These images depict the indigenous people of Peru, Bolivia, Suriname and Chile; the largest percentage of the images are of Panama and Guyana (British Guiana).
Scope and Contents:
The Verrill collection consists primarily of photographic materials made by Verrill in Guyana and Panama. Dating from 1917 and 1925, the Guyana photographs depict mostly Carib and Patamona but also Warao, Arecuna, Akawaio (Acawai), Akurio (Acuria), Arawak, Macushi (Macusi), Waiwai, and Taruma men and women. These are mostly informal portraits, but the photographs also document dwellings and various activities, such as weaving, spinning, fishing, and canoeing. Included in the Guyana materials are also nineteenth-century (ca. 1880?) albumen prints of portraits of Wapichana (Wapishana), Waiwai, Atorai, and Taruma men and women; Verrill most likely did not make these photographs. The Panama materials date from 1924 and 1925 and are primarily portraits of Teribe (Terraba), Ngäbe (Boorabi), Coclé Guaymi (Cocle), Guaymi, Kuna (Cuna), Emberá (Choikoi), and Sabanero men and women, but the photographs also depict dwellings, ceremonials, and canoes. Among the Panama materials are photographs depicting antiquities from Penonomé. The collection also consists of 1924 photographs of the indigenous peoples of Peru, Bolivia, and Chile and 1925 photographs of the indigenous peoples of Suriname and Peru.
Arrangement note:
Negatives Arranged by negative number (N10017-N10307, N10804-N10966, N11229-N11257, N29558, N34270, N34288-N34289, N34294, N34930-N34932, N36040-N36041, N36044, N41525)
Prints Arranged by print number (P00243-P00271, P00289-P00341, P00289-P00341, P02207-P02215, P06385-P06401, P06654-P06682, P06654-P06682, P06695-P06700, P06703, P07307, P07310-P07315, P07317, P07384-P07394, P09137-P09141, P18855)
Lantern slide Arranged by lantern slide number (L00076)
Biographical/Historical note:
Born in 1871 in New Haven, Connecticut, A. Hyatt Verrill was an illustrator, naturalist, explorer, and author of more than 105 books. From 1889 to 1928, he either explored, made ethnological expeditions to, or excavated in Bermuda, the West Indies, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Surinam.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
A. Hyatt Verrill negatives, photographs and other materials, 1917-1926, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
This collection consists of forty-two 3.5 x 5" color photographic prints of the Guna peoples of Ukupseni (formerly Playón Chico), one of the islands in the Guna Yala Indigenous Territory (formerly San Blas), Panama. The photographs were taken by June Alice Spencer during visits in 1996-1997, and depict Guna people in their daily lives.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of forty-two 3.5 x 5" color photographic prints of the Guna peoples of Ukupseni (formerly Playón Chico), one of the islands in the Guna Yala Indigenous Territory (formerly San Blas), Panama. The photographs were taken by June Alice Spencer during visits in 1996-1997, and depict Guna people in their daily lives. Notable images include villagers fishing, repairing a building's roof, harvesting a sea turtle, as well as images of the market, village buildings, molas, a young child with albinism, a young girl having her nose pierced, children at play, and the nearby airport landing strip.
Arrangement:
The materials in this collection are organized into folders.
Biographical / Historical:
June Alice Spencer is a retired Assistant Professor from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA. She took the photographs in this collection while visiting Ukupseni (formerly Playón Chico), Panama, in 1996-1997.
Separated Materials:
Three Guna molas, made on the island of Ukupseni (formerly Playón Chico), were also donated to the NMAI by June Alice Spencer in 2016. These three molas were assigned object numbers: 26/9694, 26/9695, and 26/9696.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by June Alice Spencer in 2016.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday – Friday, 9:30am – 4:30pm. 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.
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); June Alice Spencer photograph collection, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection consists of 316 35mm color slides, 67 color photocopies, 12 exhibition labels, 2 catalog booklets, and 1 audio cassette representing the lives, culture, and arts of the Guna peoples of the Guna Yala Indigenous Territory (formerly San Blas), Panama. The photographs were taken by Edward L. Mattil during visits between 1973 and 1977, and depict Guna people in their daily lives, as well as a wide variety of mola textiles that they had made.
Scope and Contents:
The Edward L. Mattil collection consists of 316 35mm color slides, 67 color photocopies, 12 exhibition labels, 2 catalog booklets, and 1 audio cassette representing the lives, culture, and arts of the Guna peoples of the Guna Yala Indigenous Territory (formerly San Blas), Panama. The photographs were taken by Edward L. Mattil during visits between 1973 and 1977, and depict Guna people in their daily lives, as well as a wide variety of mola textiles that they had made.
Notable images include villagers fishing, harvesting coconuts, erecting house structures, images of children, and numerous photographs of Guna women creating molas. Also included in this collection are Mattil's exhibition labels which provide greater context to his photographs, as well as a 1974 publication by Mattil titled "The Cuna Mola."
Arrangement:
The materials in this collection are organized into folders.
Biographical / Historical:
Edward L. Mattil received his B.S., M.A., and Ed.D. degrees from Penn State University. Passionate about the arts of every culture, he later taught art education at Penn State as well as at St. Cloud State University and North Texas State University. He also served as the editor of the Everyday Art magazine from 1957 until 1984.
He took these photographs and collected the associated objects while visiting the Guna Yala Indigenous Territory (formerly San Blas), Panama, between 1973 and 1977.
Separated Materials:
A number of Guna objects, including approximately 40 molas, were collected by Edward L. Mattil, and also donated to the NMAI in 2008. These objects were assigned object numbers: 26/6725-26/6728, 26/6732-26/6760, 26/6773-26/6794.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Edward L. and Betty Mattil in 2008.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday – Friday, 9:30am – 4:30pm. 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.
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Edward L. Mattil collection, NMAI.AC.381; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Richard Oglesby Marsh (1883–1953) was an engineer, American diplomat and amateur ethnologist who participated in several engineering and ethnological expeditions to Panama. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and Human Rights of the Tule People of San Blas and the Darien and was the author of White Indians of Darien and several popular articles on Panama.
Scope and Contents:
The Marsh Darien expedition of 1924-1925, the focus of this collection, was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution together with the American Museum of Natural History, the University of Rochester, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, the Military Intelligence Division of the U.S. Army, the Canal Zone administration, and the government of Panama. Expedition members included John L. Baer (Smithsonian Institution ethnologist), Paul Benton (Rochester Times-Union reporter), Charles M. Breder, Jr. (New York Aquarium biologist), Raoul Brin (botanist), Charles Charlton (Pathé News cinematographer), Herman L. Fairchild (University of Rochester emeritus geologist), Harry Johnson (taxadermist) Omer Malsbury (Canal Zone Administration), Lieut. Glen Townsend (U.S. Army) and Francisco Pinzón, the expedition cook.
The Marsh Papers include diaries, photographs, correspondence, maps, articles in draft and published form, and miscellaneous papers, chiefly relating to Marsh's experiences as leader of the Marsh Darien expedition to Panama in 1924-1925 and his contacts with the Kuna (also known as Tule). The collection also features materials on the negotiations that took place on the U.S.S. Cleveland with representatives of the U.S. and Panamanian governments and the Kuna Indians during the Kuna uprising of 1925, in which Marsh served as a mediator.
Correspondents include Marsh's wife, Helen Louise Cleveland Marsh; his son Richard O. Marsh, Jr.; and C.L.G. Anderson.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Biographical Note:
Richard O. Marsh (1883-1953) was an engineer, U.S. State Department employee, and ethnologist who made numerous engineering and scientific expeditions around the world. He was the author of The White Indians of Darien [c1934]. The Marsh-Darien expedition of 1924-1925, the focus of this collection, was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution together with the American Museum of Natural History, the University of Rochester, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, the Military Intelligence Division of the U.S. Army, the Canal Zone administration, and the government of Panama.
Chronology
1883 -- Born in Illinois
1901 -- Enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1903 -- Employed by the Army Corps of Engineers in Texas
1905 -- Enrolled in the University of Lausanne, Switzerland
1909 -- Married Helen Cleveland in September
1910 -- Appointed First Secretary of the U.S. legation in Panama in April
1912 -- Secretary, American Embassy, St. Petersburg, Russia
1915 -- Elected mayor of Warsaw, Illinois
1923 -- Returned to Panama as employee of engineer George Goethals in June
1924 -- Headed Marsh-Darien expedition to Panama in January
1925 -- Returned to San Blas, Panama Published "Blond Indians of the Darien Jungle" in The World's Work
1931 -- Traveled to Nicaragua
1933-1935 -- Public Works Administration
1934 -- Published White Indians of Darien (New York: Putnam)
1935-1939 -- Chief engineer, Land Utilization Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture
1941 -- Reconnaissance engineer, U.S. Military, North Africa, in December
1949-1952 -- State Road Department, Florida
1953 -- Died, Vero Beach, Florida, on September 4
Related Materials:
Additional material relating to the Marsh Darien Expedition is included in MS 4550 in the National Anthropological Archives. Additional Marsh correspondence is contained in the Aleš Hrdlicka papers. On Marsh's adventures in Panama, see James Howe, A People Who Would Not Kneel: Panama, the United States, and the San Blas Kuna (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998).
Provenance:
The Marsh papers were donated to the archives by Richard O. Marsh, Jr. in 1997.
Restrictions:
The Richard O. Marsh papers are open for research.
Access to the Richard O. Marsh papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Citation:
Richard O. Marsh papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
