50 Stereographs (circa 50 printed stereographs, halftone and color halftone)
1,000 Stereographs (circa, albumen and silver gelatin (some tinted))
239 Prints (circa 239 mounted and unmounted prints, albumen (including cartes de visite, imperial cards, cabinet cards, and one tinted print) and silver gelatin (some modern copies))
96 Prints (Album :, silver gelatin)
21 Postcards (silver gelatin, collotype, color halftone, and halftone)
Photographs relating to Native Americans or frontier themes, including portraits, expedition photographs, landscapes, and other images of dwellings, transportation, totem poles, ceremonies, infants and children in cradleboards, camps and towns, hunting and fishing, wild west shows, food preparation, funeral customs, the US Army and army posts, cliff dwellings, and grave mounds and excavations. The collection also includes images of prisoners at Fort Marion in 1875, Sioux Indians involved in the Great Sioux Uprising in Minnesota, the Fort Laramie Peace Commission of 1868, Sitting Bull and his followers after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
There are studio portraits of well-known Native Americans, including American Horse, Big Bow, Four Bears, Iron Bull, Ouray, Red Cloud, Red Dog, Red Shirt, Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail, Three Bears, and Two Guns White Calf. Depicted delegations include a Sauk and Fox meeting in Washington, DC, with Lewis V. Bogy and Charles E. Mix in 1867; Kiowas and Cheyennes at the White House in 1863; and Dakotas and Crows who visited President Warren G. Harding in 1921. Images of schools show Worcester Academy in Vinita, Oklahoma; Chilocco Indian School; Carlisle Indian Industrial School; Haskell Instittue, and Albuquerque Indian School.
Some photographs relate to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, 1876; World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893; Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, 1903; and Centennial Exposition of the Baltimore and Ohio Railraod, 1876. Expedition photographs show the Crook expedition of 1876, the Sanderson expedition to the Custer Battlefield in 1877, the Wheeler Survey of the 1870s, Powell's surveys of the Rocky Mountain region during the 1860s and 1870s, and the Hayden Surveys.
Outstanding single views include the party of Zuni group led to the sea by Frank Hamilton Cushing; Episcopal Church Rectory and School Building, Yankton Agency; Matilda Coxe Stevenson and a companion taking a photographs of a Zuni ceremony; John Moran sketching at Acoma; Ben H. Gurnsey's studio with Indian patrons; Quapaw Mission; baptism of a group of Paiutes at Coeur d'Alene Mission; court-martial commission involved in the trial of Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds, 1877; President Harding at Sitka, Alaska; Walter Hough at Hopi in 1902; and Mrs. Jesse Walter Fewkes at Hopi in 1897.
Biographical/Historical note:
George V. Allen was an attorney in Lawrence, Kansas and an early member of the National Stereoscope Association. Between the 1950s and 1980s, Allen made an extensive collection of photographs of the American West, mostly in stereographs, but also including cartes-de-visite and other styles of mounted prints, photogravures, lantern slides, autochromes, and glass negatives.
Photo Lot 90-1, George V. Allen collection of photographs of Native Americans and the American frontier, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The collection consists of photographs relating to Native Americans, which were submitted to the copyright office of the Library of Congress in and around the early 20th century. Many of the photographs are studio portraits as well as photographs made as part of expeditions and railroad surveys. It includes images of people, dwellings and other structures, agriculture, arts and crafts, burials, ceremonies and dances, games, food preparation, transportation, and scenic views. Some of the photographs were posed to illustrate literary works, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Hiawatha, while others depict paintings or other artwork.
Collection is organized alphabetically by copyright claimant.
Biographical/Historical note:
The collection was formed from submissions made to the Library of Congress as part of the copyright registration process. In 1949, arrangements were made to allow the Bureau of American Ethnology to copy the collection and some negatives were made at that time, largely from the Heyn and Matzen photographs. The project was soon abandoned, however, as too large an undertaking for the facilities of the BAE. In 1957-1958, arrangements were begun by William C. Sturtevant of the BAE to transfer a set of the photographs from the Library of Congress to the BAE.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 59
Provenance:
In 1965, the Bureau merged with the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology to form the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology, and in 1968 the Office of Anthropology Archives transformed into the National Anthropological 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 59, Library of Congress Copyright Office photograph collection of Native Americans, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
1865 ?
Scope and Contents:
Contents: (a)- Vocabulary, on sheet, 2 columns on first page and 3 on second page. (b)- A copy of vocabulary a with the exception of a few words omitted. Copied by George Gibbs, on printed form with heading "Comparative Vocabulary, 6 pages.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 989-a-b
General:
Previously titled "Vocabularies."
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
1853-4 ?
Scope and Contents:
Contents: (a)- Vocabulary, 6 pages on printed schedule distributed by George Gibbs, Washington Territory. (b)- Partial copy of vocabulary a on printed form with heading "Comparative Vocabulary," 6 pages. Only the words on the original which correspond with those on printed sheets were copied.
Also includes letter from A.C. Anderson to George Gibbs referring to the vocabulary. June 12, 1865.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 985-a-b
Local Note:
Note on original states: "This and the Nootka are almost identical."
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
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.
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Sheets
Place:
Unalaska (Alaska)
Date:
1778
Scope and Contents:
Includes the following: Plate 38, A man of Nootka Sound; Plate 39, A woman of Nootka Sound; Plate 40, Various articles, at Nootka Sound; Plate 41, A view of the habitation in Nootka Sound; Plate 42, The inside of a house of Nootka Sound; Plate 45, A view of Snug Corner Cove, in Prince William's Sound; Plate 46, A man of Prince William's Sound; Plate 47, A woman of Prince William's Sound; Plate 48, A man of Oonalashka; Plate 49, A woman of Oonalashka; Plate 50, Canoes of Oonalashka; Plate 52, Sea horses; Plate 54, Inhabitants of Norton Sound and their habitations; Plate 56, Caps of the natives of Oonalashka; Plate 57, Native of Oonalashka and their habitations; Plate 58, The inside of a house, in Oonalashka
