MS 2420 Photographs by unidentified photographer of cliff ruins, Rio Mancos, Colorado, and other Mesa Verde ruins, collected by H. Jay Smith when preparing the "Cliff Dwellers" exhibit at the Worldʹs Columbian Exposition, 1894
This collection contains glass lantern slides shot by rancher and explorer John Wetherill (1866-1944). The photographs depict Ancestral Puebloan sites in southwestern U.S., as well as photos of Diné (Navajo) and Ute men and women.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 42 glass lantern slides that were shot by John Wetherill (1866-1944) circa 1892. The bulk of the photographs depict Ancestral Puebloan sites at Mesa Verde and Hovenweep in southwest Colorado. Wetherill may have been escorting the H. Jay Smith Exploring Company around the region as they collected objects for a Mesa Verde exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
The glass lantern slides depict cliff dwellings in a state of pre-archaeological preservation including the sites of Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, Square Tower House, Kodak House, Sandal House, and Spring House at Mesa Verde; and Square Tower at Hovenweep. The photographs also depict Oraibi Hopi Village, Montezuma Castle, and Casa Grande Ruins sites in Arizona.
A few photographs depict Ute and Diné (Navajo) men and women. One photograph of note depicts an outdoor group portrait photographed at a Ute wedding in Mancos, Colorado. The individuals depicted include George Bowles (Harvard student), Mancos Jim (Ute) and his wife, Herbert L. Cowing (1877-1956), Elmer Coston, Benjamin Kite Wetherill (1832-1898), and Richard Wetherill (1858-1910).
Several photographs in this collection also depict objects such as pottery, yucca baskets, stone axes, manos, and metates alongside Ancestral Puebloan human remains. These photographs are restricted.
John Wetherill is listed as the photographer, however, his brother Richard Wetherill (1858-1910) may have shot some of the photographs as well. The lantern slides feature handwritten labels that describe the photographs and were probably written by a Museum of the American Indian employee. Additionally, "Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation, Broadway at 155th ST. N. Y. City" is printed on the back of the masking paper, which indicates that the lantern slides were most likely assembled by MAI staff.
Some lantern slides may be the reverse or mirror images of the actual scenes.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in photo number order.
Biographical / Historical:
John Wetherill (1866-1944) was a cattle rancher, explorer, and amateur archaeologist in Colorado. Born in Kansas in 1866 to Benjamin Kite Wetherill and Marion Tompkins Wetherill, the family moved to Mancos in southwestern Colorado in 1879. In December 1888, Richard Wetherill (John's older brother) and Charles Mason (brother-in-law), were credited with having discovered Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, and Square Tower House sites at Mesa Verde, although the cliff dwellings were already known to some Native Puebloan communities in the southwest at the time. Additionally, several non-Native explorers had visited other Ancestral Puebloan sites in the region prior to the Wetherills' discoveries including Mexican-Spanish missionaries Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante in 1776; prospector John Moss in 1873; and photographer William Henry Jackson for the Hayden U.S. Geological Survey in 1874.
After the discovery, Richard and his brothers John, Clayton, Winslow, and Benjamin continued exploring and found other Ancestral Puebloan sites in the region. In 1891, the Wetherill brothers worked with amateur Swedish archaeologist Gustaf Nordenskiöld excavating Cliff House. Nordenskiöld taught them the basics tenants of archaeological excavation and trained them to keep detailed provenance records and to label objects.
From 1888-1893, the Wetherills collected more objects from Mesa Verde and eventually sold many of their collections, including a large collection to the Colorado State Historical Society (History Colorado). By 1900 John Wetherill moved to New Mexico and then Utah with his wife Louise Wade Wetherill. John continued serving as a guide and trained archaeologists and anthropologists in the region. He died in 1944.
Agnes Cowing (1880-1965), the collector of the glass lantern slides, was a librarian in New York. She most likely obtained them from her brother Herbert L. Cowing (1877-1956) or her sister Julia R. Cowing (b. 1857) who were both friends of the Wetherill family and visited the Wetherill Ranch in Mancos, Colorado in the 1890s.
Related Materials:
History Colorado in Denver, Colo. holds a John and Richard Wetherill photographs collection (2000.129), a Richard Wetherill manuscripts collection (Mini-MSS #3035), and a large collection of objects collected by the Wetherills. The Smithsonian's National Anthropological Archives holds a collection of photographs collected by H. Jay Smith (NAA MS 2420).
Provenance:
Donated to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation by Agnes Cowing in 1934.
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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Topic:
Indians of North America -- Antiquities & archaeological sites -- Colorado Search this
cliff dwellings -- Colorado -- Mesa Verde National Park Search this
Genre/Form:
Lantern slides
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); John Wetherill lantern slides, Box and Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Contains: notes of McLean Basin House, Alkali House, Lion House, Aztec Springs Valley, Colorado, August 1918 (17 pp.); field notes and sketches of archeological work at Square Tower House, Mesa Verde, Colorado, August 1919 (approx. 84 pp.). [Old #33291-d-1 (pt.)]
Collection Restrictions:
The Jesse Walter Fewkes papers are open for research.
Access to the Jesse Walter Fewkes papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Manuscript 4408 Jesse Walter Fewkes papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
This collection includes photographic prints and copy negatives made by Charles Morgan Wood between 1908 and 1925 of indigenous communities and archaeological sites within Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. The communities photographed include the San Ildefonso Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Diné (Navajo), Tesuque Pueblo, Hopi-Tewa, Kewa (Santo Domingo Pueblo), Nambe Pueblo, K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Laguna Pueblo, A:shiwi (Zuni), Hopi Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo, and Taos Pueblo.
Scope and Contents:
Series one includes photos taken in Arizona between 1908-1925. Photos include landscapes, buildings, and portraits of living communities posing or engaging in tasks, such as decorating pottery, blanket weaving, and grinding corn. The depicted communities include the Hopi-Tewa, Hopi Pueblo, and Diné (Navajo). Also included are photographs of archaeological sites within Arizona, including several pictographs at Betatakin. A few prints document the Diné (Navajo) mud-bathing for a head dance. Catalog numbers include N36036, N41315, P07121-P0145; P07152-P07168
Series two includes photos taken between 1920-1925 in New Mexico. Some photos depict archaeological sites and prehistoric ruins, including photos of the Bandelier National Monument, the Inscription Rock in El Morro, and cliff-dwellings in Rito de los Frijoles. This series also depicts houses, buildings, and portraits taken among living communities, including the San Ildefonso Pueblo, Diné (Navajo), Isleta Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, Kewa (Santo Domingo Pueblo), Taos Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo, Hopi Pueblo, Hopi-Tewa, and K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo). Several photos also document women selling pottery and the A:shiwi (Zuni) rain dance. Catalog numbers include N36029-N36035; N36037-N36039; P07072-P07120; P07146-P0151; P07169-P07207.
Series three includes several photos of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, taken between 1920 and 1925. Structures include a view of a Spruce-tee house, Cliff palace, the Balcony house, and "Navajo Canon." Catalog numbers include P07066-P07071.
Prints include P07066-P07207. Copy negatives include N36029-N36039, N41315.
Arrangement:
Arranged intro three series geographically. Arranged by catalog number within each series.
Biographical / Historical:
Charles Morgan Wood was born in 1879. He was a manufacturer and author from Dayton, Ohio. He retired to Tucson in 1923 where he pursued interests in writing, western history, and book collecting. At the time of his death in 1927, he was gathering material for a history of the Apache Indians.
Biography adapted from Arizona Historical Society.
Provenance:
Gift of Charles Morgan Wood, 1925.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives 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).
P07133 and P07139 are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
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); Charles Morgan Wood photograph collection, image #, NMAI.AC.167; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Edited film presents a reconstruction of the Anasazi Indians who inhabited Mesa Verde. Distributed by International Film Bureau.
Legacy Keywords: Archeology Mesa Verde, Colorado ; Indians of North America ; Cliff dwellings American Indian Pueblo
General:
Local Numbers: HSFA 1994.21.91
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
REMC 2 educational film collection, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
