Unbound album pages (labeled A through Q) with photographs documenting the people and culture of the Pocatello-Fort Hall area, including Native Americanss (particularly Shoshone-Bannock tribes), agency employees, and missionaries. Included are images of encampments, Sun Dance ceremonies, the Fort Hall Agency, Indian schools and churches, the Run for Fort Hall Lands on June 17, 1902, the War Bonnett Roundup at Idaho Falls, Shoshone Falls and other natural features and landscapes, a large number of street and aerial views of Pocatello, A. L. Cook's drug store in Pocatello, and members of the Cook family. In addition, there are photographs of Nez Perce, Hopi, San Juan, and Navaho Indians, and one image of the Lapps Indians at Port Townsend, Washington. A large number of the photographs were made by Benedicte Wrensted.
The albums were compiled by Robert Leonard, Eugene O. Leonard's son, who also made copy prints of many of the photographs and negatives. They include flyers, newspapers, envelopes, and other scraps collected by Leonard.
Biographical/Historical note:
Eugene O. Leonard (1884-1964) moved to Pocatello, Idaho, in 1893 to live with his aunt, the widow of A. L. Cook and owner of the Cook building and drugstore. Leonard attended Weiser College and Academy (now College of Idaho), Whitman College, and Northwestern University. He acquired degrees in phamacy and pharmaceutical chemistry from Northwestern University, and a degree in assaying studies from the Chicago College of Chemistry. After graduation from the College in 1908, Leonard returned to Pocatello to manage the Cook Drug Store until 1918. He worked as Pocatello City Chemist and set up the College of Pharmacy at Idaho State College, where he also taught and served as dean (1918-1954). In the 1930s, Leonard obtained a MS and PhD from Utah State University. Possibly encouraged by his collector aunt, Leonard established a collection of Native material culture objects and documentations, including artifacts and these photograhs, based on his interest in the Shoshoni and Bannock tribes at nearby Fort Hall.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 92-3
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The Idaho Museum of Natural History at Idaho State University holds artifacts collected by Eugene O. Leonard.
The Bannock County Historical Museum in Pocatello holds the Leonard Family Papers, 1893-1917.
Restrictions:
Original nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require advanced notice for viewing. Many have associated prints.
Photo Lot 92-3, Eugene O. Leonard photograph collection relating to Pocatello and Fort Hall, Idaho, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The photographs primarily document ceremonies, people, and lands of Native Americans in the Plains and Southwest, taken during Mekeel's field research from 1929 to 1936. A large portion of the collection depicts Mekeel's research during the early 1930s among the Oglala of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Another large portion of the collection includes personal photos depicting Mekeel's homes and children.
Biographical/Historical note:
H. Scudder Mekeel (1902-1947) was an anthropologist who studied social and psychological aspects of Native American cultures. Educated at Harvard University (BA, 1928), the University of Chicago (MA, 1929), and Yale University (PhD, 1932), he was a member of the 1929 Laboratory of Anthropology (Santa Fe) ethnological field school led by Alfred L. Kroeber. In 1929-1932, he carried out three field expeditions to the Sioux communities of South Dakota, working mainly on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs as Director of Applied Anthropology under Commissioner John Collier in 1935. Two years later, he was appointed Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology at Santa Fe and continued there until 1940, when he accepted a teaching position at the University of Wisconsin.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 94-21
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds copies of Mekeel's Field Notes from the summers of 1930 and 1931 in the White Clay District of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota (MS 7088). Originals of these field notes and Mekeel's population notes on the White Clay District are held by the American Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology Archives (.M454).
The Human Studies Film Archives holds Mekeel's film footage of a Lakota Sioux Sundance from 1930 (HSFA 92.8.1).
Correspondence from Mekeel held in the National Anthropological Archives in the William Duncan Strong papers, Raoul Weston LaBarre Papers, and Bureau of American Ethnology Administrative File.
Restrictions:
Original nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require special arrangements for viewing.
