The Theodoor de Booy collection consists of photographic negatives and prints made by de Booy from 1912 to 1918. The materials largely relate to various archaeological expeditions undertaken by de Booy on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation to such places as the Bahamas, Jamaica, Dominican Republic's Island of Saona, Cuba, Venezuela's Island of Margarita, and Trinidad. The West Indies views represent excavation sites, archaeological activities, and antiquities presumably felt to be related to the Indians of the West Indies. In addition are city street scenes, landscapes, and seascapes; plantations; native peoples and their dwellings, social customs, and agricultural practices; and U.S. military activities in the region as well as a few negatives made in New York at the Museum of the American Indian.
Arrangement note:
Negatives Arranged by negative number (N04070-N04362, N04489-N05070, N06068-N06098). Prints Arranged by print number (P00286, P00287).
Biographical/Historical note:
Theodoor de Booy was born in 1882 in Hellevoetsluis, Netherlands. The son of a vice-admiral, he received his education from the Royal Naval Institute of Holland; in 1906, at the age of 24, he immigrated to the United States. During a 1911 trip to the Bahamas, he explored several caves and mounds and, based on his discoveries, published an article in the American Anthropologist entitled "Lucayan Remains on the Caicos Islands." This trip affirmed his interest in antiquities, and in 1912 he accepted one of the first positions on George Gustav Heye's "scientific staff," who were charged with collecting American Indian specimens throughout the Western Hemisphere for the Museum of the American Indian collections. De Booy's appointment was as field explorer for the West Indies. From 1912 to 1918, as an employee of the Museum, de Booy conducted archaeological expeditions to and excavations in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Santo Domingo, Cuba, Venezuela, and in Trinidad. After 1918, de Booy worked for a short time at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and then joined the State Department Inquiry as a specialist for South America. A casualty of the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, de Booy died in Yonkers, New York, at the age of 37.
Provenance:
Historically, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation managed all photographic and related manuscript collections separately. This collection description represents current management practices of organizing and contextualizing related archival materials.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Rights:
Some restrictions: Cultural Sensitivity
Topic:
Indians of the West Indies -- Social life and customs Search this
Excavations (Aerchaeology) -- West Indies Search this
Indians of the West Indies -- Antiquities Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographic prints
Negatives
Citation:
Theodoor de Booy negatives and photographs collection, 1912-1918, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
Images of United States National Museum anthropological exhibits at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also called the St. Louis World's Fair. Images of the Department of Anthropology's exhibits include those of photographs and models of Mayan and Mesoamerican temples; antiquities from Mexico, Mesoamerica, and the West Indies; and American Indian, Mexican, and Mesoamerican sculptures, ceramics, tools, textiles, masks, and baskets. Photographs also document the Bureau of American Ethnology's exhibits, including "symbolic art," drawings and paintings on artifacts from tribes of the New Southwest, Plains, and Northwest Coast. The collection also includes a photograph of carved designs on a structure at Xochicales, possibly used in the exhibition or as part of its design.
Biographical/Historical note:
The National Museum's Department of Anthropology and the Bureau of American Ethnology exhibits at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition were highly integrated, and both were designed by then chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology and former head curator of the Department of Anthropology, William Henry Holmes. The exhibits were intended to illustrate "the culture of the Native American peoples as shown in their arts and industries." The exhibit featured examples of architecture, sculpture, ceramics, metal work, water craft, musical instruments, pipes, and ceremonial objects and included models of Aztec ruins based on plans by De Lancey W. Gill.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 82-31
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Papers, photographs, and records relating to exhibitions at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4689, MS 7571, MS 7208, Photo Lot 24, and Bureau of American Ethnology Letters Received 1888-1906.
The Smithsonian Institution Archives holds Exposition Records of the Smithsonian Institution and the United States National Museum, 1867-1940 (SIA RU000070) as well as photographs of the exhibits.
Additional photographs of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 107, Photo Lot 89-8, and Photo Lot 90-1.
Photo lot 82-31, Photographs of Smithsonian anthropology exhibits at Louisiana Purchase Exposition, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Comptes rendus des communications du dixième congrès international d'études des civilisations précolombiennes des Petites Antilles, Fort-de-France, 25-30 Juillet 1983 = Proceedings of the tenthInternational Congress for the Study of the Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Lesser Antilles = Actas d el décimo Congreso Internacional para el Estudio de las Culturas Pre-Colombinas de las Antillas Menores
Author:
International Congress for the Study of the Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Lesser Antilles (10th : 1983 : Fort-de-France, Martinique, French West Indies) Search this
Revisión crítica de la arqueología del Caribe : actas del Segundo Simposio de la Fundación de Arqueología del Caribe / editado por Iraida Vargas Arenas
Title:
Fundación Arqueológica, Antropológica e Histórica
Author:
Fundación de Arqueología del Caribe Simposio (2nd : 1985 : Vieques Island, P.R.) Search this
Archaeological reconnaissance of the Island of St. John, United States Virgin Islands / by Frederick W. Sleight. Ceramic periods of St. Thomas and St. John Islands, Virgin Islands / by Ripley P. Bullen
Title:
Ceramic periods of St. Thomas and St. John Islands, Virgin Islands
Proceedings of the First Puerto Rican Symposium on Archaeology / Linda Sickler Robinson, editor ; Agamemnon Gus Pantel and Gary S. Vescelius, editorial advisors
Author:
Puerto Rican Symposium on Archaeology (1st : 1973 : San Juan, P.R.) Search this
Archaeological investigations at the Aklis Site, Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands / by Michele Helene Hayward and Michael A. Cinquino ; with contributions by Yvonne M. Narganes Storde [and others]
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