Hough Papers (in the records of the Department of Anthropology), and the records of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
See others in:
Jesse Walter Fewkes photographs of excavations in Mesa Verde National Park, circa 1919-1921
Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand), 1870-1952 Search this
Names:
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company Search this
Extent:
1 Portfolio
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Portfolios
Letters
Clippings
Date:
Ca. 1917-1927
Scope and Contents:
Letters received, 1917-1927. Correspondents: Chapman, Arthur; Fewkes, J. Walter; Hough, Emerson; Jackson, William H.; Sabin. Anonymous, "Mesa Verde National Park and Around the Circle." 6 pages, typed. Journal of a trip on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, by officials of the company, and J. Walter Fewkes. Reprints and clippings, including the following: Beam, George L. (Publisher). The Prehistoric Cliff Dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Denver; no date,12 pages, illustrated. Fewkes, J. Walter, Miscellaneous Published papers. Hough, Emerson, Newsclippings concerning; (filed with Hough correspondence above.) Watson, Elmo Scott; "Kit Carson Speaks for Himself." Newclipping, illustrated, no date.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4517
Genre/Form:
Letters
Clippings
Citation:
Manuscript 4517, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Scenic line of the world, by Gordon Chappell, and Black Canon revisited, by Cornelius W. Hauck; the story of America's only narrow gauge transcontinental
Che! wah! wah! or, The modern Montezumas in Mexico. [Microform] By George G. Street ... illustrated with photographs taken during the trip by R.D. Cleveland, and wood cuts and sketches by the author
The collection consists of two photographs, one depicting Spruce Tree House in Mesa Verde and the other depicting a man standing by a Pueblo building.
Biographical/Historical note:
George L. Beam (1868-1935) was company photographer for the Denver & Rio Grande railroad. In this capacity, he documented the railroad and scenery of the western United States.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 87-2A
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs by Beam can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24 and Photo Lot 30.
The National Anthropological Archives holds the George L. Beam Papers, circa 1917-1927 (MS 4517).
Photographs by Beam can be found at the Denver Public Library in the James L Ozment Collection.
Contained in:
Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collections, undated
