This series includes negatives that Frank Speck made among various Québec communities between 1910 and 1937. The majority of the photographs were shot in Innu communities in the Saguenay-Lac Saint Jean and Côte Nord Regions in the 1920s. Additional photographs were made among the Mistassini Cree, Lorette Huron, Wawenock, Mohawk, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg communities.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive 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.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank Speck photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The Frederick Johnson collection consists of original negatives made from 1924 to 1931 by Johnson primary among the Mi'kmaq, Innu, Algonquin, Potawatomi, Montagnais, Abenaki, Anishinaabe, and Mistassini Cree peoples of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Quebec, Canada. Frederick Johnson began his anthropological studies as a teenager, accompanying anthropologist Frank G. Speck (1881-1951) on trips to Native communities in Eastern Canada. Between 1923 and 1929, Johnson studied at the University of Pennsylvania and conducted several research trips in Canada, some of which were sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists of original negatives made from 1924 to 1931 by Johnson primary among the Mi'kmaq, Innu, Algonquin, Potawatomi, Montagnais, Abenaki, Anishinaabe, and Mistassini Cree peoples of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Quebec, Canada. The bulk were made among the Mi'kmaq, Innu, and Algonquin peoples in 1925 and from 1927 to 1931. In general, the majority of the Canada materials are informal, outdoor portraits of individuals and groups but they also depict dwellings, the construction of wigwams and birchbark canoes, carving and wood working processes, ceremonials, churches, the process of catching and smoking salmon, and the landscape. In addition there are negatives made in Delaware from 1924 to 1926 of and Nanticoke and Rappahannock. Again, these consist primarily of outdoor, informal portraits of individuals and groups of people.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in three series geographically and chronologically; Series 1: United Sates: Delaware, Nanticoke, 1924-1927; Series 2: Canada: Quebec and Ontario, Various Communities, 1925-1930; Series 3: Canada: Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Mi'kmaq (Micmac), 1930-1931. Series 2 has six subseries organized by community. Negatives are arranged by catalog number within the series or subseries.
Biographical/Historical note:
Born in 1904 in Everett, Massachusetts, Frederick Johnson at an early age displayed an interest in indigenous cultures and an aptitude for indigenous languages. He studied anthropology at Tufts, the University of Massachusetts, and at the University of Pennsylvania, and eventually accompanied anthropologist and mentor Frank G. Speck on several trips throughout the Northeastern United States. Early in his career, Johnson worked with the Algonquin people and from 1917 to 1931 among the Innu, Mi'kmaq, Anishinaabe, and Mistassini Cree communities in Canada. Individuals from these communities noted that Johnson's primarily focus was to listen to elders and their stories. Many of Johnson's research trips during this period were sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI) and Johnson would send collections of ethnographic materials and photographs back to the MAI in New York City. From 1936 to 1967, Johnson was curator of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology (now Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology) at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. and subsequently became the Museum's director, a post that he held until his retirement in 1969. Johnson passed away in 1994 in Lowell, Massachusetts.
For more information on Frederick Johnson's ethnographic work in Canada see "Frederick Johnson's Canadian Ethnology in the Americanist Tradition" by Marilyn Norcini. Histories of Anthropology Annual, Volume 4, 2008, pp. 106-134.
Related Materials:
Frederick Johnson participated in the 1919 expedition to San Miguel Island (California) with Ralph Glidden, sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Johnson's photographs from that expedition can be found in the Ralph Glidden photograph collection (NMAI.AC.001.028).
A collection of Frederick Johnson's papers and photographs can be found at the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology.
Separated Materials:
A significant collection of ethnographic materials from Canada accompanied the photographs by Johnson and can be found in NMAI's object collection. To view these objects, or for more information, please contact NMAI Collections or make an appointment through the NMAI website.
Provenance:
The photographs in this collection were sent to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, by Frederick Johnson between 1927-1931 along with his ethnographic field collections.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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 Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The photographs in this subseries were taken during two separate trips by Frederick Johnson to Lac Saint Jean in Quebec in 1926 and 1930. Both trips were to the Mashteuiatsh reserve, formerly called Ouiatchouan, which is located on a headland jutting out of the western shore of Lac Saint Jean, known as Pointe-Bleu. In 1926, as an undergraduate student, Johnson photographed Innu (Montagnais) community members Luke Simon, Rene Basil, Alexandre Metacic in various locations around the reserve. When Johnson returned to Pointe-Bleue in 1930 there were also Mistassini Cree men, women and children on the reserve whom he photographed playing various hunting games. These include "Rabbit Hunting" and "Shooting the Otter." Johnson also took additional portraits of unidentified Innu community members around the Mashteuiatsh reserve.
N14801-N14813, N19140-N19159
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor portrait of Innu man Luke Simion, wearing a fringed moose hide coat with embroidery or beadwork on the breast and collar. He is posed in a snowy yard next to a wooden clapboard house on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor profile portrait of Innu man Luke Simion, wearing a fringed moose hide coat with embroidery or beadwork on the breast and collar on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor portrait of Innu man Luke Simion, wearing a fringed moose hide coat with embroidery or beadwork on the breast and collar on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor portrait of Innu man Luke Simion, wearing a fringed moose hide coat with embroidery or beadwork on the breast and collar. He stands in a snowy yard next to a wooden clapboard house on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor profile portrait of Innu man Luke Simion, wearing a fringed moose hide coat with embroidery or beadwork on the breast and collar. He is posed in a snowy yard next to a wooden barn-like structure on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor profile portrait of Innu man Luke Simion, wearing a fringed moose hide coat. He stands near a dog in a snowy yard with trees and houses in background on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor portrait of the young Innu man Rene Basil, posed in a snowy yard with trees in background, wearing the same fringed moose hide coat with embroidery or beadwork on the breast and collar as Luke Simion in N14801-6 on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor portrait of the young Innu man Rene Basil, posed in a snowy yard with trees in background, wearing the same fringed moose hide coat with embroidery or beadwork on the breast and collar as Luke Simion in N14801-6 on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor portrait of Abenaki (Abnaki) man Louis Phillipe posed in a train station in front of a sign which states "This train for Roberval" on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec. Roberval is just south of the Mashteuiatsh Reserve.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor portrait of an Innu man posed in a train station in front of a sign which states "This train for Roberval" on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec. Roberval is just south of the Mashteuiatsh Reserve.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor portrait of two young Innu boys being pulled along a country road on a sled by a dog on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec. Fence, trees, and snowy landscape in background.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Extent:
1 Negatives (photographic)
Type:
Archival materials
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1926
Scope and Contents:
Outdoor portrait of Innu man Alexandre Metacic wearing a hat, and jodhpur-like pants, posed in a snowy field with trees in background on the Mashteuiatsh Reserve (Ouiatchouan, Pointe Bleue) on Lac Saint-Jean, Québec. He stands next to a dog pulling a toboggan (originally identified as a "dog travois").
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick Johnson photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
