The Frank Gouldsmith Speck photograph collection includes portraits of individuals and families, as well as scenic shots and landscape views made between 1909 and 1937. Speck was an anthropologist and ethnographer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and worked on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation collecting ethnographic materials across the Eastern United States and Canada. His collection of photographs includes materials from native communities ranging from Newfoundland to Ontario in Canada and from Maine to South Carolina in the United States.
Scope and Contents:
The Frank Gouldsmith Speck photograph collection includes negatives and a small amount of prints made by Speck throughout the course of his career as an anthropologist and ethnographer. The majority of the photographs in this collection were made while Speck conducted field trips on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation between 1924 and 1932, though there are photographs from before and after this time. This collection has been arranged into Series by geographical location and then into subseries by culture group or community. Series 1: Newfoundland and Labrador: Innu, Mushuaunnuat, 1916-1935; Series 2: Quebec: Innu, Mistassini Cree, Lorette Huron, Wawenock, Mohawk, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, 1910-1937; Series 3: New Brunswick and Nova Scotia: Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, 1909-1917; Series 4: Ontario: Six Nations/Grand River (Naticoke, Mohawk, Cayuga, Mahican, Tutelo), Oneida Nation, 1914-1937; Series 5: Maine and New Hampshire: Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki, 1910-1924; Series 6: Massachussets and Rhode Island: Wampanoag, Nauset, 1914-1931; Series 7: Connecticut: Mohegan, Niantic, Schaghticoke, Pequot, 1912-1931; Series 8: Delaware: Nanticoke and Rappahanock, 1911-1925; Series 9: Virginia and Maryland: Rappahanock, Chickahominy, Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Nansemond, Potomac, Accomac, Powhatan, 1915-1924; Series 10: North Carolina and South Carolina: Catawba, Eastern Band of Cherokee, 1915-1930.
Many of Frank Speck's photographs are individual and family portraits of community members, many identified, posed outdoors in front of homes and community buildings. There are also landscape views as well as photographs taken during community events. There are a small amount of photographs that have now been restricted due to cultural sensitivity though for the most part Speck did not photograph culturally sensitive activities.
Arrangement:
The collection is intellectually arranged in 10 Series by geographic region and within each series by culture group. The negatives are physically arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
Frank Gouldsmith Speck was born on November 8, 1881 in Brooklyn, New York. He studied under the prominent linguist John Dyneley Prince and anthropologist Franz Boas at Columbia University, receiving his BA in 1904 and MA in 1905. He received his Ph.D. in 1908 from the University of Pennsylvania. His doctoral dissertation on the ethnography of the Yuchi became a basis for an article which later appeared in the Handbook of American Indians. That same year Speck became an assistant in the University of Pennsylvania Museum and an instructor in anthropology at the University. He was made assistant professor in 1911, and professor and chairperson of the department in 1925, a position which he held until his death in 1950. Speck was the founder of the Philadelphia Anthropological Society, and was vice-president of the American Anthropological Association from 1945-46. Speck's research concentration was on the Algonkian speaking peoples. Speck studied every aspect of a culture: language, ethnobiology, technology, decorative art, myths, religion, ceremonialism, social organization, and music. Collecting material culture was also an integral part of Speck's fieldwork. His collections can be found in museums around the world, one of which is the National Museum of the American Indian. He is the author of numerous books and articles. Frank G. Speck died February 6, 1950. (A. Irving Hallowell, American Anthropologist, Vol. 53, No. 1, 1951)
Related Materials:
The Frank G. Speck Papers can be found at the American Philosophical Society (Mss.Ms.Coll.126) along with additional photographic materials by Speck.
Frank Speck published extensively in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation publications; "Indian Notes" and "Indian Notes and Monographs." These publications are avialable through the Smithsonian Institution Libraries or online on the Internet Archive.
Separated Materials:
A small amount of notes from Speck's field work can be found in the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation records (NMAI.AC.001) in Box 273, Folder 18 through Box 274 Folder 2.
Close to 4000 ethnographic and archeological items were collected by Speck for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI) and are now in the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) collection. For more information about these objects contact the NMAI Collections Department.
Provenance:
The majority of the negatives were gifted to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI) by Frank Speck in 1927. The group of Nanticoke photographs were purchased by the MAI in 1915 and smaller amounts of photographs were gifted and purchased by the MAI between 1923 and 1942.
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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank Speck photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This series includes negatives that Frank Speck made in Nova Scotia among several Mikmaq (Micmac) communities and in New Brunswick among the Maliseet (Malecite) community. These photographs were taken between 1909 and 1917.
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.
Anthropometric, linguistic, and ethnographic notes on the Maliseet (Malecite) and Naskapi (Nascapi). These were collected by Truman Michelson during his 1923 fieldwork in Canada among the Maliseet at "Indian Village," 14 miles from Fredericton, New Brunswich and the Naskapi and other Indians from Davis Inlet, Ungava, and Northwest River while lodged at a Hudson Bay Company post at Northwest River in Newfoundland and Labrador. Michelson added additional notes at a later period.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2681
Local Note:
Title changed from "Linguistics; some physical anthropology; general ethnology" 4/7/2014.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- anthropometry Search this
Includes letter of transmittal. St John, New Brunswick. December 13, 1880. Autograph letter signed. 1 page. Recorded in Schedule of John Wesley Powell's Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages, 1877. Includes brief explanatory notes and ethnological remarks, also the text of "Story of the man the Bear gens take their name from," with English interlinear translations, pages 106-109.. Includes occasional comparative notes on Abnaki in the handwriting of A.S. Gatschet.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 13
Local Note:
With the Manuscript are filed some corrections concerning bird names received by the Bureau of American Ethnology from E. Tappan Adney, Typescript document. 1 page, and a reprint of Adney's article, "The Malecite Indian Names for Native Berries and Fruits, and their Meanings," Acadian Naturalist, volume 1, 1944, pages 103-110, with Manuscript corrections by Adney.
autograph document
Other Title:
Story of the man the Bear Gens take their name from
The Malecite Indian Names for Native Berries and Fruits, and their Meanings
The information is secondary and lacks documentation. The cards are interfiled, but terms of the following languages are thought to be included: Abnaki, Algonkin, Arapaho, Atsina (Gros Ventres), Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Delaware, Malecite, Massachusetts Algonkin, Miami, Micmac, Mohegan, Montagnais, Montauk, Munsee, Narragansett, Nascapi, Natick, New England and New Jersey Algonkin, Nipissing, Ottawa, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Potawatomi, Powhatan, Shawnee, Virginia Algonquian.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Vocabulary
Date:
circa 1911
Scope and Contents:
Edward Sapir's typed notes on the vocabularies of various Algonquian languages that he collected in 1911. List of languages covered: Delaware, pages 1-6; Abnaki (Pierreville), page 7-12; Malecite (Riviere du Loup, Thomas Paul), pages 13-17; Micmac, pages 18-23, Cree (Rupert's House), pages 24-25; Montagnais (Louis Clairie, Pointe Bleue), pages 26-28. There are annotations and corrections in ink in Sapir's handwriting (identified by Mary Haas, 4/58). There are also pencil additions signed by Michelson; perhaps all of the pencil additions are his.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Indians of North America -- Southern States Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Letters
Clippings
Notes
Sketches
Date:
1940
Scope and Contents:
Remarks: 10/18/40- Letter to National Geographic Society, referred to Dr. Stirling for reply. Inquiry re. Penobscot villages, and native dress of the pre-colonial period. 1/9/46 - Letter re. migrations of the Algonquians. 1/21/46 - Letter re. migrations of the Seminoles. Enclosed sketch of Indian figure wearing tunic. 2/18/46 - Letter re. Algonquian tribal divisions; dugout canoes, etc. 5/6/46 - Letter dated April 21, 1946, forwarded to Dr. F.G. Speck for reply.
3/26/50 - Sketch of native dress (from "Penobscot Man") and moccasin; notes; letter. 3/31/50 - North Eastern Indian costumes, Wawenock tribe (Abnaki?) in 1615 - who were they? 4/3/50 - Whitetail deer in Maine, its range, population etc. Sketch of Indian in native dress on snowshoes. 4/11/50 - Reply to above letters by Dr. Stirling in acknowledgement of information contained therein. 4/12/50 - Costumes of Maliset or Woolastook, and Passamaquoddy, including the kilt, etc., etc. enclosed sketches. 4/17/50 - Warfare between the Wabanaki and Iroquois; reference to Henry Red Eagle, A Wolastook, also known as Malacite; said to be a chief (?). 4/23/50 - Additional notes on the Malecite costume (kilt) (miscellaneous newsclippings included),
ate., etc. A typed and signed letter from F.G. Speck to Mr. Fisher was enclosed with the letter of April 17, 1950. 1950 (not itemized) 5/17/46 - Notes on "Red Paint People"; flint deposit at Mt. Kineo, Moosehead Lake; stone relics; collections of artifacts at State House, Maine, and U.S. National Museum. 9/19/49 - Data on early N.E. headdresses and costumes. Enclosed sketch of feather headdress. 2/ /50 - Notes on moccasins (sketches); notes on Saco or Sakoki tribe; linguistic notes. Enclosed letter to him written by Chief Nudahbeh (a Penobscot). 3/2/50 - Sketch of birch bark wigwam of Maine Indians, and notes in letter. 3/12/50 - Sketch of Indian moccasin; sketch (pen and ink) showing coon killing a copperhead.
Newsclipping on Cheyenne protest against mural in the Postoffice at Watonga, Oklahoma. 3/20/50 - Notes on scalping - taught to Indians by European soldiers (?). Sketch of Indian in native dress. Newsclipping of Maine bull moose. 3/22/50 - Drawings of Indians of Colonial period; birch bark wigwam; moccasins, headdress, costume decorations.
