Mexica (Aztec) (archaeological culture) Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Lecture given by Mr Bartlett before the Rhode Island Historical Society; also includes 27 pages of Essay on the Ruined edifices and the migrations of the Aztecs.
Biographical / Historical:
Note in handwriting of F. W. Hodge reads: "Various papers by John Russell Bartlett on the ethnology and archeology of the Southwest. Some of them may have been published in his "Personal Narrative," and others may have formed the basis of some of the chapters in Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes. Deposited by George Parker Winship, Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, R. I., Sept., 1909."
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1867
Local Note:
I find it puzzling that these drafts are in what I am almost sure is the handwriting of George Gibbs. Gibbs might have made copies of Bartlett's papers, but these are clearly drafts, not copies, with alterations in the same hand--as though the papers were composed by Gibbs.-- M. C. Blaker, 8/58.
According to John D. Haskell from College of William and Mary, Manuscript # 1867 is in Bartlett's handwriting. Haskell's dissertation was on Bartlett and he is thoroughly familiar with his handwriting. Per visit to National Anthropological Archives. 9/5/85. KTB.
Sub-title: "Composed for the Bureau of American Ethnology, February 1897"
Also includes typed copy of this paper, with slight changes and additions by J.N.B. Hewitt, with the following change in sub-title: "Compiled for the Bureau of American Ethnology, February, 1897, by J.N.B. Hewitt by the Director's request."
(a)- Maya and Nahuatl comparative vocabulary in Smithsonian Institution schedule of 1863, 20 pages, with 2 pages of letters and corrections of the lists.
(b)- A second copy of Maya and Nahuatl comparative vocabulary, 20 pages only. November 8, 1864.
(c)- Copy of the Maya vocabulary by George Gibbs, 6 pages.
(d)- A copy-not exact-of the Nahuatl vocabulary, by George Gibbs, 6 pages. Further annotated in red by J.N.B. Hewitt.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1047
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Università di Firenze. Museo di storia naturale Search this
Extent:
3 mounted composite prints (probably platinum)
Culture:
Mexica (Aztec) (archaeological culture) Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Date:
1905-1906
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs depicting Aztec atlatls in the Museo Nazionale di Antropologia e Etnologia of the Museo di Storia Naturale dell'Universita degli Studi of Florence, Italy, and the Museo Kircheriano in Rome. Complete images of each atlatl were made by combining multiple prints. There are also extracts from Bushnell's article about the objects, "Two Ancient Mexican Atlatls," American Anthropologist, vol. 8 (1906), pages 218-221.
Biographical/Historical note:
David Ives Bushnell, Jr. (1875-1941) was educated in St. Louis, Missouri, and in Europe before joining his first anthropological expedition to northern Minnesota in 1899. From 1901-1904, he worked as an archaeological assistant at the Peabody Museum at Harvard University and continued his studies in anthropology. In addition to excavations and studies, Bushnell went to Europe in 1904 and documented North American ethnographic material held in collections and museums there. The Smithsonian hired him as a contributor to the Handbook of American Indians (1907) before appointing him editor for the Bureau of American Ethnology (1912-1921).
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 80-35, USNM ACC 55031
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Surveys, reports, data and notes by Bushnell held in National Anthropological Archives MS 3433, MS 2255, MS 3434, MS 4098, MS 7138, MS 4109, MS 2126, and MS 4494.
Photographs by Bushnell held in National Anthropological Archives Photo lot 141B, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 2522-c, and the BAE historical negatives.
Correspondence from Bushnell can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in the Henry Bascom Collins, Jr. Papers, John P. Harrington Papers, Ales Hrdlicka Papers, Bureau of American Ethnology records, and MS 4210.
The Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary holds the David Ives Bushnell, Jr. Papers, 1797-1941 and the Peabody Museum Archives, Harvard University holds the Bushnell, David Ives, Jr. (1875-1941) collection records, as well as his large painting and artifact collection.
Mexica (Aztec) (archaeological culture) Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Mounted prints
Place:
Mexico -- Antiquities
Date:
circa 1880-1910
Scope and Contents note:
The bulk of the photographs document Mayan reliefs and hieroglyphics at ancient sites, including Chichen Itza, Palenque, and Yaxchilan. Additional photographs depict items in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico, including a necklace, the Stone of Tizoc, and a stone altar disk to Tlaltecuhtli. The collection includes photographs made by Alvarez y Medina, Kildare y Cia, and a photograph of a drawing by Frederic de Waldeck.
Biographical/Historical note:
Cyrus Thomas (1825-1910) was an archeologist for the Bureau of American Ethnology best known for his work on American Indian burial mounds in the American Midwest. Born in Kingsport, Tennessee, Thomas was educated in law and served as Deputy County Clerk under his brother-in-law, the County Clerk of Jackson County, Illinois (1850-1853). In 1858, Thomas helped found the Illinois Natural History Society, through which he met John Wesley Powell. Thomas served for a brief period as an Evangelical Lutheran minister (1864-1866) before becoming an entomologist for the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (1869-1873), Illinois State Entomologist (1874-1876), and a member of the US Entomological Commission (1876-1882). In 1876, he also worked as a professor of natural history at Southern Illinois Normal College and founded the school's Museum of Natural History (now the University Museum). During this time, Thomas also became interested in Mesoamerican ethnology, publishing articles about Mesoamerican codices and writing systems. In 1881 Thomas joined the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian and served as the Director of the Division of Mound Exploration, a position he maintained until his death in 1910.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 169
Location of Other Archival Materials:
This collection has been relocated from Photo Lot 123.
Additional Cyrus Thomas materials relating to Mesoamerica held in the National Anthropological Archives are in MS 103, MS 1328, MS 3705, MS 3956, MS 3530, MS 3941, MS 3260, MS 2337, and MS 3920-b.
Correspondence from Thomas is held in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4821, the J. C. Pilling papers, and records of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Indians of Mexico -- Languages -- writing Search this
Citation:
Photo Lot 169, Cyrus Thomas photograph collection relating to Mayan and Aztec carvings, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographs made and collected by Harris M. McLaughlin during his travels in the American southwest and other parts of North and South America, as well as Asia and Europe. Photographs made in Texas include images of the 1928 American Legion National Convention, the dirigible "Los Angeles" floating over San Antonio, the first train in Rio Grande City, cowboys and ranchers, missions, and city and scenic views. McLaughlin also took photographs at the Grand Canyon, Canyon del Muerto, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Park, and collected Frashers Foto postcards with photographs of Apache and Navajo people, a Papago dwelling, a Pueblo potterymaker, and a Hopi Snake Dance. Photographs from Guatemala include images of villages and cities (including Antigua and Zacapa), as well as a harvest ceremony in Chichicastenango. McLaughlin also took photographs during a trip to Monterey, Mexico, which include images of towns and scenic views. Additional photographs depict flood damage in Aurora, Indiana; city views and scenery of Merida, Mexico; Chichen Itza; a banana plantation in Honduras; and wartime China and Europe.
Photographs of Cuba in 1898, probably not made by McLaughlin, include images of the USS Maine wreck, and funeral services for the sailors of the ship and residents of Havana. The collection also contains photographs of trees and a dwelling in Honduras made by H. E. Chapman in 1933, photographs of people and scenery in Sumatra made by J. H. Zimmermann, and commercial photographs of archeological collections at the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Historia y Etnografia in Mexico. There are also images of scenery and architecture in Japan, Panama and the Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Belgium, England, and other places in Europe. Depicted individuals include Charles A. Lindbergh, as well as McLaughlin and his family.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 2000-04
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional Frashers photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 59.
Restrictions:
Nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require advanced notice for viewing.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 2000-04, Harris M. McLaughlin photographs of the Americas and Asia, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs documenting archeological sites in Mexico, including Chichen Itza, Mitla, Palenque, Texcotzingo, Uxmal, Xochicalco, Quirigua, and Copan. Some of the prints were originally framed and captioned; these may have formed an exhibit or display, possibly in Holmesʹs office. Photographers include Allison V. Armour, Alfred Percival Maudsley, and E. H. Thompson.
Biographical/Historical note:
William Henry Holmes (1846-1933) was an artist, geologist, and archeologist who spent most of his career with the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, United States Geological Survey, Bureau of American Ethnology, and Department of Anthropology of the Smithsonian. From 1894-1897, he was the head of anthropology at the Field Columbian Museum (Field Museum of Natural History) and on the staff of the University of Chicago. During this time, he carried out investigations of ancient ruins in the Yucatan and other areas of Mesoamerica as a member of an expedition of Allison V. Armour. Many of the prints in this collection seem to relate to that expedition, and similar images were published in Holmesʹs reports in the Field Columbian Museum Anthropological Series, volume 1, number 1, 1895. Holmes served as head curator for the US National Museum Department of Anthropology from 1897-1902 and head of the BAE from 1902-1909.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 73-44, NAA Photo Lot 66B, USNM ACC 89688
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Photo Lot 66B has been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 73-44. These photographs were also collected by William Henry Holmes and form part of this collection.
Correspondence by Holmes can be found throughout the National Anthropological Archives in MS 7206, the records of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and the records of the Department of Anthropology.
Manuscripts and notes by Holmes can be found throughout the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4698, MS 2125, MS 7112, and MS 7570.
The William Henry Holmes Papers, 1870-1931 (SIA RU007084), are held by the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 73-44, William Henry Holmes photograph collection relating to archeological sites in Mexico and Mesoamerica, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Front and profile studio portraits of Indigenous peoples of Mexico, representing Aztec, Chinantec, Chocho, Chol, Chontal, Cuicatec, Huastec, Huave, Maya, Mazatec, Mixe, Mixtec, Otomi, Tarascan, Tepehua, Tlaxcalan, Totonac, Trique, Tzental, Tzotzil, Zapotec, Zapotec Tehuartepec, and Zoque tribes. The photographs were made by William L. Koehne of Chicago for publication in Frederick Starr's book, Physical Characters of Indians of Southern Mexico.
Biographical/Historical note:
Frederick Starr (1858-1933) was an anthropologist and academic who worked as curator at the American Museum of Natural History and professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago. During his professiorship, Starr hired professional photographer and studio owner William L. Koehne to make the studio portraits for his 1902 book, Physical Characters of Indians of Southern Mexico. Additionally, Starr made several field studies in Mexico and commissioned field photographs and plaster busts.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 123
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Photographs collected by Cyrus Thomas, Robert T. Hill, Edward W. Nelson, and Edgar L. Hewitt have been relocated to Photo Lot 169, Photo Lot 170, Photo Lot 171, and Photo Lot 172, respectively.
The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian Archives holds the Frederick Starr negatives and lanterns slides, 1894-1910.
Correspondence from Starr held in the National Anthropological Archives is in MS 4558, MS 4821, and the Bureau of American Ethnology records.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 123, Frederick Starr collection of William L. Koehne photographs of Indigenous peoples of Mexico, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Extracts from various published sources concerning the use of poisoned weapons among the American Indians. The first 6 pages include information on the Dakota from non-published sources. Other tribes mentioned in the MS. are the Mandan, Chippewa, Shoshoni, Paiutes, Pitt River Indians, Oregon and Alaska tribes, Apache and other (unnamed) Southwestern groups, California tribes, Pima, Central American tribes, Mosquito Indians, Aztecs, Utes, and Caribs.
Biographical / Historical:
Author identified from the Dorsey-Hewitt catalog. Bureau of American Ethnology number 1524.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division photograph collection relating to physical anthropology subjects
Creator:
Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division Search this
Extent:
2 Mounted prints (albumen)
2 Mounted prints (silver gelatin)
Culture:
Mexica (Aztec) (archaeological culture) Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Mounted prints
Photographs
Date:
circa 1887-1907
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs depicting physical anthropology specimens. The images include a profile of the Lansing skull near a long bone, front and profile views of a skull, an Aztec mummy, and a mummified infant and cyst. All of the photographs have been stamped and dated by the Library of Congress Copyright Office.
Photo Lot 86-40, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division photograph collection relating to physical anthropology subjects, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs relating to a Mexican natural history collection, including archeological, ethnographic, physical, entomological, ornithological, conchological, and paleontological collections. The photographs are mounted in an album entitled "Collections de Auguste Genin," where they are divided according to discipline and have accompanying typewritten descriptions by Genin. There are images of Huichol peoples; a diorite yoke from Jalapa; Aztec, Zapotec, Matlatlzinca, Huichol, and Tarahumara arms, tools, urns, vases, and idols; statuettes from Nayarit and statuettes of musicians and musical instruments; a wooden instrument from Hidalgo; ancient and modern musical instruments; terra cotta Spanish objects; coins and medals; skulls from Guerrero and the Valley of Mexico; a shell collection; and mastodon bones.
Biographical/Historical note:
Auguste Genin (1862-1931) was a a Franco-Mexican writer, poet, photographer, ethnologist. He was a resident of Mexico and director of the Mexican National Company of Dynamite and Explosives.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 86-25B
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Digital surrogates for most of the photographs can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4523, a duplicate album sent to the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Contents: Words and lists of days, months and years and other time divisions, approximately 100 pages. (includes Maya, Aztec, etc.) Color adjectives, 8 pages. Totemic clans of all tribes, 37 pages. Personal names (Chiefs, etc.), 25 pages. (Personal names of "Knisteneaux or Crees, Shawnee, Crow, Dakota, Arikaras, Cheyennes, Blackfeet, Piegan, Menomoni, Peoria, Otawa, Sauk").
A collection of ethnographic and linguistic notes from diverse sources, aiming at an understanding of problems of reading Mayan hieroglyphic characters. Most of the notes cover Mayan vocabulary and glyphs, but Gatschet ranges almost at random over other data, ethnographic and linguistic, that may have caught his interest. He touches on the Maya calendar, day names, Landa's alphabet, Maya-Spanish vocabulary from the Motul dictionary at Providence, similar vocabulary from Brasseur, etc., some Narraganset-English vocabulary (page 57 only) from Williams, notes on day signs from Rosny, etc., cultural objects compared with glyphic designs, Brasseur's synonymy of glyph characters, lists of Southeast tribes from a French source, Otomi vocabulary notes especially on the numerals (see pages 84-85), notes on Cariban and Arawakan, etymologies of Mayan words (pages 110, 111), notes from Brinton's Maya Chronicles, notes on Codices Mendoza, Troano, Tellerano-Remensis, notes from Penafiel, Pinart, etc., names of Aztec and Mayan gods, etc. No problems are settled, nor is any problem carefully attended: the notes are all preliminary. H. Landar 7 July, 1969.
George Hubbard Pepper specialized in the study of cultures of the American Southwest and Ecuador. Tribes which he studied are Acoma, Aztec, Blackfeet, Cochiti, Hopi, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Nambe, Navajo, Picuris, Pojuaque, Puye, San Carlos Apache, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Sandia, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Taos, Tarascan, Tesuque, Ute, Zia, and Zuni. Photographs in the collection are of an excavation in Tottenville, New York, 1895; Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Cañon, New Mexico: Hyde Expedition, 1896-1900; and expeditions to the occupied Pueblos of the Southwest, 1904; Mexico, 1904, 1906; Guatemala; and Ecuador, 1907. There are also photos which complement a study Pepper did of the technique of Navajo weaving, and miscellaneous scenic and personal photos.
Arrangement note:
Collection arranged by item number.
Biographical/Historical note:
George Hubbard Pepper was born on February 2, 1873 in Tottenville, Staten Island, New York. As a young boy he exhibited a strong interest in archaeology and after his graduating from high school followed encouragement from Prof. Fredric W. Putnam to study at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, where Pepper stayed from 1895-96. In 1896 he was appointed assistant curator of the Department of the Southwest in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. From 1896 to 1900, Pepper was a member of the Hyde Exploring Expedition, which conducted excavations at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. In 1904, he conducted an ethnological survey of the occupied pueblos of the Southwest and at the same time continued his study of the weaving techniques of the Navajo. Pepper also participated in excavations in the yacatas of the Tierra Caliente of Michoacan in Mexico sponsored by George Gustav Heye, and in 1907 he went with Marshall Saville on an expedition to the Province of Manabi in Ecuador, also for Heye. In 1909 Pepper was appointed assistant curator in the Department of American Archaeology at the University Museum of Philadelphia, but after only a year there he joined the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in New York City, where he stayed until his death. In 1914 he excavated a Munsee cemetery of the historic period near Montague, New Jersey and in the following year he went on the exploration of the Nacoochee mound in the old Cherokee region in Georgia. In 1918 he joined the Hawikku explorations of the Hendricks-Hodge Expedition in New Mexico. Pepper died on May 13, 1924, in New York City. George H. Pepper was a co-founder of the American Anthropological Association, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Ethnological Society of New York, a member of the American Folklore Society, and a corresponding member of the Academia Nacional de Historia of Ecuador. A complete bibliography of his works can be found in Indian Notes, v. 1, no. 3, July 1924, pp. 108-110. The George Hubbard Pepper Papers are in the Latin American Library, Tulane University Library, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Provenance:
According to Frederick Dockstader, director of MAI from 1960 to 1975, in a letter dated March 26, 1968, the collection was given to MAI by Pepper. However, the 1965 Annual Report (p. 26) states that the Photographic Department acquired through the donation of Mrs. Jeannette Cameron approximately 500 new negatives pertaining to field work done by her father from 1900-1910; and the 1966 Annual Report (p. 9) states that many papers of Dr. George H. Pepper were acquired through the courtesy of his daughter, Mrs. Jeanette Cameron.
Restrictions:
Access restricted. Researchers should contact the staff of the NMAI Archives for an appointment to access the collection.
