The photographs primarily document ceremonies, people, and lands of Native Americans in the Plains and Southwest, taken during Mekeel's field research from 1929 to 1936. A large portion of the collection depicts Mekeel's research during the early 1930s among the Oglala of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Another large portion of the collection includes personal photos depicting Mekeel's homes and children.
Biographical/Historical note:
H. Scudder Mekeel (1902-1947) was an anthropologist who studied social and psychological aspects of Native American cultures. Educated at Harvard University (BA, 1928), the University of Chicago (MA, 1929), and Yale University (PhD, 1932), he was a member of the 1929 Laboratory of Anthropology (Santa Fe) ethnological field school led by Alfred L. Kroeber. In 1929-1932, he carried out three field expeditions to the Sioux communities of South Dakota, working mainly on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs as Director of Applied Anthropology under Commissioner John Collier in 1935. Two years later, he was appointed Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology at Santa Fe and continued there until 1940, when he accepted a teaching position at the University of Wisconsin.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 94-21
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds copies of Mekeel's Field Notes from the summers of 1930 and 1931 in the White Clay District of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota (MS 7088). Originals of these field notes and Mekeel's population notes on the White Clay District are held by the American Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology Archives (.M454).
The Human Studies Film Archives holds Mekeel's film footage of a Lakota Sioux Sundance from 1930 (HSFA 92.8.1).
Correspondence from Mekeel held in the National Anthropological Archives in the William Duncan Strong papers, Raoul Weston LaBarre Papers, and Bureau of American Ethnology Administrative File.
Restrictions:
Original nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require special arrangements for viewing.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Citation:
Photo Lot 94-21, the H. Scudder Mekeel photographs, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Laboratory of Anthropology notes, 1955-1988 : catalogue of published reports, by county / compiled by Carole Potter and Betty Weber ; edited by Robin Farwell and Tom Ireland
Oblique views : aerial photography and Southwest archaeology / Charles A. Lindbergh & Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Adriel Heisey ; edited by Maxine E. McBrinn ; essays by Linda J. Pierce and Erik O. Berg
Title:
Aerial photography and Southwest archaeology
Photographer:
Lindbergh, Charles A (Charles Augustus) 1902-1974 Search this
NAGPRA and southwestern tribes [videorecording] : one size doesn't fit all / produced and directed by Sibel Melik ; co-produced by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, New Mexico and Cine Video productions
Photographs documenting pottery and pottery designs from historic Pueblo groups and archeological sites, including pottery by Hopi potter Nampeyo and an image of Maria Martinez of San Ildefonso and examples of her pottery. There are also some photographs that depict a pueblo, Southwest landscapes, cliff dwellings, rock art, craftspeople, and dwellings, mostly relating to Southwest peoples, Peruvians, and Australian aborigines. The collection includes images of artifacts in the collections of the Chicago Natural History Museum, Field Museum, British Museum, University of Illinois, Santa Fe Laboratory of Anthropology, and Paul Pearson collection. Notes and notices relating to publication are also available with the collection.
Biographical/Historical note:
Whitney Halstead (1926-1979) was an art historian and artist. He acquired his BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he became Chairman of the Division of Fine Arts in 1967. He also worked as an assistant in the Field Museum's anthropology department and wrote art history publications.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 89-43
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The Archives of American Art holds Whitney Halstead's papers.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Copy prints of photographs or photographs of objects held by Chicago Natural History Museum, Field Museum of Natural History, British Museum, University of Illinois, and Santa Fe Laboratory of Anthropology cannot be copied. Copies or permission must be obtained from these repositories.
Indians of North America -- Great Basin Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Photographs
Date:
1933-1934
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs made by Edward Adamson Hoebel during a 1933 Laboratory of Anthropology field school session led by Ralph Linton. They consist of images of Comanche people, including a Comanche brush dance at Walters, Oklahoma, and images of Shoshoni people during a sun dance at Fort Hall, Idaho, in 1934.
Biographical/Historical note:
Edward Adamson Hoebel (1906-1993) was an anthropologist and educator who pioneered studies of the legal systems of pre-literate societies. He received his PhD in anthropology from Columbia University in 1934, publishing his dissertation, "The Political Organization and Law-ways of the Comanche Indians," after conducting field research on Comanche legal systems at the Santa Fe Laboratory of Anthropology under the direction of Ralph Linton. Hoebel taught sociology and anthropology at New York University from 1929 until 1948 and later became a professor, head of the anthropology department, and Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Utah. Hoebel took visiting professorships at the universities of Harvard, Chicago, Nijmegen, Arizona, and Lehigh and served as president of the American Ethnological Society and the American Anthropological Association. He retired as Regents' Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 91-9
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Reports and correspondence by Hoebel held in the National Anthropological Archives in the American Ethnological Society records, Bureau of American Ethnology Administrative File, Esther Schiff Goldfrank Papers, and Raoul Weston LaBarre Papers.
Additional photographs of Comanche Indians at Walters held in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 7505.
The American Philosophical Society holds the E. Adamson Hoebel Papers.
Photo Lot 91-9, Edward Adamson Hoebel photographs of Shoshoni and Comanche people and dances, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1933
Scope and Contents:
Includes folktales and ethnological notes. Many of the latter have to do with war, kinship relations, and sexual practices.
Biographical / Historical:
Gust G. Carlson, of the University of Michigan, was a scholarship holder with the Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, ethnological field school group led by Ralph Linton. The group worked with Comanche Indians at Walter, Oklahoma. Other members of the group were Waldo Wedel (see his Comanche notes), and E. Adamson Hoebel (see photo lot 91-9).
