Photographs made during Matilda Coxe Stevenson's field studies among Southwest Indians, particularly at Zuni. Images primarily document pueblos, people, ceremonies, and daily activities, as well as some photographs of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and ranches, probably those belonging to Stevenson or her friends. The collection includes photographs by William Henry Cobb and Wittick & Russell, as well as Stevenson's assistant May S. Clark and "Mr. Gray," a photographer that Stevenson hired as an assistant.
Biographical/Historical note:
Matilda Coxe Stevenson (1849-1915; though her birth year is often erroneously listed as 1850) was the first woman to study the American Southwest and the first (and for a long time the only) female anthropologist hired by the US government. Born Matilda Coxe Evans in 1849 in San Augustine, Texas, Stevenson was brought to Washington, D.C., as an infant. She was educated at Miss Anable's English, French, and German School in Philadelphia and through private studies with her father and Dr. William M. Mew of the Army Medical Museum. In 1872 she married James Stevenson, a geologist with the US Geological Survey of the Territories. From 1872-1878, Matilda joined James on Ferdinand V. Hayden's geological surveys to Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, and assisted him by compiling geological data. When the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) was created in 1879, Matilda Stevenson was appointed "volunteer coadjutor [sic] in ethnology" and she went with James on his BAE expeditions to the Southwest.
After James Stevenson's death in 1888, BAE Director John Wesley Powell hired Matilda Stevenson to organize her husband's notes. In 1889, Stevenson became regular BAE staff. From 1890 to 1907, Stevenson did substantial individual fieldwork at Zuni and published "The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies" in the Bureau of American Ethnology's Twenty-Third Annual Report (1901-2). Starting in 1904, Stevenson conducted comparative studies at Zia, Jemez, San Juan, Cochiti, Nambe, Picarus, Tesuque, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, and Taos. In 1907 she purchased a ranch (Ton'yo) near San Ildefonso, which became her base for fieldwork. Stevenson died in Maryland on June 24, 1915.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 23
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Stevenson photographs previously filed in BAE number 4325, MS 4624, MS 4717, Photo Lot 14, and Photo Lot 33 have been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 23. These photographs were also made by Stevenson and form part of this collection.
Additional glass negatives made by Stevenson are held in the National Anthropological Archives in the BAE historical negatives.
The National Anthropological Archives holds Matilda Coxe Stevenson's papers in MS 4689.
Photographic images and portraits of Stevenson are in the National Anthropological Archives in the following collections: Photo Lot 33, Photo Lot 70, Photo Lot 89-19, and Photo Lot 90-1.
Additional photographs of We'wha, probably commissioned by Stevenson at a studio in Washington, D.C., are in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 2004-03.
Photographs made by Havens while visiting the Zuni in the 1920s, including images of Zuni Pueblo, people, ceremonies, irrigation work, and a shrine. Also included are photographs showing Pueblo Bonito expedition vehicles stuck in the mud after rains. Many photographs have brief annotations on their versos, probably by Havens.
Biographical/Historical note:
O.C. Havens was a photographer for the National Geographic Society (NGS). In the 1920s, Havens photographed NGS-sponsored archeological expeditions to Pueblo Bonito, New Mexico, directed by Neil Merton Judd (1887-1976).
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 83-16
Local Notes:
All of the original negatives have associated prints; however some prints do not have original negatives.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs by O.C. Havens can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 82-23 and the papers of Neil Merton Judd.
The National Geographic Society also holds Neil Merton Judd's papers, with some O.C. Havens photographs.
Restrictions:
Original nitrate negatives are in cold storage and not available for viewing.
Meskwaki (Fox) syllabic text by Alfred Kiyana on the one who made the wailing song, with an English translation by Horace Poweshiek. Poweshiek's translation is dated 1915 and is titled, "The one who made the wailing songs. The way a clan feast is carried on when any one dies. The one who made the sacred bundle." Kiyana's text is undated. Texts collected by Truman Michelson in Tama, Iowa.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Field notes
Vocabulary
Place:
Concho (Okla.)
Date:
1929 July
Scope and Contents:
Notebook containing Truman Michelson's handwritten notes from his work among the Southern Cheyenne in Concho, Oklahoma. The notes consist primarily of vocabulary with some ethnological notes interspersed. The vocabulary includes comparative terms in Só'taeo'o (Sutaio). Ethnological topics include medicine bundles, "doctors" who can understand babies, "shaking lodge," and singing medicine arrow and sun dance songs. There is also an index card with notes on prophecy lodge.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3343
Local Note:
Title changed from "Cheyenne Vocabulary, with occasional ethnographic notes fJuly 1929" 5/28/2014.
Narrative of Coyote, a 72 year old Southern Cheyenne man, handwritten in English by Truman Michelson and Mack Haag, also a Southern Cheyenne. The text includes a recounting of the history of the Cheyenne and stories from Coyote's life. Topics include skirmishes with U.S. soldiers, the construction of tipis, hunting, relations between men and women, and his observations of a Sioux Sun Dance at a Brule camp. Although the Bureau of American Ethnology catalog card indicates that this text was collected at the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana, it is likely incorrect. The notes are dated June, during which time Michelson was in Oklahoma working with the Southern Cheyenne (Explorations and field work of the Smithsonian Institution, 1932).
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Folklore
Narratives
Manuscripts
Autobiographies
Date:
1931-1932
Scope and Contents:
Southern Cheyenne personal narratives and stories in English collected by Truman Michelson in Oklahoma. The stories were handwritten by Mack Haag and another person. Contents include: "Medicine Woman. 55 years old. Cheyenne" (written by Mack Haag.), 37 pages; "The Unknow[n] Greyhound" (writer unidentified.), 7 pages; "Plum Man" (writer unidentified), 2 pages; The Stuff[ed] Bear" 3 pages; "The Spider and the Rat" (writer unidentified), 5 pages; "Tipi Decorator. White Buffalo [daugther of Black Kettle]. 43 years old. Cheyenne" (writer unidentified), 17 pages; "The Beaded back tipi" (writer unidentified), 8 pages; "Lame Bull. True Story" (writer unidentified), 4 pages; "The Buffalo Robe" (writer unidentified), 4 pages; and "Slow Bull. (Cheyenne age 60). 1931" (written by Mack Haag), 9 pages.
Information from Shapochiwa regarding the rituals of the Singing Around Society, handwritten in Meskwaki (Fox) syllabary by an unidentified writer and translated into English by George Young Bear. There are also two pages of notes at the end of the translation on members and initiation to the society.
Notebook containing Meskwaki (Fox) syllabic text on the waterfowl clan by Alfred Kiyana, with Truman Michelson's English translation on the opposite page. The name "Milford S. Chandler" appears on the top of the first page.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2239
Local Note:
Title changed from "A gens festival; Wabano (?) White Deer (?) Ethnology; legends" 3/25/14.
Meskwaki (Fox) syllabic text handwritten by Alfred Kiyana on Snail dance, with English translation by Truman Michelson and an unidentified writer. There are also 12 pages of vocabulary notes on the Meskwaki texts in the same unidentified hand. Story and notes collected by Michelson in Tama, Iowa.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2606
Local Note:
Title changed from "Snail dance Legend" 3/27/2014.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Folklore
Narratives
Field notes
Sketches
Place:
Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation (Mont.)
Date:
1910 September 7-13
Scope and Contents:
Text and notes collected by Truman Michelson in Montana from Bull Thigh and William Somers on the sacred Medicine arrows of the Cheyenne. The texts are primarily in English and detail the origin of the arrows and describe the Medicine arrows ceremony. The prayers and songs are in Cheyenne. Also includes notes on Sun Dance.
The following is a list of the contents: (Folder 1) "The 4 arrows." Bull Thigh, Somers. pages 1-23. (Folder 2) "Further information on the 4 arrows." September 10, 1910. Somers. pages 1-24. (Folder 2) Notes on Sun Dance from Bull Thigh. September 10, 1910. pages 1-2. (Folder 3) "Somers fills in gaps of 4 arrows left out by the priest (tells own experiences)." September 9, 1910. Somers pages 1-43. (Folder 4) "3rd day before the ceremony proper." 7 pages. (Folder 5) "The 4 arrows; 4th day of the ceremonies."September 13, 1910. Somers. pages 1-10. (Folder 6) "Words of 1 arrow song; 4th song." September 7. Bull Thigh, Somers. 9 pages. "Arrow song with words," prayers, oaths, creed. September 13. Somers. 11 pages. (Folder 7) Diagrams illustrating parts of the ceremonies, Somers. 5 pages.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2799
Local Note:
Title changed from "Notes on Medicine arrows of the Cheyenne September 7-13, 1910" 4/8/2014.
Two Meskwaki (Fox) syllabic texts by Alfred Kiyana with English translations by Horace Poweshiek. According to Ives Goddard, the translations of the titles are "Dances when war party returns" and "Childbirth and menstrual customs."
Notes on Kickapoo namining ceremonies and clans collected by Truman Michelson. Information was provided by Joseph Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo residing in Oklahoma. The notes are primarily in English with some Kickapoo written on the first page.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3207
Local Note:
Title changed from "Naming diagrams, gens organizations" 5/27/2014.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Manuscripts
Narratives
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Five notebooks containing texts handwritten in Kickapoo syllabary and a phonetic transcription on mortuary customs and observances. A sixth notebook contains English translations, as well as anthropometric measurements of Joseph Murdock and his daughter, Rose. Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo that resided in Oklahoma, frequently assisted Michelson in his Kickapoo research.
50 Stereographs (circa 50 printed stereographs, halftone and color halftone)
1,000 Stereographs (circa, albumen and silver gelatin (some tinted))
239 Prints (circa 239 mounted and unmounted prints, albumen (including cartes de visite, imperial cards, cabinet cards, and one tinted print) and silver gelatin (some modern copies))
96 Prints (Album :, silver gelatin)
21 Postcards (silver gelatin, collotype, color halftone, and halftone)
Photographs relating to Native Americans or frontier themes, including portraits, expedition photographs, landscapes, and other images of dwellings, transportation, totem poles, ceremonies, infants and children in cradleboards, camps and towns, hunting and fishing, wild west shows, food preparation, funeral customs, the US Army and army posts, cliff dwellings, and grave mounds and excavations. The collection also includes images of prisoners at Fort Marion in 1875, Sioux Indians involved in the Great Sioux Uprising in Minnesota, the Fort Laramie Peace Commission of 1868, Sitting Bull and his followers after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
There are studio portraits of well-known Native Americans, including American Horse, Big Bow, Four Bears, Iron Bull, Ouray, Red Cloud, Red Dog, Red Shirt, Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail, Three Bears, and Two Guns White Calf. Depicted delegations include a Sauk and Fox meeting in Washington, DC, with Lewis V. Bogy and Charles E. Mix in 1867; Kiowas and Cheyennes at the White House in 1863; and Dakotas and Crows who visited President Warren G. Harding in 1921. Images of schools show Worcester Academy in Vinita, Oklahoma; Chilocco Indian School; Carlisle Indian Industrial School; Haskell Instittue, and Albuquerque Indian School.
Some photographs relate to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, 1876; World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893; Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, 1903; and Centennial Exposition of the Baltimore and Ohio Railraod, 1876. Expedition photographs show the Crook expedition of 1876, the Sanderson expedition to the Custer Battlefield in 1877, the Wheeler Survey of the 1870s, Powell's surveys of the Rocky Mountain region during the 1860s and 1870s, and the Hayden Surveys.
Outstanding single views include the party of Zuni group led to the sea by Frank Hamilton Cushing; Episcopal Church Rectory and School Building, Yankton Agency; Matilda Coxe Stevenson and a companion taking a photographs of a Zuni ceremony; John Moran sketching at Acoma; Ben H. Gurnsey's studio with Indian patrons; Quapaw Mission; baptism of a group of Paiutes at Coeur d'Alene Mission; court-martial commission involved in the trial of Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds, 1877; President Harding at Sitka, Alaska; Walter Hough at Hopi in 1902; and Mrs. Jesse Walter Fewkes at Hopi in 1897.
Biographical/Historical note:
George V. Allen was an attorney in Lawrence, Kansas and an early member of the National Stereoscope Association. Between the 1950s and 1980s, Allen made an extensive collection of photographs of the American West, mostly in stereographs, but also including cartes-de-visite and other styles of mounted prints, photogravures, lantern slides, autochromes, and glass negatives.
Photo Lot 90-1, George V. Allen collection of photographs of Native Americans and the American frontier, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Synopsis of the history of the Five Nations Confederacy, with description of the rites and ceremonies used on the creation of their lords (or chiefs); also a tradition on the nativity of Dekanawideh, the framer of the League, and traditions on Hiawatha, Thadodaho, et al.
Notes and texts collected by Truman Michelson during his field work among the Piegan Blackfoot in Montana in 1910. The materials consist primarily of stories in English and ethnographic notes covering topics such as Crazy Dog society, Sun Dance, and other ceremonies and societies. There are also notes on Piegan vocabulary and Chippewa Sun Dance and Medicine Dance. Michelson obtained information from various people, including David Duvall, who also served as an interpreter; Mountain Chief; George Pablo; Little Young Man; Norah Thomas; James Vielle; and Julie White Swan.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2827
Local Note:
Title changed from "Field notes concerning Piegan Blackfoot ethnography, including ceremonials and societies, with some linguistic notes June-July, 1910" 5/13/2014.
