This collection contains all 20 original folios of Thomas Loraine Mckenney and James Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America, with biographical sketches and anecdotes of the principal chiefs. The folios were published and sent to subscribers between 1836-1844 and include 120 hand-colored lithographic plates. As Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1824-1830, McKenney commissioned and collected portraits of Native American leaders, the majority painted by Charles Bird King. These portraits, along with biographical text by James Hall, form the basis of History of the Indian Tribes of North America.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes all 20 folios of Thomas Loraine Mckenney and James Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America, with biographical sketches and anecdotes of the principal chiefs in their original wrappers. Each folio includes six hand-colored lithographic plates along with biographical essays on Native American leaders, both men and women, from the early 19th century.
Native Communities represented in these volumes include—Sauk, Meskwaki (Fox), Shawnee, Osage, Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa), Mississippi Choctaw, Mdewakantonwan Dakota (Mdewakanton Sioux), Eastern Band of Cherokee, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Oto, Seneca, Chaticks Si Chaticks (Pawnee), Yanktonnai Nakota, Muskogee (Creek), Omaha, Iowa, Sac and Fox (Sauk and Fox), Oklahoma Cherokee, Lenape (Delaware), Numakiki (Mandan), Euchee (Yuchi), Potawatomi, Seminole, Mohawk, Menominee (Menomini), Quatsino Kwakwaka'wakw, Odawa (Ottawa), Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana], Powhatan, Kaw (Kansa).
The lithographs were cataloged individually with P (print) numbers P27694-P27813, though not physically separated from their volumes.
Please note that the language and terminology used in this collection reflects the context and culture of the time of its creation, and may include culturally sensitive information. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
Arranged by foilio number.
Biographical / Historical:
Thomas Loraine McKenney was born in 1785 to a family of Quakers in Hopewell, Maryland. Following the abolition of the U.S. Indian Trade program in 1822, McKenney (1785-1859) was appointed to the new position of Superintendent of Indian Affairs, which he held from 1824-1830. During his time as Superintendent of Indian trade in Georgetown, McKenney hired the painter Charles Bird King and began developing a governmental collection of portraits of prominent Native chiefs and elders who visited Washington. Between 1821-1842, King painted over 100 portraits with some assistance from friend and student George Cook.
Following his dismissal from the War Department by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, McKenney moved to Philadelphia to begin the process of getting his collection of portraits reproduced as lithographs with original hand coloring. The publication would document the extensive collection of King paints, many of which were later lost in a fire that destroyed part of the Smithsonian castle in January 1865.
This process was aided by Edward C. Biddle, a Philadelphia printer, who published the first volume (parts 1-6) in 1836 of what would be a three-volume set of 20 folios. James Hall (1793-1868), a judge and known writer, was hired to write text based on McKenney's research. Later parts were published between 1836-1844 by Frederick W. Greenough (parts 7-13), J.T. Bowen (part 14), and by Daniel Rice and James G. Clark (15-20). Several octavo editions were later published.
Provenance:
Provenance is unknown, part of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation collection when the MAI became the NMAI in 1989.
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).
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); McKenney and Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America folios and lithographs image #, NMAI.AC.115; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection consists of 534 glass lantern slides depicting Indigenous groups throughout North America. It also includes a small number of publications written by Elmer E. Higley and others about Native Americans and missionary work during the early twentieth century.
Scope and Contents:
The Elmer E. Higley collection consists of both Lantern Slides and Printed Materials. Series 1: Lantern Slides, 1900-1924, includes 534 glass lantern slides, many hand-colored. The lantern slides were used by Higley in lectures to promote his missionary and reform work with the Joint Committee on Indian Work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was the Superintendent from 1919 to 1923. While Higley was the photographer of some of the lantern slide images, specifically those taken in Mesa Verde, the majority of the photographs were not taken by Higley, but rather collected by him for use in his lectures as he traveled around the country. Series 2: Printed Materials, 1914-1968, includes a small number of early twentieth-century publications written by Higley and others about Native Americans and missionary work in the United States during this time.
Please note that the language and terminology used in this collection reflects the context and culture of the time of its creation, and may include culturally sensitive information. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into two series. Series 1: Lantern Slides, 1900-1924 and Series 2: Printed Materials, 1914-1968.
Biographical / Historical:
Elmer Ellsworth Higley was born in Ohio in 1867. He attended high school and college in northwestern Pennsylvania before marrying Alice C. Dowler in 1892. Higley later also attended the Drew Theological Seminary and afterwards worked as a pastor in a number of Methodist churches around the country. In approximately 1919 Higley was appointed Superintendent of the Joint Committee on Indian Work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with his office based in Chicago, Illinois. Employed in this work until 1923, Higley traveled the United States, visiting Native reservations and promoting Christian reform efforts for American Indian education. While traveling, Higley frequently presented illustrated lectures on his missionary work to audiences, using the glass lantern slides now residing in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. In the years after 1923, Higley continued as a pastor in both Ames, Iowa, and Evanston, Illinois, the latter where he eventually died in 1931.
Provenance:
Gift of Mrs. R. S. Jensen and Family in 2018 and 2019.
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).
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.
Some photographs in this colletion are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Elmer E. Higley collection, NMAI.AC.228; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection includes prints and photographic negatives collected by Captain Allyn K. Capron. Many of the photographs were taken in the Fort Sill area in Oklahoma throughout Capron's time serving there. While a few of these photographs depict Capron, the majority of the Fort Sill photographs feature Native American prisoners of war. This collection also contains portraits taken by Frank A. Rinehart and Adolph F. Muhr during the 1898 U.S. Indian Congress of the Trans Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska. In addition, this collection contains rare photographs from a 1900 Niimíipuu (Nez Perce) and Umatilla delegation visit led by Chief Joseph to Washington, DC. Additional assorted photographs, which were collected by Capron and taken among several communities in Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Florida by various photographers, are also included.
The communities represented within this collection include the Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke), Assiniboine (Stoney), Southern Inunaina (Arapaho), Kiowa, Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana], Apache, Chiricahua Apache, Oglala Lakota (Oglala Sioux), Cayuse, Sihasapa Lakota (Blackfoot Sioux), Niimíipuu (Nez Perce), Umatilla, Potawatomi, Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache (New Mexico), Southern Plains, and Hunkpapa Lakota (Hunkpapa Sioux), with a few individuals identified simply as Sioux.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes photographic prints and negatives collected by Capron and arranged into four series.
Series 1: Fort Sill and surrounding areas, 1885-1896, includes 6 copy negatives and 73 photographic prints. These photographs were taken by George A. Addison (George Anthony Addison), Ella M. Roff (Ellen M. Roff/E. M. Roff), and unknown photographers in Alabama and Oklahoma,in Fort Sill and surrounding areas, between 1885-1896. Some notable scenes include Geronimo and his family, individuals rounding up calves, non-native soldiers, Kiowa tipis, Niuam (Comanche) men shooting bows, the 12th Infantry of Apache Indians, and the Fort Sill Commanding Officers' quarters. Captain Allyn Capron is pictured in a few of the Fort Sill photographs. The indigenous communities depicted include the Southern Plains, Chiricahua Apache, Apache, Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache (New Mexico), Niuam (Comanche), Kiowa, and Potawatomi.
Series 2: Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, 1898, includes 1 copy negative and 7 photographic prints taken in Omaha, Nebraska by Frank A. Rinehart and Adolph F. Muhr in 1898. The photographs depict scenes from the Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition and include portraits of individuals belonging to the Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke), Assiniboine (Stoney), Southern Inunaina (Arapaho), Kiowa, Chiricahua Apache, Oglala Lakota (Oglala Sioux) communities, with a few individuals identified only as Sioux. A delegation of Apache prisoners of war, including Geronimo, were brought from Fort Sill to attend the exposition.
Series 3: Assorted Photographs by Various Photographers, 1872-1900, includes includes 1 copy negative and 28 photographic prints taken by Frank A. Rinehart, Adolph F. Muhr, Alexander Gardner, David F. Barry (David Francis Barry/D. F. Barry), and unknown photographers throughout the United States between 1872-1900. This series contains photographs taken among the Sioux, Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana], Apache, Chiricahua Apache, Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke), Sihasapa Lakota (Blackfoot Sioux), Hunkpapa Lakota (Hunkpapa Sioux), Nimi'ipuu (Nez Perce), Umatilla, Nimi'ipuu (Nez Perce), and Cayuse communities. The locations for the shoots include Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, and Washington, DC. The subjects of this series include individual portraits, communities, and landscapes, with notable individuals including Naiche (Natchez), Goyathlay (Geronimo), Chief John Grass (Pe-ji or Pah-Zhe), and Theodore Roosevelt.
Series 4: Niimíipuu (Nez Perce) and Umatilla delegation visit to Washington, D.C.,1900, includes 8 rare photographic prints of a joint Niimíipuu (Nez Perce) and Umatilla delegation visit to Washington, D.C. in 1900. The delegates appearing in this series includes Cayuse delegate Chief Paul Showaway and Niimíipuu (Nez Perce) delegates Chief Joseph (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt), Stephen J. Reuben, and Chief Peo Peo Tholekt (Peopeotahlikt/Peo Peo T'olikt/Peo-Peo-Ta-Lakt/George Peo-peo-tah-likt/Bird Alighting). Stephen J. Reuben was Chief Joseph's nephew, and acted as an interpreter for this visit. This series was possibly photographed outside of 1111 Masachussets Avenue, Washington, D.C. Additional identifications were provided by Nakia Williamson-Cloud, Nez Perce Tribe Cultural Resource Program, 2003.
Copy negatives include N21545, N37515-N37518, N41416, N41418, N41459. Photographic prints include P13092-P13095, P13097, P3101-P13203.
Arrangement:
Arranged intellectually into four series. Series 1: Fort Sill and surrounding areas, 1885-1896; Series 2: Trans-Mississippi International Exposition, 1898; Series 3: Assorted Photographs by Various Photographers, 1872-1900; Series 4: Niimíipuu (Nez Perce) and Umatilla delegation visit to Washington, D.C., 1900.
Biographical / Historical:
Captain Allyn K. Capron, a graduate of West Point, was a Rough Rider who served as Lieutenant and Captain in the U.S. Army. In 1886, Geronimo and 341 other Chiricahua Apache prisoners of war were captured and brought to Fort Sill in Oklahoma. It was here that Capron served under Hugh L. Scott, who was in charge of Geronimo's band of Apache Indians from 1894 to 1897. As a lieutenant, between 1895-1896, Capron commanded Troop L of the Seventh Cavalry, U.S.A at Fort Sill; this unit consisted entirely of Apache Indians. He was in charge also of Geronimo, whom he often quoted within his letters written from Fort Sill. Capron died from the effects of exposure during the Spanish American War in 1898.
Provenance:
Gift of Agness Kissam Capron, wife of Captain Allyn Capron, 1938.
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).
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.
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Captain Allyn Capron photograph collection, image #, NMAI.AC.152; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana] Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gelatin silver prints
Photographs
Place:
Glacier National Park (Mont.)
Date:
1916
Summary:
This collection contains 107 gelatin silver photographs depicting mystery novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart and her family's travels around Glacier National Park in Montana during the summer of 1916.
Scope and Contents:
P20639- P20762, P21187-P21191
This collection contains 107 gelatin silver photographs depicting mystery novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart and her family's travels around Glacier National Park in Montana during the summer of 1916. The bulk of the photographs were shot by Mary herself. Rinehart wrote about this trip in her 1917 book, Through Glacier Park.
The photographs in the collection depict candid and staged outdoor portraits of Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana] peoples and scenes of community gatherings. Chief Eagle Child and Chief Two Guns White Calf are included in photographs. Other chiefs and leaders that may also be depicted include Medicine Owl; Curly Bear; Big Spring; Bird Plume; Wolf Plume; Bird Rattler; Bill Schute; Stabs-By-Mistake; Mad Plume; and Many Tail-Feathers. Mary Roberts Rinehart was adopted by the Blackfeet tribe and given the name Pi-ta-mak-an (Running Eagle).
Rinehart's family are featured in the photographs including her husband Dr. Stanley Marshall Rinehart, her eldest son Stanley Marshall Rinehart, Jr. (b. 1897), her middle son Alan Gillespie Rinehart (1900-1982) and her youngest son Frederick "Ted" Roberts Rinehart (b. 1902).
The collection also includes depictions of Ralph Radnor Earle (1875-1958) during his trip through National Parks. According to February 3, 1917 issue of Moving Image Picture World, Earle traveled via automobile in the summer of 1916 filming moving image footage of the National Parks, including Glacier National Park. Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946)- a founding member of Boy Scouts of America and author of the Boy Scout Handbook- is featured in some photographs as well.
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
Mary Roberts Rinehart (née Mary Ella Roberts) was born in 1876 and raised in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now the North Side of Pittsburgh. Mary and her parents, Thomas (Tom) and Cornelia Roberts, lived with Tom's mother and siblings until Mary's sister Olive was born. At 17, Rinehart enrolled in the Pittsburgh Homeopathic School for Nurses. She drew on her experiences nursing patients in the Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital in some of her writing. In 1896, shortly after her graduation from nursing school, she married Stanley Marshall Rinehart, a young doctor. In their house in Allegheny City, Mary Roberts Rinehart managed the household, assisted with Dr. Rinehart's medical practice, and began raising their family of three sons: Stanley Marshall Rinehart Jr., born 1897, Alan Gillespie Rinehart, born 1900, and Frederick "Ted" Roberts Rinehart, born 1902.
In the early 1900's, Rinehart began writing in earnest as a way to contribute to the family's income. The poems and short stories of her early career were published in magazines such as Munsey's Magazine and The All-Story. Her first book, The Circular Staircase, was published in 1908. As her popularity grew so did the family's income, and they moved to a large house in Glen Osborne, Pennsylvania around 1912. In early 1915, Rinehart asked her Saturday Evening Post editor to send her to Europe to report on World War I prior to U.S. involvement. Rinehart toured the Belgian front and interviewed Albert I, King of the Belgians, and Queen Mary of England at a time when very few journalists were granted such access. Rinehart returned to Europe in 1918 to report on the war to the War Department and was in Paris on November 11 when the armistice ended the war.
The Rineharts moved to Washington, D.C. during the winter of 1921-22 when Dr. Rinehart accepted a position with the Veterans' Bureau. There, Rinehart continued to write and also became involved in Washington society, hosting and being hosted by presidents, senators, and ambassadors. In summer the family traveled to their cabin at Eatons' Ranch in Wyoming, a part of the country that Mary fell in love with after being invited to join a horse packing expedition out west in 1916. In 1929 her sons Stan and Ted, along with John Farrar, launched Farrar & Rinehart Publishing Company, which would publish many of her works. Dr. Rinehart died in 1931 after a period of poor health. A few years later, Rinehart relocated to New York City, where she would be closer to her sons and their growing families. In 1937 she purchased a large house in Bar Harbor, Maine, and spent summers there until 1947 when her house burned down in a large fire. Rinehart died in 1958 in New York City at the age of 83. She experienced several episodes of poor health during her life, including breast cancer and coronary thrombosis. Despite this, she lived an active, busy life filled with writing, travel, family, and other pursuits.
More detailed information about Mary Roberts Rinehart's life can be found in her autobiography My Story, published in 1931, and My Story: A New Edition and Seventeen New Years (1948), as well as in Improbable Fiction: The Life of Mary Roberts Rinehart by Jan Cohn (1980).
[Biographical note written by the University of Pittsburgh]
Related Materials:
The University of Pittsburgh holds a collection of Mary Robers Rinehart Papers.
Separated Materials:
The Rinehart family also donated a set of Diné (Navajo) jewelry to NMAI: Object catalog numbers 230710 – 230715.
Provenance:
Gift of Mr. Stanley Rinehart, Jr., 1961.
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).
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.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Mary Roberts Rinehart photographs of Glacier National Park, image #, NMAI.AC.329; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This series includes 1 copy negative and 20 photographic prints taken by Frank A. Rinehart, Adolph F. Muhr, Alexander Gardner, David F. Barry (David Francis Barry/D. F. Barry), and unknown photographers throughout the United States between 1872-1900. This series contains photographs taken among the Sioux, Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana], Apache, Chiricahua Apache, Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke), Sihasapa Lakota (Blackfoot Sioux), Hunkpapa Lakota (Hunkpapa Sioux), Nimi'ipuu (Nez Perce), Umatilla, Nimi'ipuu (Nez Perce), and Cayuse communities. The locations for the shoots include Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, and Washington, DC. The subjects of this series include individual portraits, communities, and landscapes, with notable individuals including Naiche (Natchez), Goyathlay (Geronimo), Chief John Grass (Pe-ji or Pah-Zhe), and Theodore Roosevelt.
Copy negatives include N41459. Photographic prints include P13094, P13102, P13103, P13106, P13118, P13120, P13129, P13164, P13165-P13173, P13177, P13194, P13195. Photographic prints P13099 and P13100 are missing.
Collection 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).
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Captain Allyn Capron photograph collection, image #, NMAI.AC.152; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana] Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Date:
1898
Scope and Contents:
Photograph depicting a man wearing traditional clothing, standing outside, and holding a shield. The man is likely Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana]. Photograph taken by Frank A. Rinehart or his assistant Adolph F. Muhr at the U.S. Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska, 1898.
Related Materials:
P28461 in NMAI.AC.118 depicts this same individual in a different pose.
Collection 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).
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Captain Allyn Capron photograph collection, image #, NMAI.AC.152; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This subseries contains 96 glass lantern slides from the Plains region. Communities depicted include primarily the Pikuni (Piegan) and Niitsitapii (Blackfoot/Blackfeet) peoples of Montana.
Collection 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).
Rights:
Some photographs in this series are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Elmer E. Higley collection, NMAI.AC.228; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana] Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Photographs
Works of art
Place:
North America
Date:
1903
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists of a framed glass-plate gelatin positive portrait of Curley Bear, also known as Curly Bear and Car-io-scuse) taken by De Lancey W. Gill, Bureau of American Ethnology photographer, in January 1903.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Related Materials:
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) holds the original negative from which this image was produced in Photographic Negatives of Native American Delegations and Archaeology of the Southwestern United States, 1879–1907 (NAIL Control Number NWDNS-106-IN-37).
The National Anthropological Archives holds additional photographs of Curley Bear from the same sitting in the Bureau of American Ethnology negatives (BAE GN 382, 383A, 383B).
Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana] Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Place:
Germany -- Bavaria -- Munich
Date:
bulk 1868-1926
Summary:
This collection consists of 38 photographic prints of Native and non-Native peoples involved with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, primarily in the years 1890-1891.
Scope and Contents:
The Frank Lehner photographs of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show collection consists of 38 photographic prints (and 5 copy negatives created at a later date by the NMAI staff). The images portray Native and non-Native peoples involved with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show primarily in the years 1890-1891, and include a number of publicity and studio portrait shots. Notable photographs include King Ludwig III of Bavaria and his daughter, Princess Maria Ludwiga Theresia of Bavaria, visiting with and even photographing some of the Wild West performers in Munich, Germany, in 1890. Although the bulk of the photographs date to either 1890 or 1891, images in the collection encompass a time period of approximatey a half-century, from 1876 to 1926.
The specific identity of the photographers of these images is not certain. While these photographs have historically been attributed to Frank Lehner, it is more likely that he was the collector rather than the photographer. It appears that at least one image (P10215) was probably taken by Bavarian Royal Court Photographer J. Seiling, and one image (P10192) or possibly two (P10193) were taken by Charles Henry Braithwaite, a portrait photographer in Leeds, England, in 1891.
Arrangement:
The materials in this collection are organized into folders.
Biographical / Historical:
William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody opened the first Wild West show in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1883. Within four years the fame of the Wild West had grown so great that Cody took his fellow performers on an international tour of Europe, performing between 1887 and 1906 in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, and a host of other countries.
Undeniably, Cody's Wild West constructed and promoted inaccurate views of Native Americans, defining "real Indians" as only those who lived in tipis, rode horses, and wore feather headdresses. Such stereotypes have sadly been perpetuated in dime novels, television shows, and major motion pictures down to the present, ignoring the staggering cultural diversity of the Indigenous peoples of North America.
In spite of the Wild West show's culpability in creating and perpetuating narrow views of who Native peoples are and what they look like, several recent scholars have argued that there were some upsides for those Native Americans who chose to perform with this traveling show. One of the major bonuses was the relative freedom Wild West performers experienced compared with their community members who had to remain on the reservations. L.G. Moses in Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 and Michelle Delaney in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Warriors both note Native performers' opportunities to not only see the world and earn an income, but also to practice their beliefs and live their days free from the interference of the ever-present missionaries, politicians, and BIA agents back at home.
In addition, Wild West performers experienced opportunities otherwise unimaginable to many Americans of their day, including being presented to Queen Victoria at her Golden Jubilee in London in 1887, attending the 1889 World's Fair in Paris with its debut of the newly constructed Eiffel Tower, and having their photograph taken by the daughter of the future King of Bavaria, Ludwig III, in Munich in 1890.
Provenance:
This collection was exchanged with Frank Lehner in 1932.
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).
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; 1890; Frank Lehner photographs of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, NMAI.AC.147; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana] Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Photographic prints
Date:
1890
Scope and Contents:
Photographic portrait of an unidentified Native American man, possibly Pikuni (Piegan) [Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana].
Collection Restrictions:
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Collection Rights:
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Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; 1890; Frank Lehner photographs of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, NMAI.AC.147; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
