The collection consists of copy prints depicting Smithsonian anthropologists, including group portraits of the staff of the United States National Museum Department of Anthropology and mounted individual portraits of department heads in 1904, 1931, 1952, 1959, and 1962. The photographs were possibly made as part of a 1969 event, "The Anthropology of Anthropology, or Everything You Wanted to Know About the Anthropology Department but Didn't Know What to Ask." The announcement for this event is available with the collection.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 39
Reproduction Note:
Copy prints made by the Smithsonian Institution, 1969.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Original negatives for some images are held in the National Anthropological Archives in the BAE historical negatives.
The National Anthropological Archives also holds the Records of the Department of Anthropology.
Additional photographs of Department of Anthropology staff can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 33, Photo Lot 70, Photo Lot 136, Photo Lot 76-127, Photo Lot 77-52, Photo Lot 77-80, Photo Lot 79-51, Photo Lot 80-17, Photo Lot 83-15, and the BAE historical negatives.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Citation:
Photo lot 39, Copies of portraits of Smithsonian anthropologists, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Basin Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
July-August, 1940
Scope and Contents:
Typescript document is 45 pages and manuscript document is 56 pages. Also note of transmittal to Margaret C. Blaker. Washington, D. C. October 1, 1969. Typescript document. 1 page. Manuscript document contains some notes and vocabulary items not found in typescript document.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4878
Local Note:
The transmittal note explains the circumstances of the collection of the myths and identifies Gilbert Natches as the same informant who had worked earlier with Alfred Kroeber on Paiute verbs.
Xerox copy of transmittal note in National Anthropological Archives Accession files.
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Citation:
Manuscript 4878, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded by the National Science Foundation under BCS Grant No. 1561167 and the Recovering Voices initiative at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
The collection is made up almost entirely of material gathered by Saul H. Riesenberg, anthropologist and ethnologist, during a year's research (1955-1956) in American Samoa.
Throughout his professional career, Riesenberg was principally interested in Ponape, in the Caroline Islands. In the 1950's, however, stimulated by the work of graduate students at the University of Hawaii where he was teaching, Riesenberg applied for and was awarded a grant to study acculturation in American Samoa. One of the graduate students, B.F. Pierce, was studying Samoans who had migrated to the Mormon community at Laie, on Oahu. Riesenberg's study of Samoans in American Samoa was to provide a "baseline" (his word) for the study of migrations in the South Pacific, and, in addition, to identify agents of change at work in Samoa itself.
A significant part of this collection is comprised of the research notes and data accumulated by Riesenberg during that year. In his grant proposal, he stated that his aim was to present "a sound description of modern Samoa, politically, socially, economically, etc." This broad perspective is reflected in the range of his interests. His research notes cover every facet of Samoan culture, from cricket to banking to diet to government. However, his primary interest was the matai (chief) structure of Samoan society, and the system of land ownership operating within that structure. Much of the data he gathered, both in the form of notes and in the form of processed materials, is concerned with these two subjects. None of this material has been published.
During that same year, Riesenberg also worked part-time as Staff Anthropologist to the Governor of American Samoa. Thus he was able to collect a good deal of processed material originating in the government. This material includes pamphlets, resolutions, memoranda, correspondence, legislative codes, etc. He also collected official U.S. publications in the form of Committee prints, annual reports from the Governor of American Samoa to the Secretary of the Interior, and U.S. reports to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. When examined chronologically, these papers, some of which go back to the earliest days of American involvement in Samoa, provide an extremely interesting picture of the U.S. government's relation to the indigenous population of Samoa and into the transformation of the Samoan way of life under the pressure of Western influences.
Another significant category of processed materials in the collection is that of studies and research papers concerned with Samoa. The papers were written by functionaries and academicians. They will be of interest to students of the history of anthropology as well as of Samoa.
Students of education will be especially interested in the series entitled "Samoan Education," the "F.E. Midkiff Papers," and in some "Samoan Government Records" papers. Those studying the Samoan language will find the songs and publications of value.
The only papers in the collection not concerned with Samoa are the records of the Smithsonian Office for Anthropological Research (SOAR). These materials reflect Riesenberg's interest in administrative rather than strictly research matters. They document his involvement in the reorganization of Anthropology, the search for a new leader, and the creation of the Senate of Scientists, which allowed staff scientists at the Smithsonian to participate in administrative decisions.
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.
Biographical note:
1911 -- Born August 28, Newark, New Jersey
1932 -- BA, University of California at Los Angeles
1945-48 -- Teaching Fellow, University of California
1947-48 -- Fieldwork on Ponape, Caroline Islands (June to Feb.)
1948-49 -- Research Assistant, University of California
1950 -- PhD, University of California at Berkeley
1949-57 -- Instructor to Professor, University of Hawaii
1953-54 -- Staff Anthropologist, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
1955-56 -- Field work in American Samoa (July to July) Anthropological Adviser, Gov't of American Samoa
1957-67 -- Curator, Division of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution
1963-63 -- Field work on Ponape, Caroline Islands (Jan. to March)
1966 -- Director of Area Studies for Micronesian (Summer) Peace Corps Volunteers Training Program, Key West
1967-70 -- Chairman, Dept. of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution
1967-67 -- Field work on Puluwat, Caroline Islands (Feb. to July)
1970-79 -- Curator, Old World Anthropology, to Senior Ethnologist, Smithsonian Institution
1970-71 -- Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra (July to June)
Provenance:
Dr. Saul H. Riesenberg donated some of his papers to the National Anthropological Archives on his retirement from the Smithsonian Institution in the summer of 1979.
Restrictions:
The Saul H. Riesenberg papers are open for research.
Access to the Saul H. Riesenberg papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Citation:
Saul H. Riesenberg papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
These processed materials are divided into three subseries: 1) Congressional Committee prints: these are staff studies and reports by the Committees on Interior and Insular Affairs of both the House and the Senate, presented to the Secretary of the Interior; 2) the Annual Reports of the Governor of American Samoa to the Secretary of the Interior. These are in the form of pamphlets (one is in draft as well as published form); 3) the Reports to the Secretary-General of the U.N. These are also in the form of pamphlets. The earliest of these have good pictorial supplements. Most of these publications systematically and regularly review all aspects of life in American Samoa (banking practices, public health, welfare, education, governmental structure, etc.). Miscellaneous material includes some census figures, and reports of visitors and various official groups.
Collection Restrictions:
The Saul H. Riesenberg papers are open for research.
Access to the Saul H. Riesenberg papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Saul H. Riesenberg papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
