The majority of the collection documents Northwest Coast scenery, people, and settlements; these include photographs made by Franz Boas during US Fish Commission expeditions on the USS Albatross, as well as engravings made for publications on Northwest Coast Natives by Franz Boas and Albert Parker Niblack. Another large portion of the collection consists of reference prints relating to Native Americans, Ainu people and Japan, Polynesia, the Philippines, Bonin Islands, and Peru. Many of these were copied from the central negative file of the National Museum of Natural History as well as other museums. There are also photographs, many by C. H. Townsend, made during the Fish Commission expeditions to Puerto Rico on the USS Fish Hawk and some taken by N. B. Mills during an expedition that traveled on the USS Albatross to Baja California and the Galapagos Islands.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 82, NAA Photo Lot 83
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives also holds Niblack's notes concerning Northwest Coast Indians, circa 1885-1889 (MS 4513), additional photographs by Romyn Hitchcock of Ainu (Photo Lot 77-38), additional C. H. Townsend photographs (in Photo Lot 24), original Matilda Coxe Stevenson photographs (Photo Lot 23), and original negatives made by Niblack (in BAE historical negatives).
The United States Fish Commission Records are held by the Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
The American Philosophical Society holds the Franz Boas papers.
Albert Parker Niblack's papers are held by J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, and William Henry Smith Memorial Library, Indiana Historical Society.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lots 82 and 83, Collection of photographs relating to the Northwest Coast and American Indians, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs documenting Ainu people and villages and Japanese boats, paintings, artifacts, structures, burial mound, tombs, and scenery. They also include some images of people and a village in Korea. Many of the mounted prints have been annotated for publication, some for the 1890 Annual Report of the National Museum.
Biographical/Historical note:
Romyn Hitchcock (1851-1923), was a Smithsonian curator, scientist and author with degrees in chemistry from Cornell University and Columbia University. He spent four years curating for the Smithsonian's National Museum. In 1887, Hitchcock was put in charge of photographic work for the United States Eclipse Expedition to Japan and appointed professor of English at the Koto Chu Gakko, the Japanese government school in Osaka. His studies in Japan led to a number of articles in the Smithsonian Annual Reports in 1890 and 1891. In the early 1890s, he became a commissioner to China for the World Columbian Exposition and later served as an official of the exposition.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 77-38
Location of Other Archival Materials:
R.M. Bartleman photographs of Venezuela, previously filed in 77-38, have been relocated to National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 156.
Photographs in the Hitchcock Collection, previously filed in Photo Lot 97 and Photo Lot 8, have been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 77-38. These photographs were also made by Romyn Hitchcock and form part of this collection.
Hitchcock donated artifacts from Japan, China, and Sri Lanka to the Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, in accessions 022393, 022392, 055059, 021640, 021675, 022518, 021963, 022633, 025499, 014786, 021689, and 023462.
The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell University Library holds Romyn Hitchcock's papers.
See others in:
Romyn Hitchcock photographs of Ainu people, Japan, and Korea, circa 1885-1895
