MS 3941 Materials assembled by Hewitt for preparation of articles in Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 30 and for replies to inquires from the public
Collector:
Hewitt, J. N. B. (John Napoleon Brinton), 1859-1937 Search this
Contents: Adirondack tribe (St Lawrence River) Old Manuscript Number 3553. Adoption Old Manuscript Number 4007. Refers to Algonquian method of counting -only; see Haas note 2/18/72; Old Manuscript Number 3864. "Alligewi"; Animism Old Manuscript Number 3867 and 2842-c, box 6. Blood Indians, origin of name; Brant, Joseph Old Manuscript Number 3874. Chippewa, origin of name Old Manuscript Number 3646. Chiefs, function and significance of Old Manuscript Number 2842-c, box 6. Delaware tribe, New Jersey area claimed by Old Manuscript Number 3866. Detroit River, tribes near; Ekaentoton Island-- see Ste. Marie Island Environment (Bulletin 30 draft by O. T. Mason) Old Manuscript Number 4007. Erie, origin of name Old Manuscript Number 3646. Erie and Black Mincqua tribes Old Manuscript Number 3586. [Eskimo] Arctic tribes, leaving elderly and sick people to die Old Manuscript Number 3668. Family, Bulletin 30 draft and notes Old Manuscript Number 4011 and 2842-c, box 6. Grand River (Tinaatoua), name of; Hebrew calendar; Hewitt, list of Bulletin 30 articles by Old Manuscript Number 4066. Hoboken, origin of name; Iroquois, "On the Northern and Eastern Territorial Limits of the Iroquoian people, in the 16th Century," and Algonquian tribes, at Chaleur Bay. Iroquois at Gulf of St Lawrence and Bay of Gaspe Old Manuscript Number 3625.
Iroquois, location of Six Nations tribes reservations Old Manuscript Number 3763. Iroquois false face; Iroquois preparation of corn ("as food") Old Manuscript Number 4009. Iroquoian early dress Old Manuscript Number 3660. Iroquoian "Gachoi" tribe, identity of (Correspondence with F. Bogaskie.) Old Manuscript Number 3816. Iroquoian moon names and concept of time; Iroquoian social organization, and place name-name origins; "Man," Iroquoian term for Old Manuscript Number 3781. Iroquoian towns Old Manuscript Number 4006. Kentucky, meaning of the word; Kentucky, origin of name Old Manuscript Number 3840. Lenni Lenape, meaning of the word; Logstown-- see Shenango Old Manuscript Number 3773. Lost Ten Tribes as American Indians Old Manuscript Number 3670. Mayan linguistic family and other Mayan linguistic notes including Quiche and Tepehuanan notes Old Manuscript Number 3473. Mexico: idols, sacrifices, etc. Old Manuscript Number 3807. Mexico: Indian languages. Letter from Captain W.E.W. MacKinley Old Manuscript Number 3778. Missouri, Indian village, location of Old Manuscript Number 3944. Mohawk land near Lake Champlain; Mohawk grammar; Montour family, notes for Bulletin 30 Old Manuscript Number 3812. Muskhogean social organization. Letter from J. J. Harrison. Old Manuscript Number 3891. New England tribes Old Manuscript Number 3513.
Niagara, origin of name; "Old Smoke"-- see Sayenqueraghta Old Manuscript Number 3949. Onondaga tribe, text of memorial inscription to, and correspondence Old Manuscript 4391 and 4271- box 1 (part.) Ontwaganha or Toaganha, origin and meaning of name Old Manuscript Number 3864. Owego, meaning of town's name; Pekwanoket tribe (Cape Cod); Pemaquid, Abnaki word and its origin Old Manuscript Number 89. Piasa bird- pictograph formerly near present Alton, Illinois. Article is similar to that by Cyrus Thomas, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 30. Old Manuscript Number 3981. Potawatomi, notes on the name Old Manuscript Number 4034. Potawatomi Green Corn Dance; Roanoke, origin of name Old Manuscript Number 3998. Sacagawea, spelling of; St Ignace, 3 settlements (Michigan); St Marie Island or Ekaentoton Island; Sauk, Bulletin 30 article and galley proof, notes Old Manuscript Number 3764. Sayenqueraghta or "Old Smoke" (correspondence with Alanson Skinner) Old Manuscript Number 3949. Scalping Old Manuscript Number 4025. Shenango and Logstown Old Manuscript Number 3773. Sioux, origin of name Old Manuscript Number 3624. Society of American Indians, resolutions by thanking General Hugh L. Scott, Fr. Anselm Webber and others Old Manuscript Number 3868. Susquehanna, origin of name Old Manuscript Number 3707. Tacoma, origin of name Old Manuscript Number 3470.
Thunderbird, notes on Old Manuscript Number 3552. Tinaatoa-- see Grand River; Toronto, origin of name; Tuscarora villages Old Manuscript Number 3998. Wampum Old Manuscript Number 3998. War club with inscription; West Virginia panhandle tribes Old Manuscript Number 3945. Williams, Eleazer Old Manuscript Number 3998. Women, status of Old Manuscript Number 3566. Wyandots (Huron) List of tribes of which Wyandots of today are constituted. Old Manuscript Number 3774.
The Esther Schiff Goldfrank papers, 1920-1980, document her professional life in anthropology. Much of the field material and reading notes relate to Goldfrank's work on the Pueblos, Navahos, Blood, and Teton Dakota. There is also considerable material of colleagues. Some of this seems to have been given to her directly. Other material, particularly that of Ruth Benedict's Blackfoot project, was acquired by Margaret Mead and then sent to Goldfrank. Included are field notes or manuscript articles concerning the Blackfoot Indians by Benedict, Harry D. Biele, Marjorie Lismer, Jane Richardson, and George D. Spindler. Most of the photographs in the collection concern Goldfrank's early travels with Franz Boas or Harvey Biele's work with the Bloods. Copies of illustrations used in her autobiography are also included.
Scope and Contents:
These papers document the professional life of anthropologist Esther Schiff Goldfrank (b. 1896) through correspondence, arranged both alphabetically and chronologically; correspondence specifically referencing the Isleta paintings; manuscripts by Goldfrank; field, reading and typescript notes; material from other anthropologists; miscellaneous printed material such as articles, reports, papers and invitations; transparencies of artwork from Isleta paintings; facsimiles of the Joe B. Lente letters; and, photographs, mostly concerning Goldfrank's early travels with Franz Boas and Harvey Biele's work with the Bloods. The collection dates from 1920 through 1980.
Among correspondents whose letters are included in the papers, are David F. ABERLE, John ADAIR, M. F. ASHLEY-MONTAGUE, Victor BARNOUW, Ruth F. BENEDICT, Franz BOAS, Charles E. BORDEN, Henry B. COLLINS, Carlton S. COON, George DEVEREUX, Rene d'HARNONCOURT, Edward P. DOZIER, Fred R. EGGAN, Ward H. GOODENOUGH, Alfred I. HALLOWELL, June HANKS, Byron HARVEY III, Florence M. HAWLEY, E. Adamson HOEBEL, Alfred V. KIDDER, Solon T. KIMBALL, Clyde KLUCKHOLN, R. Weston LABARRE, Oliver LAFARGE, Dorothea C. LEIGHTON, Oscar LEWIS, Edward M. LOEB, John P. LUCERO, Margaret MEAD, Robert MURPHY, Morris OPLER, Elsie Clews PARSONS, Herbert PARSONS, Jane RICHARDSON, M. Estellie SMITH, Frank G. SPECK, Leslie SPIER, Morris SWADESH, Sol TAX, Mischa TITIEV, Caroline TRUJILLO, Leslie A. WHITE, Nathalie F. S. WOODBURY, and Richard B. WOODBURY.
The bulk of the material concerns Goldfrank's work on the genesis and publication of the Isleta paintings and her research on and fieldwork with the Pueblo, Navaho, Blood and Teton Dakota. Additionally, there are field notes and manuscript articles by Ruth F. Benedict, Harry D. Biele, Marjorie Lismer, Jane Richardson, and George D. Spindler.
There is also a good deal of autobiographical material and information about her interaction with other anthropologists (Franz Boas and Ruth F. Benedict among others) in the various drafts of Goldfrank's privately published autobiography, "Notes on an Undirected Life" (1978).
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into the following series: (1) Correspondence arranged by correspondent or subject; (2) Correspondence arranged in chronological order, 1922-1950; (3) Correspondence arranged in chronological order, 1951-1980; (4) Manuscripts by Goldfrank; (5) Isleta paintings, 1949-1976, undated; (6) Blackfoot and Blood Indians; (7) Navajo and Pueblo Indians; (8) Teton Dakota (Sioux) Indians; (9) Miscellany; (10) Photographs.
Biographical Note:
Esther Schiff Goldfrank took an undergraduate course under Franz Boas when she was a student at Barnard College. This led to her becoming his secretary between 1919 and 1922 and, at the same time, taking graduate courses in anthropology at Columbia University. With the financial and intellectual assistance of Elsie Clews Parsons, she also traveled with Boas and his wife in the Southwest and carried out anthropological field work at Laguna and Cochiti Pueblos between 1920 and 1922. Out of this work came her Social and Ceremonial Organization of Chochiti, Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, number 23, 1927.
Although she married Walter Goldfrank in 1922 and became a homemaker, her interest in Pueblo life continued. In 1924, she carried out field work at Isleta for the Southwest Society under arrangements made by Parsons.
After her husband's death in 1935, Goldfrank worked for Caroline Zachry's Study of Adolescents for the Commission on Secondary School Curriculum of the Progressive Education Association and, later, became a nondegree graduate student in anthropology, again at Columbia University, In 1939, she took part in a program of field studies of four Blackfoot tribes that was directed Ruth Fulton Benedict. The purpose of the program was to determine differences in the effects of American and Canadian policies on similar cultures.
Goldfrank's work was among the Blood Indians of Canada, and she reported it in her Changing Configurations in the Social Organization of a Blackfoot Tribe during the Reserve Period, J. J. Austin, 1945.
In 1940, Goldfrank married Karl A. Wittfogel and, in 1943, became staff anthropologist for the Chinese History Project, which her husband directed. Shortly after her marriage, she undertook work on historical aspects of Teton Dakota culture through library studies. Her interest in Pueblo cultures continued, however, and she contributed two major publications concerning them. In 1962, under her editorship, Elsie Clews Parsons' Isleta Paintings was published as Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 181. In 1967, her own The Artist of "Isleta Paintings" in Pueblo Society was issued as Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, volume 3.
Under the influence of her husband, she also became interested in the implications for southwestern cultures of the need to control water.
Goldfrank was active with several anthropological organizations but especially with the American Ethnological Society. She served as its secretary-treasurer in 1945-1947 and its president in 1948. In the latter position, she was particularly concerned with the constitution of the society and, especially, its anomolous relationship with the American Anthropological Association. She was also the society's editor from 1952 to 1956.
Chronology
1896 -- Born
1918 -- Bachelor of Arts, Barnard College
1919-1922 -- Took graduate courses in anthropology at Columbia University Became secretary to Franz Boas Conducted field work with Franz Boas among the Indians at Laguna and Cochiti
1922 -- Married Walter S. Goldfrank
1924 -- Pursued field work at Isleta for the Southwest Society
1927 -- Published Monograph, "The Social and Ceremonial Organization of Cochiti," Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, number 23, 1927
1935 -- Death of Walter S. Goldfrank
1939 -- Took part in a study of four Blackfoot tribes directed by Ruth F. Benedict
1940 -- Married Karl A. Wittfogel
1943 -- Became staff anthropologist for Wittfogel's Chinese HistoryProject
1944 -- Published Monograph, "Changing Configurations in the Social Organization of a Blackfoot Tribe During the Reserve Period," J. J. Austin, 1945
1945-1947 -- Served as Secretary-Treasurer of the American Ethnological Society
1948 -- Served as President of the American Ethnological Society
1952-1956 -- Publication of "Isleta Paintings,"Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 181, with Introduction and Commentary by Elsie ClewsParsons and edited by Esther S. Goldfrank Served as editor for the American Ethnological Society
1967 -- Goldfrank's "Artist of 'Isleta Paintings' in Pueblo Society" was issued as Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, volume 3
1978 -- Publication of the Memoirs of Esther S. Goldfrank, entitled, "Notes on an Undirected Life," New York, Queens College, 1978
1988 -- Death of Karl A. Wittfogel
1997 April 23 -- Died
Provenance:
The papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Esther Schiff Goldfrank in 1982. A small addition was made in 1984.
Restrictions:
The Esther Schiff Goldfrank papers are open for research.
Rights:
Restrictions on the use of the material specify that living informants are not to be mentioned in publications; no material is to be used to defame any individual; and, transparencies of the Isleta Paintings and copies of Joe B. Lente's letters cannot be reproduced (copies should be obtained from the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia).
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Manuscripts
Letters (correspondence)
Citation:
Esther Schiff Goldfrank papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
This collection consists of 43 photographic prints of Native American peoples from throughout North America. Dating from 1882 to 1913, the images in this collection document a variety of Native American communities and events, including the U.S. Indian Congress which took place at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska. Photographers include Frank A. Rinehart, Adolph F. Muhr, and Roland W. Reed, as well as a series of images by an unknown photographer who also documented American Indian life.
Scope and Contents:
The Frank A. Rinehart and Roland W. Reed photograph collection consists of 43 photographic prints of Native American peoples at the turn of the twentieth century. Dating from 1882 to 1913, the images in this collection document a variety of Native American communities and events, including the U.S. Indian Congress which took place at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska. This exposition, also referred to as the 1898 World's Fair, was held in Omaha, Nebraska from June through October, 1898. Attending the U.S. Indian Congress at the fair were over 500 American Indian delegates representing more than 35 Native communities from throughout the United States.
In addition to the Rinehart and Muhr 1898 photographs are also a number of staged portrait images created by Roland W. Reed in the early decades of the twentieth century. Traveling throughout the U.S. West and Canada, Reed photographed Native communities ranging from Minnesota to Montana and Canada, and extending to Arizona in the Southwest U.S.
This collection also consists of 18 photographs contemporary to those of Rinehart and Reed, dating approximately 1882 – 1904. The photographer(s) of these images is unknown. Although specific communities are not identified, many images appear to portray Northern Plains and Central Plains American Indian peoples.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into three series, organized by photographer, and then regionally by location or culture group. Series 1: Frank A. Rinehart photographs, Series 2: Roland W. Reed photographs, Series 3: Unknown photographer
Biographical / Historical:
Frank A. Rinehart (ca. 1862-1928) was born in Illinois, opened a photography studio in Omaha, Nebraska in 1885 or 1886, and is best known for his work as the official photographer of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha. In addition to portrait photographs of Native American delegates attending the U.S. Indian Congress of 1898, Rinehart as official exposition photographer also documented the broader exhibits and events that took place at the 1898 Omaha World's Fair.
Adolph R. Muhr (ca. 1858-1913) worked as Frank A. Rinehart's assistant at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, creating a photographic record of the events and attendees. While Rinehart documented many of the outdoor sham-battles, dance scenes, and other events related to the U.S. Indian Congress, Muhr was responsible for the majority of the posed delegate portraits. Muhr in later years worked with photographer Edward S. Curtis in Seattle, until Muhr's death in 1913.
Roland W. Reed (1864-1934) was born in Wisconsin, and is best known for traveling widely throughout the western United States and Canada, photographing Native American communities. Having apprenticed with photographer Daniel Dutro in 1890s Montana, Reed later ran photography studios in both Ortonville and Bemidji, Minnesota in the early 1900s. Over the next few decades he continued to document the lives and cultures of Native peoples, opening photography studios in Kalispell, Montana in 1909, and later in San Diego, California in 1915. Many of Reed's photographs are clearly staged, representing romanticized and stereotyped images of what Reed believed Native American life to be. He died in Colorado in 1934.
Related Materials:
The NMAI Archive Center collections also include an album of 18 photographic prints of Frank A. Rinehart's U.S. Indian Congress images: U.S. Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition photograph album, NMAI.AC.118.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by the Dakota County Historical Society, South St. Paul, MN, in 2013.
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 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.
Topic:
Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition (1898 : Omaha, Neb.) -- Photographs Search this
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank A. Rinehart and Roland W. Reed photograph collection, NMAI.AC.289; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This series contains 10 photographic prints of Native American men and women photographed by Roland W. Reed between 1908 and 1913. Traveling throughout the U.S. West and Canada, Reed photographed Native communities ranging from Minnesota to Montana and Canada, and extending to Arizona in the Southwest U.S. Images of particular communities include Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa); Pikuni Blackfeet (Piegan); Northern Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne); Kainai Blackfoot (Kainah/Blood); Diné (Navajo); and Hopi Pueblo.
Photograph titles were written by Reed.
Numbers written on the verso of these photographic prints were supplied by the donor, (the Dakota County Historical Society), and do not necessarily correspond with the processing or organization of these materials as they are now presented.
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 A. Rinehart and Roland W. Reed photograph collection, NMAI.AC.289; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographic portrait of Hind Bull [Kainai Blackfoot (Kainah/Blood)]. Photographed by Roland W. Reed in Alberta, Canada, in 1913.
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 A. Rinehart and Roland W. Reed photograph collection, NMAI.AC.289; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection includes 83 films (125 reels) produced by the National Film Board of Canada between 1951 and 1983. The films in this collection document the historical and contemporary lives of Indigenous peoples in Canada. This includes films produced by the Indian Film Crew (IFC) and members of the Indian Film Training Program (IFTP), Indigenous filmmakers telling their own stories on the screen between 1968 and 1973.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes 83 films (125 16mm reels) produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFBC) between 1951 and 1983. Many of the collection films are documentaries and range from 2 minutes in length to 75 minutes in length.
Filmmakers in this collection include: Alan Collins, Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki), Allan Wargon, Anne MacLeod, Austin Campbell, Bernard Gosselin, Bill Reid, Caroline Leaf, Co Hoedeman, Colin Browne, Colin Low, John Spotton, Cynthia Scott, Dalton Muir, David Bairstow, David Hughes, Derek May, Don Owen, Donald Brittain, Douglas Wilkinson, Duke Redbird (Ojibwa), Henning Jacobsen, Ernest Reid, Eugene Boyko, Gilles Blais, Harvey Spak, Henning Jacobsen, Ian McLaren, J.V. Durden, Jacques Godbout, Francoise Bujold, Joan Henson, John Feeney, John Gould, Kathleen Shannon, Ken Buck, Laurence Hyde, Marcel Carrière, Martin Defalco, Martin Duckworth, Martine Defalco, Willie Dunn, Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell (Mohawk [Akwesasne]), Michael Scott, Michel Régnier, Mosha Michael (Inuit), Norma Bailey, Bob Lower, Pierre Hebert, Quentin Brown, René Bonnière, Pierre Perrault, Richard Gilbert, Jack Ofield, Robert Young, Roger Hart, Terence Macartney-Filgate, Tom Shandel, Tony Ianzelo, Anthony Kent, Willie Dunn (Mi'kmaq/Scottish).
These films were made among and about First Nations and Indigenous communities across Canada including the Saulteaux, Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa), Inuit, Mi'kmaq, Cree, Mohawk, Kainai Blackfoot, Attikamekw, Innu, and Métis
communities.
Content Warning:
Please note that these film reflect the context and culture of the time of their creation and includes what is considered derogatory and harmful language today, specifically the term "Eskimo." The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number (#300-1 to #383-1)
National Film Board of Canada (NFB):
The National Film Board of Canada's film collection comprises over 13,000 titles, available in English and in French. This imposing archive consists of social documentaries in a range of styles, Second World War propaganda films, newsreels or newsmagazines, and sponsored films commissioned by other federal government departments. It also includes experimental films, Web documentaries, interactive productions, and auteur animation created with an endless variety of animation techniques (some developed entirely or partly at the NFB), as well as short- and feature-length dramas made for television or theatrical release. The NFB collection reflects more than 75 years of Canadian history, from the founding of the NFB in 1939 to the present day. Through their works, the NFB's filmmakers—whether seasoned veterans or emerging directors, Indigenous people, members of Canada's cultural or linguistic minorities or English- or French-speaking majority—document social issues and the concerns and lives of Canadians in every region of the country, and of people around the world, from authentically Canadian perspectives. Over the years, the films in the NFB collection have garnered more than 5,000 awards and honours, including 5 Palmes d'or at Cannes and 12 Oscars.
Gift of the National Film Board of Canada (NFBC) to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Film and Video Center, 1985.
Restrictions:
Collection is closed until the materials have been digitized. Many of the films can be accessed online through the National Film Board of Canada's website.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives 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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); National Film Board of Canada film collection, film #, NMAI.AC.438; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian include photogravure printing plates and associated proofs made from Curtis photographs and used in the publication of The North American Indian volumes 1-9 and 12-19. The bulk of the images are portraits, though there are also images of everyday items, ceremonial artifacts, and camps.
Scope and Contents:
The collection comprises 183 photogravure plates (101 folio and 82 octavo) and 96 associated proofs used in the printing of The North American Indian volumes 1-9 and 12-19. The original photographs used to make the photogravures were made circa 1903-1926 and the photogravure plates were made in 1907-1930. The bulk are portraits, though there are also images of everyday items, ceremonial artifacts, and camps. About half of the proofs in the collection are originals used for Curtis's publication, though the collection also includes proofs made in the process of later publication by the Classic Gravure Company (circa 1980). Vintage proofs include handwritten notes, likely made by Curtis Studio employees in Seattle and Los Angeles. Many of the photogravure plates do not have matching proofs; in particular, there are no proofs for the octavo plates.
Arrangement:
The plates and proofs are arranged by the volume of The North American Indian in which they were published. They are described in this finding aid by the caption and plate number with which they were published.
Biographical / Historical:
Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) was an American photographer best known for his monumental and now-controversial project, the twenty-volume publication The North American Indian. Here he sought to document in words and pictures the "vanishing race" of American Indians.
Born in Wisconsin in 1868, Edward Curtis grew up on his family's farm in Le Sueur County, Minnesota, from 1874 to 1887. In 1887, he and his father Johnson Curtis settled on a plot near what is now Port Orchard, Washington, and the rest of the family joined them the following year. When Johnson Curtis died within a month of the family's arrival, the burden of providing for his mother and siblings fell to 20-year-old Edward, and Edward set out to do so through his photography. In 1891, Curtis moved to the booming city of Seattle and bought into a joint photo studio with Rasmus Rothi. Less than a year later, he formed "Curtis and Guptill, Photographers and Photoengravers" with Thomas Guptill; the enterprise quickly became a premier portrait studio for Seattle's elite. In 1895, Curtis made his first "Indian photograph" depicting Princess Angeline, daughter of the chief for whom Seattle had been named. The following year he earned his first medal from the National Photographic Convention for his "genre studies."
In 1899, Edward Curtis joined the Harriman Alaska Expedition as official photographer, a position which allowed him to learn from anthropologists C. Hart Merriam and George Bird Grinnell while documenting the landscapes and peoples of the Alaskan coast. This expedition and the resulting friendship with Grinnell helped to foster Curtis's ultimate goal to "form a comprehensive and permanent record of all the important tribes of the United States and Alaska that still retain to a considerable degree their primitive customs and traditions" (General Introduction, The North American Indian). Curtis made several trips to reservations from 1900 to 1904, including a trip with Grinnell to Montana in 1900 and multiple trips to the Southwest, including the Hopi Reservation. He also hired Adolph Muhr, former assistant to Omaha photographer Frank A. Rinehart, to manage the Curtis studio in his absence, a decision which would prove more and more fruitful as Curtis spent less and less time in Seattle.
In 1906, Curtis struck a deal with financier J. P. Morgan, whereby Morgan would support a company – The North American Indian, Inc. – with $15,000 for five years, by which time the project was expected to have ended. Systematic fieldwork for the publication began in earnest that summer season, with Curtis accompanied by a team of ethnological researchers and American Indian assistants. Arguably the most important member of Curtis' field team was William Myers, a former newspaperman who collected much of the ethnological data and completed most of the writing for the project. The first volume, covering Navajo and Apache peoples, was published at the end of 1907, but already Morgan's funding was incapable of meeting Curtis's needs. Despite heaping praise from society's elite, Curtis spent much of his time struggling to find people and institutions willing to subscribe to the expensive set of volumes. After the initial five years, only eight of the proposed twenty volumes had been completed. Fieldwork and publication continued with the support of J. P. Morgan, but Curtis's home life suffered because of his prolonged absences.
In 1919, Curtis's wife Clara was awarded a divorce settlement which included the entire Curtis studio in Seattle. Exhausted and bankrupt, Edward Curtis moved with his daughter Beth Magnuson to Los Angeles, where they operated a new Curtis Studio and continued work on the volumes; volume 12 was published
in 1922. The constant financial strain forced Myers to leave the North American Indian team after volume 18 (fieldwork in 1926) and Curtis made his last trip to photograph and gather data for volume 20 in 1927. After the final volumes were published in 1930, Curtis almost completely faded from public notice until his work was "rediscovered" and popularized in the 1970s.
Curtis's "salvage ethnology," as scholar Mick Gidley describes it, was mildly controversial even during his life and has become ever more so as his legacy deepens. In his quest to photograph pre-colonial Indian life through a twentieth-century lens, he often manipulated and constructed history as much as he recorded it: he staged reenactments, added props, and removed evidence of twentieth-century influences on "primitive" life. Curtis's work continues to shape popular conceptions of American Indians and so, while problematic, his legacy--his vision of American Indian life--continues to be relevant.
Related Materials:
NMAI also holds Edward Curtis photographs documenting the Harriman Expedition (1899) as well as platinum prints and photogravures of the images published in The North American Indian.
The Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives holds Edward Curtis prints submitted for copyright (Photo Lot 59) as well as many of his original negatives, photographs, and papers.
Steve Kern donated photogravure plates to the Center for Creative Photography and the Seattle Art Museum at the same time that he donated this set to MAI.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Steven and Arlene Kern to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in 1984.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- Pictorial works Search this
Genre/Form:
Photogravures
Photographs
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
This collection was processed with funding from the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
This series includes twelve folio plates and two octavo plates showing portraits of Denésoliné (Chipewyan), Cree, Tsuu T'ina (Sarcee), and Kainai Blackfoot (Kainah/Blood) men and women. It also includes twelve proofs made by the North American Indian, Inc. One plate is covered by a black substance which obscurs the image.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
This collection was processed with funding from the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Photographs of Winold Reiss drawings of Plains peoples, particularly Blackfeet or Kainah, circa 1927.
Biographical/Historical note:
Winold Reiss (1886-1953) was a German-born American artist who specialized in portraits of Native Americans. After attending art school in Munich, he immigrated to the United States in 1915 and began drawing pastel portraits of members of the Blackfoot tribes. In addition, Reiss drew portraits of workers and revolutionaries in Mexico as well as residents of Harlem in New York City. Reiss was also commissioned to draw portraits of Native Americans for Great Northern Railway calendars.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 77-15
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional artwork by Winold Reiss can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 7534, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 87-2P, and the Acee Blue Eagle Papers.
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
Drawings
Citation:
Photo lot 77-15, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
This short documentary by Colin Low is an invitation to a gathering of the Káínaa of Alberta - as the Sun Dance is captured on film for the first time. The film shows how the theme of the circle reflects the bands' connection to wildlife and also addresses the predicament of the young generation, those who have relinquished their ties with their own culture but have not yet found a firm place in a changing world.
NFB Website (streaming): Circle of the Sun.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is closed until the materials have been digitized. Many of the films can be accessed online through the National Film Board of Canada's website.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives 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); National Film Board of Canada film collection, film #, NMAI.AC.438; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
In 1977, Prince Charles was inducted as honorary chief of the Káínaa on their reserve in southwestern Alberta. The ceremony, conducted in the great Circle of the Sun Dance, commemorated the centennial anniversary of the original signing of Treaty 7 by Queen Victoria.
NFB Website (streaming): A Pinto for the Prince
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is closed until the materials have been digitized. Many of the films can be accessed online through the National Film Board of Canada's website.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives 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); National Film Board of Canada film collection, film #, NMAI.AC.438; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Boys from the city get a taste of the life of a cowboy. The film catches the enthusiasm and humour of this Alberta riding holiday in which 'tenderfeet' quickly become horsemen, ride herd, help brand calves and, best of all, spend a night in the teepees of the Kainai (Blood).
NFB Website (streaming): Trail Ride
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is closed until the materials have been digitized. Many of the films can be accessed online through the National Film Board of Canada's website.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives 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); National Film Board of Canada film collection, film #, NMAI.AC.438; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Pete Standing Alone of the Kainai Nation was more at home in the White man's culture than his own as a young man. However, confronted with the realization that his children knew very little about their origins, he became determined to pass down to them the customs and traditions of his ancestors. This hour-long film is the powerful biographical study of a twenty-five-year span in Pete's life, from his early days as an oil-rig roughneck, rodeo rider and cowboy, to the present as an Indigenous man concerned with preserving his tribe's spiritual heritage in the face of an energy-oriented industrial age.
NFB Website (streaming): Standing Alone
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is closed until the materials have been digitized. Many of the films can be accessed online through the National Film Board of Canada's website.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives 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); National Film Board of Canada film collection, film #, NMAI.AC.438; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Subject wears a Blackfoot dress, but cradleboard is Dakota (J.C. Ewers, April, 1966). Subject identified 5/66 by Nora Spanish and Mae Williamson, South Piegans of Browning, Montana and transmitted by Claude Schaeffer, Museum of the Plains Indian. See remarks on catalog card 4700.
Subject wears a Blackfoot dress, but cradleboard is Dakota (J.C. Ewers, April, 1966). Subject identified 5/66 by Nora Spanish and Mae Williamson, South Piegans of Browning, Montana and transmitted by Claude Schaeffer, Museum of the Plains Indian. See remarks on catalog card 4700.
