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.
The collection consists of seventy (70) drawings. The bulk of the collection is comprised of sixty-nine (69) drawings made by Margaret Magill and depicting artifacts found at the Heshotauthla site in New Mexico during the Hemenway Expedition. The drawings were used illustrate "Ancient Zuni Pottery" by Jesse Walter Fewkes.
One (1) of the drawings is by Wells M. Sawyer and depicts an altar at Oraibi. A version of this subject by a different artist appears in "The Katcina altars in Hopi worship" also by Fewkes (1927). Fewkes states the illustration was taken from Voth, H. R. (Henry R.), 1855-1931. The Oraibi Powamu Ceremony. Chicago, 1901. This drawing appears to be unrelated to the work of the Hemenway Expedition and it is unclear how it became associated with this collection.
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.
Historical Note:
The Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition (1886-1894) was the first major the first major scientific archaeological expedition in the Southwest and is notable for the discovery of the prehistoric Hohokam culture. Financed by Mary Tileston Hemenway, a wealthy widow and philanthropist, it was initially led by Frank Hamilton Cushing. Cushing was replaced by Jesse Walter Fewkes in 1889.
Biographical Note:
Margart Whitehead Magill Hodge (1863-1935) served as the artist for the Hemenway Expedition. She was the sister-in-law of Frank Hamilton Cushing and married Frederick Webb Hodge in 1891.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3427
Variant Title:
68 wash illustrations of pottery, implements, etc. from Heshota Uthla, New Mexico
Publication Note:
Drawings by Margaret W. Magill were published in:
Fewkes, Jesse Walter. "Ancient Zuni Pottery." In Putnam Anniversary Volume; Anthropological Essays Presented to Frederic Ward Putnam in Honor of His Seventieth Birthday April 16 1909, edited by Franz Boas, 43-82. New York: G.E. Stechert, 1909.
Related Materials:
The Braun Research Library Collection, Autry National Center, Los Angeles holds the Margaret W. Magill Artwork and Papers, 1883-1884 (BMS.516).
The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library and Peabody Museum Archives Repository, Harvard University hold records of the Hemenway Expedition, including correspondence and artwork by Magill.
