City of Petersburg Tax Receipt for Robert Shanks, May 1861.
Local Numbers:
AC0060-0001157 (AC Scan No.)
General:
In Box 1, Folder 2.
Civil War Selections from the Archives Center
Series Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Series 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.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
The collection is made up almost entirely of material gathered by Saul H. Riesenberg, anthropologist and ethnologist, during a year's research (1955-1956) in American Samoa.
Throughout his professional career, Riesenberg was principally interested in Ponape, in the Caroline Islands. In the 1950's, however, stimulated by the work of graduate students at the University of Hawaii where he was teaching, Riesenberg applied for and was awarded a grant to study acculturation in American Samoa. One of the graduate students, B.F. Pierce, was studying Samoans who had migrated to the Mormon community at Laie, on Oahu. Riesenberg's study of Samoans in American Samoa was to provide a "baseline" (his word) for the study of migrations in the South Pacific, and, in addition, to identify agents of change at work in Samoa itself.
A significant part of this collection is comprised of the research notes and data accumulated by Riesenberg during that year. In his grant proposal, he stated that his aim was to present "a sound description of modern Samoa, politically, socially, economically, etc." This broad perspective is reflected in the range of his interests. His research notes cover every facet of Samoan culture, from cricket to banking to diet to government. However, his primary interest was the matai (chief) structure of Samoan society, and the system of land ownership operating within that structure. Much of the data he gathered, both in the form of notes and in the form of processed materials, is concerned with these two subjects. None of this material has been published.
During that same year, Riesenberg also worked part-time as Staff Anthropologist to the Governor of American Samoa. Thus he was able to collect a good deal of processed material originating in the government. This material includes pamphlets, resolutions, memoranda, correspondence, legislative codes, etc. He also collected official U.S. publications in the form of Committee prints, annual reports from the Governor of American Samoa to the Secretary of the Interior, and U.S. reports to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. When examined chronologically, these papers, some of which go back to the earliest days of American involvement in Samoa, provide an extremely interesting picture of the U.S. government's relation to the indigenous population of Samoa and into the transformation of the Samoan way of life under the pressure of Western influences.
Another significant category of processed materials in the collection is that of studies and research papers concerned with Samoa. The papers were written by functionaries and academicians. They will be of interest to students of the history of anthropology as well as of Samoa.
Students of education will be especially interested in the series entitled "Samoan Education," the "F.E. Midkiff Papers," and in some "Samoan Government Records" papers. Those studying the Samoan language will find the songs and publications of value.
The only papers in the collection not concerned with Samoa are the records of the Smithsonian Office for Anthropological Research (SOAR). These materials reflect Riesenberg's interest in administrative rather than strictly research matters. They document his involvement in the reorganization of Anthropology, the search for a new leader, and the creation of the Senate of Scientists, which allowed staff scientists at the Smithsonian to participate in administrative decisions.
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.
Biographical note:
1911 -- Born August 28, Newark, New Jersey
1932 -- BA, University of California at Los Angeles
1945-48 -- Teaching Fellow, University of California
1947-48 -- Fieldwork on Ponape, Caroline Islands (June to Feb.)
1948-49 -- Research Assistant, University of California
1950 -- PhD, University of California at Berkeley
1949-57 -- Instructor to Professor, University of Hawaii
1953-54 -- Staff Anthropologist, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
1955-56 -- Field work in American Samoa (July to July) Anthropological Adviser, Gov't of American Samoa
1957-67 -- Curator, Division of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution
1963-63 -- Field work on Ponape, Caroline Islands (Jan. to March)
1966 -- Director of Area Studies for Micronesian (Summer) Peace Corps Volunteers Training Program, Key West
1967-70 -- Chairman, Dept. of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution
1967-67 -- Field work on Puluwat, Caroline Islands (Feb. to July)
1970-79 -- Curator, Old World Anthropology, to Senior Ethnologist, Smithsonian Institution
1970-71 -- Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra (July to June)
Provenance:
Dr. Saul H. Riesenberg donated some of his papers to the National Anthropological Archives on his retirement from the Smithsonian Institution in the summer of 1979.
Restrictions:
The Saul H. Riesenberg papers are open for research.
Access to the Saul H. Riesenberg papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Citation:
Saul H. Riesenberg papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
In this series are included the records of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the Samoan government. They are arranged alphabetically by agency or office of origin, and within those subdivisions the arrangement is chronological. These records contain correspondence, reports, statistics, minutes, official decrees, resolutions, codes, etc. Some of the material is very old, going back to the earliest years of the century. These papers document the workings of the Samoan government. They reflect the tensions in the society as it tried to adapt to western ways. Among the memoranda is a particularly clear presentation of the subjects of land titles and land tenure prepared by the President of the Samoan Lands and Titles Court.
Collection Restrictions:
The Saul H. Riesenberg papers are open for research.
Access to the Saul H. Riesenberg papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Saul H. Riesenberg papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
In this series are included the records of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the Samoan government. They are arranged alphabetically by agency or office of origin, and within those subdivisions the arrangement is chronological. These...
