Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Collection Director:
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957 Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Biographical / Historical:
Frances Theresa Densmore (1867-1957) was born in Red Wing, Minnesota to Benjamin and Sarah Densmore. Densmore began piano lessons at an early age and became exposed to American Indian music when quite young, living close to Lakota people. Densmore attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she studied the organ and harmony, in addition to the piano. After Oberlin, Densmore became a church organist and taught music. Around 1890, she move to Boston to continue her studies in music. There, she learnt about Alice Cunningham Fletcher's work among the Omaha Indians. Densmore wrote to Fletcher and Fletcher quickly became Densmore's mentor.
Densmore's first field work was among the Chippewa of Grande Portage, in 1905. In 1908 the Bureau of American Ethnology provided Densmore with a graphophone. Densmore's association with the BAE lasted fifty years. Densmore worked among the Cocopah, Makah, Winnebago, Lakota, Mandan and Hidatsa, Northern Ute, Nootka and Quileute, Ojibwa, Onondaga, Omaha, Apache and Navajo, Santo Domingo, Cheyenne and Arapaho, Maidu, Choctaw, Pawnee, Papago, Menominee, Chippewa, Yuma, Yaqui, Seminole, Acoma, Isleta, Cochiti, Zuni, Chitimacha and Alibamu Indian peoples. She also worked with the Tule Indians of Panama. Densmore served as a founding Officer and second Vice-President of the Society for Ethnomusicology in 1956. She recorded over 2,400 American Indian songs. She died at the age of 90.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Lewis & Clark at Fort Mandan [videorecording] / presented by MDU Resources Group ; North Dakota Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Foundation ; writer/producer, Darrell Dorgan ; produced by Dakom Inc
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sound discs (vinyl)
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Contents: Discs issued by The Library of Congress, as follows: 1) Library of Congress Album XXII. Songs of the Chippewa. 1950. Library of Congress Record L 22. Five 78 r.p.m. discs and descriptive leaflet. 2) Songs of the Chippewa. 1950. One 33 r.p.m. disc and descriptive leaflet. 3) Library of Congress Record L33. Songs of the Menominee, Mandan, and Hidatsa. [1953. One 33 r.p.m. disc and descriptive leaflet. 4) Library of Congress Record L32. Songs of the Nootka and Quileute. [1953. One 33 r.p.m. disc and descriptive leaflet. 5) Library of Congress Record L31. Songs of the Papago. [1953.] one 33 r.p.m. disc and descriptive leaflet.
The North American Indian : being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska / written, illustrated, and published by Edward S. Curtis ; edited by Frederick Webb Hodge ; foreword by Theodore Roosevelt ; field research conducted under the patronage of J. Pierpont Morgan
Title:
Describing the Indians of the United States, the Dominion of Canada and Alaska
