Indians of North America -- California Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Vocabulary
Manuscripts
Place:
California -- Languages
Date:
1913-circa 1957
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Northern and Central California series contains Harrington's research on Esselen. Materials include drafts of a paper on Esselen; copies of primary and secondary sources; file slips containing Esselen vocabulary, cognates, and equivalent terms; notes on rehearings of Esselen vocabulary; and notes on a comparison of Esselen and Southern Pomo vocabulary. The drafts are for a paper on sources of Esselen, with notes on phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary. The section of primary and secondary sources contains notes from 1916 to 1953 and include handwritten and typed copies of manuscripts and published versions of the various Esselen vocabularies. The file contains fairly extensive notes from a conversation with Henshaw regarding his fieldwork, dated August 31, 1920, and notes on the chapter entitled "The Esselen and Salinans" from Kroeber's "Handbook of the Indians of California." There are also several pages of notes on Esselen which were sent to Harrington by C. Hart Merriam. The slipfiles are organized under broad semantic headings: nature, material culture, bodyparts, animals, plants, kinship, tribenames, and placenames. The remainder of the slips were filed under such grammatical headings as nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, reduplication, and phonetics. The sources of Esselen vocabulary from which he extracted the data were de Lamanon, Alcala Galiano, Arroyo de la Cuesta, Pinart, Henshaw, Merriam, and Kroeber. For comparative purposes, he also copied lexical items in other languages. Notes from rehearings of Esselen vocabulary are from his work with Ascencion Solorsano and Isabelle Meadows, both Costanoan speakers. The files on the comparison of Esselen and Southern Pomo contains Pomo vocabulary that Harrington recorded from Manuel C. Cordova along with Harrington's notes on the similarity of certain terms to Esselen.
A number of abbreviations were utilized by Harrington throughout the work to refer to the various reference works which he consulted. "Man." and "Per." refer to the vocabulary collected by de Lamanon and published by Laperouse. "Suen." and "Gal." allude to the vocabulary obtained by Lasuen and often credited to the explorer Dionicio Alcala Galiano.) Harrington also refers to this work as "Esp." for Espinosa y Tello. "Pi." and "Pin." stand for Alphonse Pinart and "Hen." for Henry W. Henshaw. The code "Mof." was utilized for Eugene Duflot de Mofras and "Cues." or "Arr." for Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta. Harrington employed the abbreviations "Mer." and "Kr." for the writings of his contemporaries C. Hart Merriam and Alfred L. Kroeber.
Biographical / Historical:
Harrington began a study of Esselen relatively early in his career and maintained a continuing interest in relating it to a recognized language family. Because the language became extinct in the early 1900s, he himself was not actually able to conduct any fieldwork with a native speaker. He did undertake research among the existing primary and secondary sources and attempted to learn what he could from various Native Americans who he thought might have some knowledge of the language.
As early as 1913 Harrington began compiling notes on the historical accounts of Esselen. It is known that he presented a paper on the subject at the meeting of the San Francisco Society of the Archaeological Institute of America at Berkeley in November of that year. An undated manuscript titled "The Excelen Language" presumably dates from that period.
As his research continued, Harrington was pleased to locate a "new source," the vocabulary recorded by Alphonse Pinart, at the Bancroft Library. This manuscript had been unavailable to Alfred Kroeber when he published his summary of Esselen in 1904. The discovery may have led Harrington to present a paper titled "Notes on Esselen" at the joint session of the San Francisco Society of the A.I.A. and the Anthropological Section of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Berkeley on December 1 and 2, 1916.
Harrington continued revising his notes on secondary sources in the 1920s, producing two additional drafts of his earlier summary in 1921 and 1927. In addition, he compiled slipfiles and various handwritten and typed lists of lexical items which were culled from the available sources on Esselen and some neighboring languages.
In the mid-1930s Harrington reviewed his files with Rumsen speaker Isabelle Meadows in hopes that she might recognize or help him reconstruct various Esselen words. At the end of their work he concluded that she knew only eleven words of the language.
In February 1947 Harrington reheard Esselen vocabulary items with his Southern Pomo consultant, Manuel C. Cordova, in an attempt to find similarities between the two languages. A number of years later he began another draft write-up. This remains in a sketchy, outline form.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
This subseries of the Notes and writings on special linguistic studies series contains material that supplement Harrington's Northern and Central California field notes. There are materials on Wiyot/Yurok/Mattole; Nisenan/Northern Sierra Miwok; Southern Pomo/Central Sierra Miwok; Plains Miwok; Karok/Shasta/Konomihu; Chimariko/Hupa; Wailaki; Achomawi/Atsugewi/Wintu/Yana; Yana/Achomawi/Wintu/Chimariko; Costanoan; Esselen; Salinan; and Yokuts. The files include notes Harrington collected from the field, covering linguistic, botanical, biographical, geographical, and ethnographic topics; notes from rehearings; notes and drafts from his papers; notes on his travels and activities; and notes from secondary sources, including field notes from Alfred Kroeber and other colleagues and notes on Sir Francis Drake's travels in California. Some of his botanical notes include scientific identifications and comments by botanist C. V. Morton of the National Herbarium. The Karok section contains labels for Karok baskets housed in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Anthropology.
There are also some general and miscellaneous materials, notes relating to collections of artifacts, notes relating to mission records, notes from conversations, notes from secondary sources, and notes and writings collected from others. Miscellaneous material includes lists of possible informants for a number of California languages, bibliographic references, notes on boats, a list of captions for Harrington's paper "Chainfern and Maidenhair, Adornment Materials of Northwestern California Basketry," a tracing of a map labeled "Plano de la Mision San Jose, 1824," additional references to that mission, and a text. The papers contain references to the Hupa, Maidu, and Yurok tribes. Notes on artifacts pertain to collections held by others, including the George Heye collection of artifacts for the Modoc, Klamath, Pomo, Tolowa, Hupa, and Yurok tribes. Notes from conversations includes interviews with Cora DuBois, C. Hart Merriam, Carl F. Voegelin, and T.T. Waterman. Notes from his meeting with Dr. J.W. Hudson are the most extensive. The last file in the subseries consists of notes from a meeting with Ruth Underhill on January 10, 1941, and a notebook which Harrington evidently obtained from her at that time. The notebook contains class notes from a course on Maidu which Underhill had taken at Columbia University in 1932 with Hans Jorgen Uldall. Included are information on phonetics and grammar and a number of texts.
Local Numbers:
Accession #1976-95
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
Copied by E.F. Murray in 1878 from the original made in 1821. It includes vocabularies of the following languages: Esselen, San Antonio (Salinan), San Miguel (Salinan), San Luis Obispo (Obispeno Chusmash), Santa Barbara (Barbareno Chumash), La Purisima (Purismeno Chusmash), Santa Inez (Inezeno Chumash), Nophrinthres of San Juan Bautista (a Yokuts dialect), Lathruunen (Yokuts), San Luis Rey (Uto-Aztecan), Karkin (Costanoan), Saclan (Miwok), Juichun (Costanoan), Huimen (Marin Miwok), and Suisen (a dialect of Patwin [Wintun]).
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 385
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Indians of North America -- California Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
1888
Scope and Contents:
With notes, 2 pages, and marginalia by A.L. Kroeber and note by A.S. Gatschet.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 382
Local Note:
Reference: Henshaw, "A new linguistic family in California," American Anthropologist, old series, III, 1890, pages 45-49. Kroeber, "The languages of the coast of California south of San Francisco," U. of California. Pubs. in Archeology and Ethnology, II, Number 2 (1904), 28-80.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Citation:
Manuscript 382, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- California Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Copied from Relacion del Viage Hecho, etc., 1802.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 383
Local Note:
Evidently related to the Esselen in "Idiomas Californias" and Henshaw's vocabulary of 1888.- J.O.D. 10/19/93. So stated by Mr Gatschet in his remarks on the Idiomas.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Citation:
Manuscript 383, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Chumash encircled with a line, or otherwise marked; also the numbers 1-5 and 10 in Esselen (page 97). In pencil, in Powell's schedule of Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages.
Biographical / Historical:
Recorded from Clara, who lived at Arroyo Seco, 10 miles from Soledad; place of record not stated.
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Citation:
Manuscript 302, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded by the National Science Foundation under BCS Grant No. 1561167 and the Recovering Voices initiative at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
