The collection comprises photographs documenting peoples of the Philippines, including Benguet, Bogobo, Igorot, Ifugao, Moro, and Negrito people and their environment. ALso included are photographs of the military presence in the Philippines. The photographs, including prints and postcards, were made or collected by Elizabeth H. and Sarah S. Metcalf during their time on the Philippine Islands and at the Louisiana Purchase (1904) and Lewis and Clark Expositions (1905). Images of Philippine peoples depict ceremonies and daily activities, including agriculture, hunting, construction of dwellings, and markets. Additional postcards and photographs in the collection were both made and collected during the Metcalf sisters' travels in Switzerland, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt, Malaysia, Japan, and Hawaii. Many of the postcards and some photographs were commercially made, but most of the photographs appear to have been made by the Metcalfs, including some photographs printed on postcard stock. The collection also includes correspondence, financial documents, artifact descriptions, lecture notes, and many newspaper clippings.
Biographical/Historical note:
Sisters Elizabeth Henshaw and Sarah Sprague Metcalf became interested in the Philippines and Bagobo peoples after attending the Philippine Reservation at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis in 1904. They were particularly impressed by the Bagobo gong music, and developed acquaintances with several of the participants. The following year, the Metcalfs attended the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon, and again interacted with the Philippine peoples there, who were mostly Igorot. Middle-aged and unmarried, the sisters set off for Mindanao the following year. They spent several months in Zamboanga before moving to Santa Cruz where they were closer to the Bagobo people. During their stay in the Philippines (1906-1910), the Metcalfs photographed and advocated for their Bagobo friends and amassed an extensive collection of indigenous material culture. Uncertainties relating to the First World War brought the sisters back to the United States in 1910 and Elizabeth presented their ethnological research to the American Anthropological Association the following year. Around 1915, they returned to the Philippines, where they settled in Manila and sold indigenous handicrafts in their "Little Home Shop." Elizabeth and Sarah remained in Manila until their deaths in 1925 and 1939, respectively.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 107
General note:
Biographical information mostly taken from Cherubim A. Quizon, "Two Yankee Women at the St. Louis Fair: The Metcalf Sisters and their Bagobo Sojourn in Mindanao," Philippine Studies 52, no. 4 (2004): 527-555.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs and material relating to the Metcalf sisters are held in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 97 and the Department of Anthropology records (Manuscript and Pamphlet file).
Artifacts collected by the Metcalf sisters are held in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and in the National Museum of Natural History Department of Anthropology collections in accessions 114868, 124603, 123977, and 57787.
Restrictions:
Original nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require advanced notice for viewing.
The papers of Aleš Hrdlička, curator in the Division of Physical Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, United States National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, offer considerable insight into the development of physical anthropology in the first half of this century. The papers include honors bestowed on Hrdlička, autobiographical notes, correspondence with many of the leading anthropologists of the day, anthropometric and osteometric measurements and observations (forming most of the collection), extensive photographs of Hrdlička's field work, manuscripts, research materials, and "My Journeys" (essentially a diary Hrdlička kept of his field work). In addition, there is material of a personal nature. The papers date from 1875 to 1966, but the bulk of the materials date from 1903 to 1943, the time of Hrdlička's career at the USNM.
Scope and Contents:
This collection is comprised of both professional and personal materials. The professional material includes honors bestowed on Hrdlička, autobiographical notes, correspondence with many of the leading anthropologists of the day, anthropometric and osteometric measurements and observations (forming most of the collection), extensive photographs of Hrdlička's field work, manuscripts, research materials, and "My Journeys" (essentially a diary Hrdlička kept of his field work). The personal material primarily consists of correspondence with his first wife (Marie Dieudonnée Strickler) and other family members, but there are also financial records. The papers date from 1875 to 1966, but the bulk of the materials date from 1903 to 1943, the time of Hrdlička's career at the United States National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Hrdlička investigated all major questions confronting physical anthropologists of his day (the fossil record of early humans, the arrival of humans in the Americas, human variation, evolution, and eugenics) and made valuable contributions in all these areas. Hrdlička's interests in the establishment of physical anthropology as a distinct and important field, the welfare of the Czech people, early hominids, and variation within the human species are all documented in the collection as are the services he performed for various United States government agencies. He pursued field studies in many different parts of the world, but there are relatively few field notes as such among his papers. There is instead the edited journal "My Journeys," photographs, and physical anthropological forms. There is also relatively little material on his administrative involvement in the USNM. There is no material from Hrdlička's time at the Pathological Institution of the New York State Hospitals; after he resigned, fire destroyed the anthropological records Hrdlička collected as a member of the staff. There are materials in the collection which contradict, or at least complicate, many long-held criticisms of Hrdlička, particularly claims that he was racist and opposed feminist ideas. The collection contains materials of interest to genetic research, including anthropometric measurements, hair clippings and fingerprints.
There are a few items in the collection which are dated earlier than the collection's date span. These are publication dates, and the folders containing the items have been dated accordingly, but they have not affected the dates of the series or collection. There are also a few items which are dated after Hrdlička's death. These dates reflect the fact that the collection was added to by the Department of Physical Anthropology after Hrdlička's death and have been taken into account when formulating dates for the series and collection.
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.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 37 series:
(1) Miscellaneous Personal Papers, 1875-1940
(2) Early Personal Correspondence, 1883-1919
(3) Correspondence, 1885-1953
(4) News Clippings and Printed Matter, 1893-1953
(5) Financial Papers, 1910-1943
(6) Journeys to the Southwestern United States and Mexican Indians, 1898-1919
(7) Journeys to the Dakota, Chippewa, Kickapoo, and Shawnee, 1916-1917
(11) Journey to Egypt, Europe, and Russia, 1908-1909
(12) Journey to South America, 1910, 1910-1912
(13) Journey to the Far East, 1920, 1900-1930
(14) Journey to Australia, Java, India, South Africa, and Europe, 1924-1925
(15) Anthropometric Measurements of Indians Taken at the United States National Museum, 1904-1905, most undated
(16) Bone Studies, 1893-1929, most undated
(17) Old Americans, 1914-1930
(18) Children Who Run on All Fours, 1928-1936
(19) Early Man Studies, 1906-1930
(20) European Ethnic History, 1908-1938
(21) Miscellaneous Research Notes, 1887-1930
(22) Manuscripts of Writings, 1901-1944, most undated
(23) Writings by Other Authors, 1877-1942
(24) Anthropometry, undated
(25) "From My Journeys", 1898-1938
(26) -- American Journal of Physical Anthropology -- , 1918-1931
(27) American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 1924-1931
(28) International Congress of Americanists, 1900-1928
(29) Institute of Population, 1942
(30) Department of Anthropology, 1914-1943
(31) Lecture Notes, 1920-1932
(32) Maps and Charts, 1900-1932
(33) Miscellany, 1895-1954
(34) Index Cards, 1899-1948
(35) Bibliographic Index, undated
(36) Physical Anthropology Folios, undated
(37) Photographs, 1887-1944
Biographical Note:
Aleš Hrdlička was born in Bohemia in 1869 and came to America when he was thirteen. As a young man, he was trained in medicine at New York's Eclectic Medical College and the New York Homeopathic Medical College, receiving degrees from each. His first professional work was as a private practitioner, but he gave that up in 1894 when he joined the staff of the New York State Hospital for the Insane at Middletown. There, in addition to other duties, he began studies of the physical characteristics of inmates. This set in motion developments that would eventually lead him to become one of the world's most prominent anthropologists who has sometimes been referred to as "the founder of physical anthropology in America."
In 1896, in preparation for a research appointment with the Department of Anthropology in the Pathological Institute of the New York State Hospitals, Hrdlička went to Paris and studied with Leon Manouvrier. After his return to America, he worked for a short period with the Pathological Institute and came into contact with G.S. Huntington of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Hrdlička arranged and studied Huntington's large collection of skeletal material, thus gaining knowledge of a well-documented collection representing largely normal persons of European ancestry. He came to the attention of Frederic Ward Putnam, of the American Museum of Natural History, who arranged for his first anthropological field studies.
It was thus that Hrdlička became a member of the Hyde Expeditions to the American Southwest and northern Mexico. In 1898, he traveled to Mexico with Carl Lumholtz to study the Tarahumaras, Huichols, and neighboring tribes. In subsequent years, he returned to Mexico and the Southwest alone and studied physical characteristics and medical conditions of several American Indian tribes. With this experience and examinations of the Trenton and Lansing skeletal material for Putnam, Hrdlička came fully into the world of anthropology. In 1903, he was appointed head of the newly formed Division of Physical Anthropology in the United States National Museum.
While in his position at the Smithsonian, Hrdlička returned to the Southwest for studies of Pima and Apache children in 1905 and, in the following year, traveled to Florida to examine allegedly ancient remains of man. In 1908, he worked among a number of Indian tribes, including the Menominee, Oglala Dakota, Quinailt, Hupa, and Mohave, in a study of tuberculosis among them. In 1909, he traveled to Egypt with an expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in order to study living Egyptians and to examine remains of Egypt's past population. The following year took him to Argentina, Peru, and Mexico. In the first of these, he again examined allegedly ancient remains of man. In Peru, he made a large collection of skeletal material near Trujillo, at Pachamac, and in the Chicama Valley.
From 1912-1914, Hrdlicka undertook a physical anthropological exhibit for the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego and, for this, traveled to eastern Siberia, Mongolia, Peru, and Florida. He also examined fossil remains of man in Europe and directed field work of other anthropologists in South and East Africa, St. Lawrence Island in Alaska, the Philippines, eastern Siberia, and the Ukraine. In 1915, for the Department of Justice, he assessed the racial makeup of Chippewas on the Leech Lake and White Earth reservations in Minnesota and also studied Dakota Indians. In 1917, his field work was directed toward white American families with longtime residence in the United States. In 1918, he carried out a survey of ancient sites in eastern Florida for the Bureau of American Ethnology. In 1920, he traveled to Hawaii, Japan, Korea, and Manchuria in connection with an appointment to lecture at the Peking Union Medical College. As director of the American School for Prehistoric Studies in France, he again studied fossil remains of man in Europe in 1922 and 1923. In 1925, he carried out work in India, Ceylon, Java, Australia, South Africa, and Europe. In 1927, he was again in Europe to deliver the Huxley Memorial Lecture before the Royal Anthropological Society in Great Britain. Between 1929 and 1938, he traveled frequently to Alaska to carry on an anthropological survey. In 1939, he traveled to Russia and Siberia.
Beginning with much of the skeletal collection of the Army Medical Museum, which had been transferred to the Smithsonian in 1898 before he was appointed there, Hrdlička amassed a bone collection that included, among many other specimens, the Huntington collection, casts of fossil remains of man, and a large and diverse North American collection. He also gathered a large collection of human brains. Over three hundred publications resulted from his study of this material, his field work, and his study of specimens in other museums. In addition, he was involved in many other activities. For United States government agencies, he provided services ranging from examinations of human remains for law enforcement officials to providing information and opinions concerning national origins and traits that were needed to interpret laws and form foreign policy. During World War II, he also advised government officials on policies to be pursued with certain national groups following the war.
In 1918, Hrdlička founded the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and remained its editor until 1942. In 1928, he was the major force behind the organization of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and served as its president from 1928 to 1932. He was also president of the Anthropological Society of Washington in 1907, the American Anthroplogical Association from 1925 to 1927, and the Washington Academy of Sciences from 1928 to 1929. He was chairman of Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1918 and secretary of the Committee on Anthropology of the National Research Council in 1917. From the 1920s to the 1940s Hrdlicka was a member of the American Eugenics Society and prepared exhibits for various eugenics congresses. In addition, Hrdlička was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. He represented the Smithsonian at several international gatherings of scholars, including meetings of the International Congress of Americanists.
Chronology
1869 March 29 -- Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička (Aleš Hrdlička) born in Humpolec, Bohemia
1882 September -- Emigrated to New York City
1888 -- While stricken with typhoid, met M. Rosenbleuth, a physician who arranged for Hrdlička to enroll at the Eclectic Medical College of New York City
1892 -- Enrolled in the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital Published first article, "Scheme of Examination (Medical)," Publications of the Eclectic Medical College Graduated first in his class from the Eclectic Medical College
1894 -- Graduated first from his class from the Homeopathic Medical College Became research intern at the State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane in Middletown, New York, where he began his studies in physical anthropology Passed state board examination (allopathic)
1895 -- Joined staff of the Pathological Institute of the New York State Hospitals as associate in anthropology
1896 -- Studied anthropology under Leon Manouvrier in Paris
1896 August 6 -- Married Marie Stickler (Dieudonnée)
1898 March-July(?) -- Accompanied Carl Lumholtz on his expedition to northern Mexico, sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and visited the Tarahumara, Huichol, and Tepecan Indians
1899 Spring -- Resigned from the Pathological Institute to take charge of physical and medical anthropological research on the Hyde Expeditions of the AMNH to the southwestern United States
1899 August -- Hyde expedition for the AMNH to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, to excavate the site of Pueblo Bonito and to conduct somatological surveys among the Indians; visited Grand Gulch caves in southern Utah; included visits to the Navahos and southern Utes
1900 -- Hyde expedition for the AMNH to New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Colorado to conduct somatological surveys among the Indians; included visits to the Apaches, Yumas, and Pueblo Indians
1902 January-September -- Hyde expeditions for AMNH to southwestern Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico to conduct somatological surveys; included visits to the Tepecanos, Papagos, Opatas, Pimas, Yaquis, Mayos, Huichols, Otomis, Tepehuanes, Maricopas, Yumas, Yavapais, Paiutes, Walapais, and Havasupais
1902 October-December -- Hyde expedition for the AMNH to Mexico for Hrdlička to complete his somatological investigations; included visits to the Tepehuanes, Coras, Huichols, "Nahuas," "Aztecs," and Tarascans
1903 May 1 -- Became assistant curator in charge of the new Division of Physical Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, at the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution
1905 -- Expedition under the auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology to Arizona and New Mexico to complete the observations on the tribes of this region; Hrdlička especially studied Apache and Pima Indian children
1906 February -- Expedition to western Florida to investigate remains of alleged ancient man
1907 -- President of the Anthropological Society of Washington
1908 -- Expedition to Indian schools and reservations in Wisconsin, Washington, California, Arizona, and South Dakota to study tuberculosis for a report to the International Congress of Tuberculosis
1908 December - 1909 May -- Traveled to Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Hungary, Bohemia, Russia, Poland, and Germany to examine human skeletal remains from an excavation in Egypt by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and to study peoples of the Near East
1910 March 28 -- Promoted to curator in the Division of Physical Anthropology
1910 April-September -- Attended the 17th International Congress of Americanists in Buenos Aires and Mexico City Traveled to Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Panama
1912 -- Planned and directed seven expeditions for the physical anthropology exhibit at the Panama-California Exposition held at San Diego in 1915; expeditions included Hrdlička to Siberia and Mongolia and later to Peru; Riley D. Moore to St. Lawrence Island, Alaska; Philip Newton to the Philippine Islands; Vojtech Suk to Africa; Stanislaw Poniatowski to eastern Siberia; Kazimir Stolyhwo to the Birusa caves in Siberia and to the Ukraine; and Jindřich Matiegka to Bohemia
1912 May-Summer -- Traveled to London to attend 18th International Congress of Americanists Traveled to Siberia and Mongolia for the Panama-California Exposition
1912 September -- Traveled to Geneva for the 14th International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology
1913 January-April -- Expedition to Peru as part the effort for the Panama-California Exposition
1914 November 18 - 1915 January 18 -- Attended Panama-California Exposition
1915 May -- Research for the Department of Justice at the White Earth and Leech Lake reservations in Minnesota to determine non-Indian mixture among Chippewas
1915 December -- Served as General Secretary for the 19th International Congress of Americanists held in Washington
1916 Fall -- Traveled to Florida to examine remains of supposed ancient man
1917 March-July -- Served as Secretary on the Committee on Anthropology of the National Research Council
1917 Summer -- "Old American" research at Yale University, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia and in Tennessee
1917 August -- Sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, traveled to Oklahoma to visit the Shawnee Agency in eastern Oklahoma and the Kickapoo Indians in McCloud to search for adequate samples of pure blood Indians
1918 -- Elected to the American Philosophical Society Served as Chairman of Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Founded the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and became its long-time editor Surveyed prehistoric sites on the southwest coast of Florida
1918 October 8 -- Death of his wife Marie
1920 -- Anthropometry published by the Wistar Institute Elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society of Great Britain
1920 Summer -- Married Mina (Vilemina) Mansfield
1920 January-May -- Visited Japan, Korea, Manchuria, northern China, Mongolia, and Hawaii Lectured at Peking Union Medical College in China
1920 Fall -- Visited Minnesota Chippewa (at the White Earth Reservation?) to help the Department of Justice setter the question of mixed and pure bloods among the Chippewa
1921 -- Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
1922 -- Visited Spain, France, Germany, Moravia, and England Awarded honorary Sc.D. degree from the University of Prague Chairman of the American delegation to the 20th International Congress of Americanists in Rio de Janiero
1923 -- Served three and one-half months as Director of the American School in France for Prehistoric Studies Visited England, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Croatia, and Italy
1925 -- The Old Americans published by Williams and Wilkins Co.
1925 March-October -- Traveled to Australia, Java, India, South Africa, and Europe on a trip sponsored by the Buffalo [New York] Society of Natural Science to obtain cranial measurements of Australian aborigines and Tasmanians, to investigate the Rhodesian Man site in South Africa, to survey the field of early man, and to collect data to support his hypothesis about the peopling of the Earth
1925-1926 -- President of the American Anthropological Association
1926 -- Awarded honorary Sc.D. degree from University of Brno and D.Nat.Sc. degree from Brunn University
1926 May-September -- First fieldwork in Alaska: reconnaissance down the Yukon River to its mouth, around the Bering Sea and through the Bering Strait along the Alaskan coast to Point Barrow
1927 -- Received Huxley Memorial Medal and gave Huxley Lecture on "the Neanderthal Phase of Man" before the Royal Anthropological Society of Great Britain
1928 -- Helped found the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA)
1928-1929 -- President of the Washington Academy of Sciences
1928-1932 -- Served as first president of the AAPA
1929 -- Fieldwork in Alaska: surveyed the Yukon River from Tanana to its mouth, to St. Lawrence and the Diomede Islands, to Cape Prince of Wales, up to Point Barrow and back to Unalaska Awarded honorary Sc.D. degree from Charles University, Prague
1930 -- Published The Skeletal Remains of Early Man, Vol. 83 Smithsonian Miscellaneous collections Published "Anthropological Survey in Alaska," Forty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 21-374
1930 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: surveyed the Kuskokwim River from Bethel down river to Apogak and up river to Stony River
1931 -- Children Who Run on All Fours published by McGraw-Hill Book Co.
1931 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) point site, trial excavations at Chief's Point and other sites, and a survey of Kodiak Island
1932 -- Kober Foundation lecturer of Georgetown University
1932 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) Point site, trial excavations at Chief's Point and other sites, and a survey of Kodiak Island
1934 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) Point site and surveyed Cooks Inlet sites and the mainland opposite the Our Point site
1935 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) Point site
1936 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) Point site and surveyed the Dutch Harbor caves, some of the Aleutian Islands, and the mummy cave on Kagamil Island
1937 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: surveyed the Aleutian Islands and Commander Islands
1938 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: surveyed the Aleutian Islands, Dutch Harbor caves, and Commander Islands
1939 April 4 -- Testimonial dinner given by the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in honor of his 70th birthday
1939 April-June -- Recuperated in London hospital after suffering a coronary occlusion
1942 March 31 -- Retired from curatorship at United States National Museum, becoming an associate in anthropology
1942 December -- Resigned as editor of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology
1943 -- Alaska Diary published by Cattell Press
1943 September 5 -- Died of heart attack
1944 -- Anthropology of Kodiak Island published by Wistar Institute
1945 -- The Aleutian and Commander Islands and Their Inhabitants published by Wistar Institute
1969 -- Tenth Anthropological Congress of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences dedicated to Hrdlička in the 100th anniversary year of his birth
Selected Bibliography
1908 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Physiological and Medical Observations Among the Indians of Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. Bulletin 34, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1908.
1912 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Early Man in South America. Bulletin 52, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1912.
1919 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Physical Anthropology: Its Scope and Aims. Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1919.
1920 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Anthropometry. Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1920.
1925 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. The Old Americans. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins Co., 1925.
1930 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. The Skeletal Remains of Early Man. Vol. 83, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. City of Washington: The Smithsonian Institution, 1930. Hrdlička, Aleš. Anthropological Survey in Alaska. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1930.
1931 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Children Who Run on All Fours, and Other Animal-like Behaviors in the Human Child. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1931.
1943 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Alaska Diary, 1926-1931. Lancaster, PA: The Jacques Cattell Press, 1943.
1944 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Anthropology of Kodiak Island. Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1944.
1945 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. The Aleutian and Commander Islands and Their Inhabitants. Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1945.
Related Materials:
Additional material in the National Anthropological Archives relating to Aleš Hrdlička can be found in the papers of William Louis Abbott, Henry Bascom Collins, Herbert William Krieger, and Frank Spencer; records of the American Anthropological Association, Bureau of American Ethnology, Department of Anthropology of the United States National Museum (National Museum of Natural History), Science Service, Anthropological Society of Washington, and the United States Army Medical Museum (anatomical section, records relating to specimens transferred to the Smithsonian Institution); and glass negatives of Indians collected by the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution illustrations.
Additional related photographs can be found in Photo Lot 8, Division of Physical Anthropology collection; Photo Lot 9, Photographs of Indians for the Panama-California Exposition, San Diego; Photo Lot 24, Bureau of American Ethnology, United States National Museum photographs of American Indians; Photo Lot 70, Department of Anthropology portrait file; Photo Lot 78, Miscellaneous negatives; Photo Lot 97, Division of Ethnology collection ("USNM" Collection); Photo Lot 73-26B, Aleš Hrdlička photographs relating to the Panama-California Exhibition; Photo Lot 73-26G, Miscellany; Photo Lot 77-48, Group portraits of International Congress; Photo Lot 79-38, Division of World Archeology collection; Photo Lot 83-41, Division of Physical Anthropology collection of photographs of human bones; and Photo Lot 92-46, Anthropology lantern slides.
Related films can be found in the Human Studies Film Archive under the accession numbers HSFA 1982.2.1, 1982.2.2, 1986.12.1, and 2015.13.1.
Hrdlička's extensive collection of reprints is maintained in the Division of Physical Anthropology.
Frank Spencer's doctoral dissertation "Aleš Hrdlička, M.D., 1869-1943: A Chronicle of the Life and Work of an American Physical Anthropologist" (1979) is the only book length biography of Hrdlička. The Frank Spencer papers, 1836-1999, are available at the NAA and contain original correspondence between Hrdlička and his first wife, Marie Strickler; his childhood report card from 1869; copies of family photos obtained from Lucy Miller, Hrdlička's niece; and an audio recording of Hrdlička speaking at Wistar Institute.
Further material may be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Provenance:
Hrdlička bequeathed his papers to the Smithsonian Institution. The Division of Physical Anthropology maintained them until they were deposited in the National Anthropological Archives in the 1960s. Some papers have come into the collection since then, most recently in 2018. These new accretions came to the collection through Donald Ortner, David Hunt, T. Dale Stewart, the Department of Anthropology, and the University of Alaska.
Restrictions:
The Aleš Hrdlička papers are open for research.
Access to the Aleš Hrdlička papers requires an appointment.
Aleš Hrdlička papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The Repatriation Office, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, provided funds for the arrangement and description of the Aleš Hrdlička papers
134.16 Linear feet (167 boxes, 7 rolls, and 7 map-folders)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
Philippines
Date:
1921-2011
bulk 1960s
Summary:
The papers of Michiko Takaki, 1921-2011 (bulk 1960s), document her field work among the Kalinga people of the northern Philippines and her professional contributions as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The papers consist primarily of economic and linguistic field data gathered between 1964 and 1968, used in the production of her doctoral dissertation ("Aspects of Exchange in a Kalinga Society, Northern Luzon," 1977) and throughout her anthropological career. The collection consists of field notes, maps, photographic prints, negatives, slides, sound recordings, recorded film, data and analysis, correspondence, working files and drafts, and publications.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Michiko Takaki, circa 1921-2011 (bulk 1960s), document her research into the Kalinga people of the northern Luzon region of the Philippines as both an economic and lingustic anthropologist. The collection consists of field notes; maps; photographic prints, negatives, and slides; sound recordings; recorded film; data and analysis; correspondence; working files and drafts; and publications.
The bulk of the collection consists of field-gathered data into the economics, culture, and language of the Kalinga people, created and compiled during Takaki's doctoral fieldwork in the Philippines between 1964 and 1968. This data was used in the production of her doctoral dissertation, "Aspects of Exchange in a Kalinga Society, Northern Luzon" (1977) and throughout the remainder of her career as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. In addition to Takaki, this material was often created or edited by her Kalinga research assistants during the period of her fieldwork or by her graduate student assistants at UMass-Boston. The material can be divided into the analytical categories related to the two main threads of Takaki's research: economic and subsistence activities, and linguistics. Economic material in the collection includes tables and tabulations of data on property, rice cultivation, and livestock use, as well as climatic data and cultural stories about exchange systems and subsistence work. Also included is gathered research into the Kalinga response to the Chico River Dam development project of the northern Luzon, an electric power generation project from the 1980s. Language material in the collection includes word lists, vocabulary slips, and morphology and phonology analysis that document the Kalinga language family of the northern Luzon. Also included are working files related to Takaki's project to translate Morice Vanoverbergh's Iloko Grammar into Kalinga.
Maps, photographic images, sound, and film contained in this collection largely document Takaki's fieldwork and research interests into Kalinga society and culture. Field-gathered data has been separated out into its own series. These materials - field notes and field data, maps, photographs, and sound and film recordings - form the first five series of the collection (Series 1-5). Research and analysis, compiled and refined from field-gathered data on the topics of culture, economics, and language, are arranged into their own three topical series (Series 6-8).
The collection also contains correspondence, as well as material documenting Takaki's professional life as a graduate student and faculty member. It includes grant applications, graduate essays, course preparation materials, professional presentations and publications, a curriculum vitae and tenure dossier from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a copy of her master's thesis, "A Case Study of Cross-Cultural Communication: Some Aspects of the Psychological Warfare as Applied by the United States against Japan during the World War II" (1960).
Arrangement:
The Michiko Takaki papers are divided into 10 series:
Series 1: Field data and field notes, 1935-1985 (bulk 1960s)
Series 2: Maps, circa 1950-2003, undated
Series 3: Photographs, circa 1964-2006
Series 4: Sound recordings, circa 1964-1995
Series 5: Films, circa 1964-1968
Series 6: Kalinga texts, circa 1960-2006, undated
Series 7: Economic and subsistence activities research and analysis, circa 1961-1997
Series 8: Lingustic research and analysis, 1921-1993
Series 9: Correspondence, 1960-2002
Series 10: Professional materials, circa 1958-2011
Biographical / Historical:
Michiko "Michi" Takaki was born on September 11, 1930 to Noboru Takaki and Sumiko Kohaka in Tokyo, Japan.
As a GARIOA Scholar (Government Appropriation for Relief in Occupied Areas), Takaki earned an associate's degree from Stephen's College in Columbia, Missouri (1952) and a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Missouri (1953). She also earned a second bachelor's degree from the Tokyo Women's Christian University (1954), returning to the US to earn a master's degree in journalism from Southern Illinois University (1960). In the fall of 1960, Takaki began graduate studies in anthropology under Prof. Harold C. Conklin at Columbia University. Conklin transferred to the Department of Anthropology at Yale University in 1962. Takaki followed, completing her dissertation and earning her PhD from Yale in 1977.
From 1964 to 1968, Takaki completed a 46-month period of ethnographic fieldwork in the Philippines. Her dissertation, published in 1977, was entitled "Aspects of Exchange in a Kalinga Society, Northern Luzon." After a brief stint as a curator of Pacific ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History (1970-1973), Takaki became a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. While teaching, Takaki continued her research into the Northern Luzon region of the Philippines. Her early research into economic and subsistence activities gave way, in later years, to lingustic anthropology centered on the Kalinga language family. Takaki was granted tenure in 1980, and she remained on the UMass-Boston faculty until her retirement in 2002.
Michiko Takaki died in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 5, 2014.
Chronology
1930 September 11 -- Born in Tokyo, Japan
1951-1953 -- GARIOA Scholar (Government Appropriation for Relief in Occupied Areas)
1952 -- A.A. Stephens College
1953 -- B.A. Lindenwood College
1954 -- B.A. Tokyo Women's Christan University
1960 -- M.A. Southern Illinois University (Journalism)
1960-1962 -- Graduate coursework, Columbia University Department of Anthropology
1962-1968 -- Graduate coursework, Yale University Department of Anthropology
1964-1968 -- Field work in the Philippines
1964-1965 -- Research Fellow, International Rice Research Institute
1970-1973 -- Curator, Pacific Ethnology, Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History
1973-2002 -- Faculty, University of Massachusetts, Boston
1977 -- Ph.D. Yale University (Anthropology)
1980 November -- Awarded tenure by the University of Massachusetts, Boston
2014 December 5 -- Died in Boston, Massachusetts
Separated Materials:
The eleven film reels in the collection have been transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives, accession number HSFA 2017-009, but are described in this finding aid in Series 5: Films.
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by R. Timothy Sieber, Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, in 2016.
Restrictions:
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Digital media in the collection is restricted for preservation reasons.
Access to the Michiko Takaki papers requires an appointment.
National Museum of Natural History (U.S.). Department of Anthropology Search this
Smithsonian Institution. Department of Anthropology Search this
Smithsonian Institution. United States National Museum. Department of Anthropology Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1840s
1860-1962
1972
1997
Scope and Contents:
For those who are searching for anthropologically substantive materials, special note should be made of the Manuscript and Pamphlet File. A potpourri of documents, the file includes correspondence, notes, drawings, maps, photographs, printed and processed materials, paper specimens, reports, writings, catalogs, motion picture film (now in the Smithsonian's Human Studies Film Archives), bibliographies, and other types of documents. Of concern is a wide variety of subjects such as anthropological specimens, museology and museums, Smithsonian history, archaeological and ethnological methods, exhibits, expeditions, history of anthropology, and so forth.
The file seems to have been maintained in the Division of Ethnology — in one document it was referred to as Herbert W. Krieger's morgue — and the subject matter is largely ethnological. Nevertheless, some documents relate to archeology and physical anthropology. The file also contains administrative materials, such as records relating to the Department of Anthropology's use of Work Projects Administration workers during the 1930s. In addition, the file is the main location of materials not generally accepted as being strictly anthropological in the modern sense. It includes, for example, material on period costumes, fish and fisheries, whaling, religions, armor, biblical studies, modern appliances, the seal industry, European music and musical instruments, lace, aeronautics, and other similar subjects. In addition, the file includes sets of papers of Edwin H. Hawley ,Walter Hough, Otis T. Mason, Talcott Williams and Thomas Wilson.
Some documents, both primary and secondary research materials, concern the following cultural groups and geographic areas: Arabs, Bannock, Baubi, Blackfoot, British Columbia, Caddo, Carib, Chinook, Cochiti, Comanche, Cossacks, Cuna, Delaware, Diegueño, District of Columbia, Dyak, Eskimo, Europe, Fox, Goajira, Haida, Hawaii, Hittites, Hupa, India, Innuit, Iran, Ireland, Jamomadi, Japan, Jivaro, Kabyles, Kiowa, Kirghese, Klamath, Korea, Luiseño, Madagascar, Madiera, Maidu, Makah, Maori, Mataco, Maya, Micmac, Micronesia, Mission, Modoc, Mohave, Mongolia, Moro, Morocco, Naltunnetunne, Nanticoke, Narragansett, Navaho, New Guinea, Nez Perce, Nubia, Omaha, Onandaga, Osage, Oto, Papua, Parsee, Pawnee, Peru, Philippines, Pomo, Pueblo, Puerto Rico, Pygmies, Quichua, Quinaielt, Samoa, Sauk, Seminole, Seri, Shoshoni, Spain, Tahiti, Tesuque, Thailand, Texas, Tolowa, Tonga, Tulalip, Utah, Virginia, Washo, Wichita, Wintun, Yavapai, and Zuni.
Collection Restrictions:
Some materials are restricted.
Access to the Department of Anthropology records requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Department of Anthropology Records, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Robert Francis Maher (1922-1987) was an anthropologist with the University of Western Michigan whose work focused on Oceania. The collection documents his field research in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. His field research in Papua New Guinea focused on cultural change in the Purari Delta and the modernist Tommy Kabu Movement (1946-1968). His field research in the Philippines focused on the ethnological and archaelogical history and changes in the Ifugao province. The collection consists of field notes, excavation notes, census data, genealogy charts, grant applications, research files, research proposals, maps, correspondence, manuscripts, sound recordings, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Robert F. Maher document his field research in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. His field research in Papua New Guinea focused on cultural change in the Purari Delta and the modernist Tommy Kabu Movement (1946-1968). His field research in the Philippines focused on the ethnological and archaelogical history and changes in the Ifugao province. The collection consists of field notes, excavation notes, census data, genealogy charts, grant applications, research files, research proposals, maps, correspondence, manuscripts, sound recordings, and photographs.
The Papua New Guinea research files primarily consist of Maher's fieldwork diary from 1954-1955. Included with the diary is an annotated partial typescript transcription. Other material includes excavation notes and dwelling information. There is also census material from Tommy Kabu about a work area known as Rabia Camp. The diary describes Maher's time with Tommy Kabu at Rabia Camp and Port Moresby, as well as his time in the Purari Delta.
The Philippines research files include field notes, excavation notes, census data, genealogy charts, and research files. The field notes contain detailed reports on pottery, tools, and agricultural and social aspects of the Ifugao province. The census data chiefly contains undated questionnaires filled out by residents of different Ifugao villages. The research files contain reports along with correspondence. Some of the fieldwork reports, along with census data and genealogy charts, were probably authored by two of Maher's research assistants, Emilio Pagada and Ben Pitpitunge.
The bulk of the correspondence is professional in nature, and primarily concern his work in the Philippines. Included is correspondence with anthropologists Harold C. Conklin, William A. Longacre, Daniel J. Scheans, Richard Shutler, and Wilheim G. Solheim. Also included are letters from Tommy Kabu.
The sound recordings contain 5 magnetic tape reels (3 in.) likely recorded in the Ifugao Provice of the Philippines.
The photographs and slides are unprocessed.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 6 series:
Series 1: Research, 1944, 1954-1985
Series 2: Correspondence, 1953-1987
Series 3: Writings, 1961-1983
Series 4: Writings by Others, circa 1950s - circa 1980s
Series 5: Sound Recordings, undated
Series 6: Photographs
Biographical Note:
Robert F. Maher was born in Eldora, Iowa in 1922. He studied anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and received his B.S. in 1948, his M.A. in 1950, and his Ph.D. in 1958. He was an instructor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee in 1953-1954, and at DePauw University in 1956-1957. He joined the Department of Sociology at Western Michigan University in 1957 and became professor of anthropology there in 1966. In 1967, he became the first chairman of the UWM department of Anthropology. He remained at UWM until he died.
Most of Maher's publications concern his work in Oceania. In 1954-1955, as a Ford Foundation fellow he began research on the Namau, the people of the Purari Delta in Papua New Guinea, concentrating on culture change and, in particular, on the modernist Tommy Kabu Movement. In 1961, he published New Men of Papua: A Study in Cultural Change which earned him the Genevieve Gorst Herfurth Award for outstanding social science. He returned to Papua New Guinea in 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, and 1983, often only staying there for a small amount of time.
In 1960-1961, Maher began a Senior Fulbright Research Grant funded study of the ethnological and archeological history of the Ifugao region of the Philippines. He returned to that area in 1973, 1975, 1978, and 1982. While in Ifugao, Maher conducted cultural studies and excavations in eleven villages and over four agricultural districts including the Banaue, Burnay, and Kiangan districts.
Maher also carried out ethnological and archeological work in the United States. He was a member of the University of Wisconsin Chippewa Reservation Research Project in 1951-1952, and he and his students worked with the Potowatomi of Michigan from 1959 forward. In 1952, he was an assistant director of excavations at the Black Widow site in South Dakota for the River Basin Surveys. He also carried out archeological work in Wisconsin and at Aztalan in the Southwest. Outside the United States, he carried out a survey of villages in Okyama Prefecture in Japan in 1960.
Maher died of cancer in 1987 shortly before he was due to retire after 30 years of teaching. The University of Western Michigan has established an anthropology scholarship in his name.
Sources Consulted:
Solheim, Wilhelm G.
1967 Robert F. Maher 1922-1987. Asian Perspectives 27(1).
Chronology
1922 -- Born on July 14 in Eldora, Iowa
1948 -- B.S. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconson at Madison
1950 -- M.S. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison
1953-1954 -- Instructor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
1954-1955 -- Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea
1956-1957 -- Instructor at DePauw University
1958 -- Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison
1959-1960 -- Research on the Potawatomi in Michigan
1960 -- Fieldwork in Okayama Prefecture, Japan
1960-1961 -- Fieldwork in the Philippines
1961 -- Published New Men of Papua
1966-1987 -- Professor at Western Michigan University
1973 -- Fieldwork in the Philippines Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea
1974 -- Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea
1975 -- Fieldwork in the Philippines
1976 -- Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea
1978 -- Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea Fieldwork in the Philippines
1982 -- Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea Fieldwork in the Philippines
1983 -- Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea
1987 -- Died of cancer on March 26
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Robert Maher's wife, Lee Maher, in 1988.
Restrictions:
The Robert Francis Maher papers is open for research. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
Contact repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Manuscripts
Sound recordings
Maps
Field notes
Genealogical tables
Correspondence
Citation:
Robert Francis Maher papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection as well as for digitization of the sound recording was provided by the the Arcadia Fund.
Bingham, W.V. "Five Years of Progress in Comparative Musical Science." Reprint from the -- Psychological Bulletin -- , Vol. XI, No. 11, 1914 November 15
Fillmore, John Comfort. "The Harmonic Structure of Indian Music," Reprint from -- American Anthropologist -- , Vol. 1, 1899 April
Fletcher, Alice Cunningham. "A Study of Omaha Indian Music," from Archaeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum, 1893 (notation by Densmore on inside cover regarding purchase of book, acquaintance with A.C. Fletcher, and work with John C. Fillmore)
Gale, Albert. Chapter on Tinguian Music from Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 209 ( -- The Tinguian: Social Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe -- by Fay-Cooper Cole), Anthropological Series, Vol. XIV, No. 2, 1922 (signed copy to Frances Densmore)
Powell, J.W. "Alphabet for use in Recording Indian Languages," undated
Collection Restrictions:
The Frances Densmore papers are open for research.
Access to the Frances Densmore papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Manuscript 4250 Frances Densmore papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
These records are the official minutes of the Board. They are compiled at the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian, who is also secretary to the Board, after
approval by the Regents' Executive Committee and by the Regents themselves. The minutes are edited, not a verbatim account of proceedings. For reasons unknown, there are no
manuscript minutes for the period from 1857 through 1890; and researchers must rely on printed minutes published in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution instead.
Minutes are transferred regularly from the Secretary's Office to the Archives. Minutes less than 15 years old are closed to researchers. Indexes exist for the period from
1907 to 1946 and can be useful.
Historical Note:
The Smithsonian Institution was created by authority of an Act of Congress approved August 10, 1846. The Act entrusted direction of the Smithsonian to a body called
the Establishment, composed of the President; the Vice President; the Chief Justice of the United States; the secretaries of State, War, Navy, Interior, and Agriculture; the
Attorney General; and the Postmaster General. In fact, however, the Establishment last met in 1877, and control of the Smithsonian has always been exercised by its Board of
Regents. The membership of the Regents consists of the Vice President and the Chief Justice of the United States; three members each of the Senate and House of Representatives;
two citizens of the District of Columbia; and seven citizens of the several states, no two from the same state. (Prior to 1970 the category of Citizen Regents not residents
of Washington consisted of four members). By custom the Chief Justice is Chancellor. The office was at first held by the Vice President. However, when Millard Fillmore succeeded
to the presidency on the death of Zachary Taylor in 1851, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney was chosen in his stead. The office has always been filled by the Chief Justice
since that time.
The Regents of the Smithsonian have included distinguished Americans from many walks of life. Ex officio members (Vice President) have been: Spiro T. Agnew, Chester A.
Arthur, Allen W. Barkley, John C. Breckenridge, George Bush, Schuyler Colfax, Calvin Coolidge, Charles Curtis, George M. Dallas, Charles G. Dawes, Charles W. Fairbanks, Millard
Fillmore, Gerald R. Ford, John N. Garner, Hannibal Hamlin, Thomas A. Hendricks, Garret A. Hobart, Hubert H. Humphrey, Andrew Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson, William R. King, Thomas
R. Marshall, Walter F. Mondale, Levi P. Morton, Richard M. Nixon, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, James S. Sherman, Adlai E. Stevenson, Harry S. Truman, Henry A.
Wallace, William A. Wheeler, Henry Wilson.
Ex officio members (Chief Justice) have been: Roger B. Taney, Salmon P. Chase, Nathan Clifford, Morrison R. Waite, Samuel F. Miller, Melville W. Fuller, Edward D. White,
William Howard Taft, Charles Evans Hughes, Harlan F. Stone, Fred M. Vinson, Earl Warren, Warren E. Burger.
Regents on the part of the Senate have been: Clinton P. Anderson, Newton Booth, Sidney Breese, Lewis Cass, Robert Milledge Charlton, Bennet Champ Clark, Francis M. Cockrell,
Shelby Moore Cullom, Garrett Davis, Jefferson Davis, George Franklin Edmunds, George Evans, Edwin J. Garn, Walter F. George, Barry Goldwater, George Gray, Hannibal Hamlin,
Nathaniel Peter Hill, George Frisbie Hoar, Henry French Hollis, Henry M. Jackson, William Lindsay, Henry Cabot Lodge, Medill McCormick, James Murray Mason, Samuel Bell Maxey,
Robert B. Morgan, Frank E. Moss, Claiborne Pell, George Wharton Pepper, David A. Reed, Leverett Saltonstall, Hugh Scott, Alexander H. Smith, Robert A. Taft, Lyman Trumbull,
Wallace H. White, Jr., Robert Enoch Withers.
Regents on the part of the House of Representatives have included: Edward P. Boland, Frank T. Bow, William Campbell Breckenridge, Overton Brooks, Benjamin Butterworth,
Clarence Cannon, Lucius Cartrell, Hiester Clymer, William Colcock, William P. Cole, Jr., Maurice Connolly, Silvio O. Conte, Edward E. Cox, Edward H. Crump, John Dalzell, Nathaniel
Deering, Hugh A. Dinsmore, William English, John Farnsworth, Scott Ferris, Graham Fitch, James Garfield, Charles L. Gifford, T. Alan Goldsborough, Frank L. Greene, Gerry Hazleton,
Benjamin Hill, Henry Hilliard, Ebenezer Hoar, William Hough, William M. Howard, Albert Johnson, Leroy Johnson, Joseph Johnston, Michael Kirwan, James T. Lloyd, Robert Luce,
Robert McClelland, Samuel K. McConnell, Jr., George H. Mahon, George McCrary, Edward McPherson, James R. Mann, George Perkins Marsh, Norman Y. Mineta, A. J. Monteague, R.
Walton Moore, Walter H. Newton, Robert Dale Owen, James Patterson, William Phelps, Luke Poland, John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn, B. Carroll Reece, Ernest W. Roberts, Otho Robards
Singleton, Frank Thompson, Jr., John M. Vorys, Hiram Warner, Joseph Wheeler.
Citizen Regents have been: David C. Acheson, Louis Agassiz, James B. Angell, Anne L. Armstrong, William Backhouse Astor, J. Paul Austin, Alexander Dallas Bache, George
Edmund Badger, George Bancroft, Alexander Graham Bell, James Gabriel Berrett, John McPherson Berrien, Robert W. Bingham, Sayles Jenks Bowen, William G. Bowen, Robert S. Brookings,
John Nicholas Brown, William A. M. Burden, Vannevar Bush, Charles F. Choate, Jr., Rufus Choate, Arthur H. Compton, Henry David Cooke, Henry Coppee, Samuel Sullivan Cox, Edward
H. Crump, James Dwight Dana, Harvey N. Davis, William Lewis Dayton, Everette Lee Degolyer, Richard Delafield, Frederic A. Delano, Charles Devens, Matthew Gault Emery, Cornelius
Conway Felton, Robert V. Fleming, Murray Gell-Mann, Robert F. Goheen, Asa Gray, George Gray, Crawford Hallock Greenwalt, Nancy Hanks, Caryl Parker Haskins, Gideon Hawley,
John B. Henderson, John B. Henderson, Jr., A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Gardner Greene Hubbard, Charles Evans Hughes, Carlisle H. Humelsine, Jerome C. Hunsaker, William Preston
Johnston, Irwin B. Laughlin, Walter Lenox, Augustus P. Loring, John Maclean, William Beans Magruder, John Walker Maury, Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, John C. Merriam, R. Walton
Moore, Roland S. Morris, Dwight W. Morrow, Richard Olney, Peter Parker, Noah Porter, William Campbell Preston, Owen Josephus Roberts, Richard Rush, William Winston Seaton,
Alexander Roby Shepherd, William Tecumseh Sherman, Otho Robards Singleton, Joseph Gilbert Totten, John Thomas Towers, Frederic C. Walcott, Richard Wallach, Thomas J. Watson,
Jr., James E. Webb, James Clarke Welling, Andrew Dickson White, Henry White, Theodore Dwight Woolsey.
337.16 cu. ft. (672 document boxes) (116 microfilm reels)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Black-and-white photographs
Manuscripts
Date:
1877-1975
Descriptive Entry:
Records prior to 1907 consist mostly of incoming correspondence (outgoing correspondence can be found in record unit 112). After 1907 the records contain both incoming
and outgoing correspondence. Much of the material consists of routine public inquiries. In addition, these records document museum accessions and Smithsonian expeditions and
field trips. Other topics include Smithsonian participation in expositions, operation of certain museum divisions, and miscellaneous subjects. Accession records include: data
on the Herber R. Bishop jade collection; William Joseph Hammer collection of incandescent lamps, 1905; Robert Ward collection of ferns, 1905-1906; transfer of the United States
Patent Office collections to the United States National Museum, 1906-1909; Hubert G. Squires collection of Chinese porcelain; Hippisley collection of Chinese porcelain, 1909-1912;
collections from the Arizona fossil forest; E. A. Wakefield collection of Basuto pottery; James D. S. Chalmers collection of minerals; McIntire collection of historical objects;
Charles Fuller Baker collection from the Galapagos Islands; United States National Museum collection of postage stamps; Isaac Lea collection of gems and mollusks; George D.
Seymour collection of clocks; Joseph Priestley collection of scientific apparatus; Robert C. Hall ethnological collection; Dwight J. Partello bequest; John B. Bernadou bequest;
Bernard Rogan Ross ethnological collections; Mrs. James W. Pinchot collection of textiles; Richard Mansfield collection of theatrical costumes; B. F. Chandler herbarium; Morris
Loeb collection of chemical compounds; Donn collection of Lincoln relics; Frank S. Collins herbarium and library; Oldroyd collection of Lincoln relics; Thomas Jefferson writing
desk; Richard E. Byrd airplane "Josephine Ford"; Walter W. Holmes fossil bird bone collection; Brush-Swan electrical apparatus collection; collection of first ladies' gowns
in the United States National Museum; Virgil Michael Brand coin collection; Charles Russell Orcutt natural history collections; Isobel H. Lenman collection of Old World archaeology;
American period costume collection in the United States National Museum; Charles A. Lindbergh collection of personal memorabilia; Nordenskold Mesa Verde collection; Joseph
Nelson Rose collection of cacti; Osborne collection of Guatemalan textiles; United States National Museum collection of building stones; the Holt collection of birds from
South America, 1936-1940; the Annie H. Hegeman lace and textile collection; the United States National Museum's collection of Jean Leon Gerome Ferris paintings; James Townsend
Russell anthropological collection; the Harvey Harlow Nininger meteorite collection; the Hope diamond.
Records related to Smithsonian expeditions and field work include: Mexican-United States Boundary Commission; expeditions and collecting in the Philippine Islands, 1903-1905;
University of Pennsylvania expedition to Babylonia, 1887-1888; Metropolitan Museum of Art Expedition to Egypt, 1909; Arthur deC. Sowerby collecting trips to China, 1909-1936;
Owen Bryant-William Palmer expedition to Java, 1905-1910; Smithsonian-Roosevelt African expedition, 1909; Rainey African expedition, 1911; Smithsonian-Harvard expedition to
Altai Mountains, Siberia, 1912; National Geographic Society-Yale University expedition to Peru, 1915; Smithsonian-Universal Film Manufacturing Company African Expedition,
1920; David C. Graham collecting work in China, 1925-1940; Hugh McCormick Smith collecting work in Siam; Marsh-Darien expedition, 1924; Smithsonian biological survey of the
Panama Canal Zone, 1911-1912; Ellsworth Paine Killip collecting work in Europe, 1935, and Venezuela, 1943-1944; Henry Bascom Collins, Jr., field work in Mississippi and Louisiana,
1938; Herbert Girton Deignan's collecting work in Siam, 1936-1937; the Johnson-Smithsonian Deep Sea Expedition to the West Indies, 1933; Stanley John's collecting work in
the British West Indies, 1935-1938; Charles W. Gilmore and Frank H. H. Roberts collecting work in Arizona, 1937; the National Geographic Society-Smithsonian Institution Archeological
Expedition to Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1938-1939; Matthew William Stirling's field work in Mexico, 1940-1946; the National Geographic Society-University of Virginia Expedition to
the South Pacific Islands, 1939; Walter W. Taylor, Jr.'s, archeological field work in Mexico, 1940-1945; Floyd A. McClure's bamboo investigations in Mexico and Central and
South America, 1943-1944; Henri Pittier's botanical field work in Venezuela, 1944-1946; Philip Hershkovitz field work in Colombia, 1946-1950; the Finn Ronne Antarctic Research
Expedition, 1946-1948; Brina Kessel field work in Alaska, 1950; Clifford Evans, Jr., field work in Ecuador, 1954-1958; Marshall T. Newman field work in Peru, 1955-1957; James
Paul Chapin collecting work in Africa, 1957; Ralph S. Solecki field work in Iraq, 1954-1959.
Records that document Smithsonian involvement in expositions include: South Carolina and West Indian Exposition, Charleston, 1902; Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis,
1904; Jamestown (Virginia) Tercentenary Exposition, 1907; International Photographic Exposition, Dresden, 1909; World's Columbian Exposition, 1896; Panama-California Exposition,
San Diego, 1915; Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915; International Silk Exposition, New York, 1921; Pageant of Progress Exposition, Chicago, 1922;
Sesquicentennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1926; Progress Exposition, New Haven, 1926; International Exposition, Seville, Spain, 1927; Century of Progress Exposition, Chicago,
1931; Great Lakes Exposition, Cleveland, 1936; New York World's Fair, 1939; Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939; Texas Centennial Exposition, Dallas,
1936; Greater Texas and Pan American Exposition, 1937; Port-au-Prince Bicentennial Exposition, Haiti, 1949.
Records related to the origin or operation of subdivisions of the United States National Museum include: development of the Division of Textiles; history of the National
Herbarium, 1886-1908; development of the Division of Medicine; development of the Division of Mineral Technology, 1914; Traveling Exhibit Service; Division of Graphic Arts;
Division of Numismatics.
Miscellaneous topics covered by these records include: establishment of Bermuda Biological Station, 1900-1904; United States military operations against insurgents in the
Philippine Islands, 1904; the Lincoln Memorial Commission, 1913; proposed construction of a George Washington Memorial; National Museum involvement in search for the Port
Orford meteorite; exhibition of the "Spirit of St. Louis"; National Museum exhibition of objects from World War I; use of the National Museum Building by the Bureau of War
Risk Insurance in World War I; proposed creation of a National Museum of Engineering and Industry under Smithsonian control; Samuel P. Langley's aerodrome experiments; Smithsonian
activities during World War II, particularly the evacuation of United States National Museum collections from Washington; A. Remington Kellogg's work on the Governmental Advisory
Committee on Oceanography and the International Whaling Commission; United States National Museum correspondence with Phineas T. Barnum, 1882-1891; Washington A. Roebling's
mineral collections.
Most of the correspondence is directed to the officer in immediate charge of the United States National Museum (Richard Rathbun, 1897-1918; William deC. Ravenel, 1918-1925;
Alexander Wetmore, 1925-1948; A. Remington Kellogg, 1948-1962) with lesser amounts to John Enos Graf, who was appointed Associate Director, United States National Museum,
in 1931. Also, a smaller amount of correspondence is addressed to the Secretary of the Smithsonian (Spencer F. Baird, 1878-1887; Samuel P. Langley, 1887-1906; Charles D. Walcott,
1907-1927; Charles G. Abbot, 1928-1944; Alexander Wetmore, 1944-1952; Leonard Carmichael, 1953-1964) and to various museum curators. This correspondence was usually referred
to the chief administrator of the United States National Museum for response.
Historical Note:
In 1902 the Museum's Division of Correspondence and Documents instituted a numeric filing system for the general correspondence of the United States National Museum.
That correspondence, as found in this record unit, comprises most of the central administrative files of the Museum. Prior to 1902, museum correspondence had been filed alphabetically
by correspondent (see record unit 189). Beginning in 1862 the accession records of the National Museum had been filed using a numeric system similar to that later adopted
for correspondence. Finally in 1924 the two numbering systems were integrated.
