The material consists mostly of photographic prints. A few negatives, photomechanical prints, tintypes, drawings, newspaper clippings, notes, and letters are also included. Much of the material is annotated. In part, the file was assembled for or relates to many accessions and cataloging units of the division.
The material was received from professionals and amateurs, mostly working in North America. The images are of artifactual and skeletal specimens, fradulent specimens, collections of specimens, sites, excavations, site features, ruins, petroglyphs, and field parties. A few are reproductions of maps and portraits of native people. Some of the specimens are in the Smithsonianʹs collections, but many are not.
Included among the many subjects are photographs of Dighton Rock in Massachusetts; many ruins of the 1931 Moundville, Alabama, excavation; Tlingit burial boxes; excavations, specimens, and Aleut portraits taken by Waldemar I. Jochelsonʹs Ethnological Section of the Riaboushinsky Expedition, 1909-1912; Richard Wetherillʹs party in Mancos Canyon, Colorado, and F. S. Hempsteadʹs Archaeological and Topographic Map of Portsmouth," [Ohio].
Some of the material relates to the work of Charles L. Bernheimer in Utah, Burnham S. Colburn in Georgia and North Carolina, Thomas Featherstonehaugh in Florida, Otto William Geist in Alaska, A. T. Hill in Nebraska, Walter Hough in Arizona (for the Gates-United States National Museum Expedition, 1901), George Langford in Illinois, Henry Montgomery in North Dakota, Clarence B. Moore in Florida, Henri F. Pittier in Costa Rica, and F. B. Stebbins in Tennessee. Collections are those of Charles Artes (filed Indiana), Thomas Beckwith (filed Missouri), C. W. Branch (filed West Indies), Burham S. Colburn Cherokee relics (filed North Carolina), James Pillars (filed Ohio), Governor Price (frauds from New Mexico), Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis (filed Ohio).
The material is from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas Utah, Virginia, Washington, Costa Rica, British Columbia, Canada, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, South Pacific, and West Indies.
The works of many photographers are included. Among them are John K. Hillers, William Henry Jackson, Sumner W. Matteson, Edgar A. Mearns, Victor Mindeleff, and Timothy H. OʹSullivan.
Copy print of a daguerreotype depicting Seth Eastman seated on an inscribed rock, Dighton Rock, in Massachusetts on July 7, 1853.
Biographical/Historical note:
Seth Eastman (1808-1875) was an army officer who also made paintings, drawings, and sketches of American Indians and fortifications. While on detail with the Office of Indian Affairs, he was commissioned to prepare illustrations for Henry Rowe Schoolcraftsʹ book, "Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States." In 1853 Eastman traveled to New England to explore ancient sites, during which he collaborated with Horatio King, a daguerreotypist with a studio in Taunton, Massachusetts.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot R81-11
Reproduction Note:
Copy print possibly made by Christie's East in New York, NY, circa 1980.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Originals and copies of Seth Eastman's artwork can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 1671, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 78, and the BAE historical negatives.
Records relating to an exhibition of Seth Eastman's artwork can be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives in SIA Acc. 97-004.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
This copy collection has been obtained for reference purposes only. Copies can be obtained from the Getty Museum, which holds the original daguerreotype.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot R81-11, Copy of Horatio B. King photograph of Seth Eastman on Dighton Rock, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The Philosophy Chamber : Art and Science in Harvard's Teaching Cabinet, 1766-1820 / edited by Ethan W. Lasser ; with contributions by Aleksandr Bierig, Anne Driesse, Katherine Eremin, Andrew Gelfand, Claire Grech, Teri Hensick, Jane Kamensky, Ethan W. Lasser, Georgina Rayner, Jennifer L. Roberts, Whitney Barlow Robles, Maria Dolores Sanchez-Jauregui, Anthony Sigel, Kate Smith, Lucie Steinberg, and...
