102 Ways of Our Grandmothers / Bernice Torres, Gwen Shunatona. Hand drums,Rattle (Musical instrument).
Local Numbers:
FP-1995-CT-0486
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, June 25, 1995.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
This collection contains 23 photographic prints and one contact sheet (36 images) made by Frederick John Pratson for his book Land of the Four Directions, published in 1970. Photographs include images of Passamaquoddy community members in Indian Township, Maine as well as Maliseet community members of the Tobique First Nation and Mi'kmaq community members of Big Cove and Indian Island in New Brunswick, Canada.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes one contact sheet with 36 images and 23 photographic prints of varying sizes made for Frederick John Pratson's 1970 publication Land of the Four Directions. The images on the contact sheet were most likely shot on the Mi'kmaq First Nation on Indian Island in Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada. These include portraits of Mi'kmaq Chief Peter Barrow, along with several other unidentified men. A handful of these images include Pratson himself.
A large number of the photographic prints (silver gelatin) were shot in the late 1960s among the Passamaquoddy community in Maine and were identified in 2010 by Donald G. Soctomah, Historic Preservation Officer of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. Many of the photographs include images of children, many from the Dana family, going about their daily lives. The rest of the prints are listed as being photographed among Maliseet community members of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada and also include a large number of portraits of children, many of them still unidentified.
Born October 4, 1935 in Hartford Connecticut to John and Catherine Pratson, Frederick John Pratson was a historian and travel guide writer. After graduating from Boston College in 1957, he wrote for the travel section of the Boston Globe in addition to publishing a number of guidebooks which covered Canada and parts of the United States. In 1970, Pratson published Land of the Four Directions based on travels, photography and interviews among Passamaquoddy community members in Indian Township, Maine as well as Maliseet community members of the Tobique First Nation and Mi'kmaq community members of Big Cove and Indian Island in New Brunswick, Canada.
Pratson later returned to Indian Island Reservation in New Brunswick to interview Mi'kmaq (Micmac) Chief Peter Barlow in 1972. He also conducted interviews with William Jalbert, a lumberjack in Round Pond, Maine and with a group of Fisherman in East Dover, Nova Scotia. These interviews, done under the sponsorship of the New England-Atlantic Provinces-Quebec Center at the University of Maine (Orono) are now held in the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History at the University of Maine.
Pratson died in December 1989, leaving a wife, four sons and two daughters.
Related Materials:
MF 042 Frederick Pratson Collection located at the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History, University of Maine.
Provenance:
Gift Frederick John Pratson, circa 1985.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Genre/Form:
Photographic prints
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick John Pratson photographs from Land of the Four Directions, image #, NMAI.AC.341; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Includes letter of transmittal. St John, New Brunswick. December 13, 1880. Autograph letter signed. 1 page. Recorded in Schedule of John Wesley Powell's Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages, 1877. Includes brief explanatory notes and ethnological remarks, also the text of "Story of the man the Bear gens take their name from," with English interlinear translations, pages 106-109.. Includes occasional comparative notes on Abnaki in the handwriting of A.S. Gatschet.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 13
Local Note:
With the Manuscript are filed some corrections concerning bird names received by the Bureau of American Ethnology from E. Tappan Adney, Typescript document. 1 page, and a reprint of Adney's article, "The Malecite Indian Names for Native Berries and Fruits, and their Meanings," Acadian Naturalist, volume 1, 1944, pages 103-110, with Manuscript corrections by Adney.
autograph document
Other Title:
Story of the man the Bear Gens take their name from
The Malecite Indian Names for Native Berries and Fruits, and their Meanings
