Group of Men, Women, and Infant; Women in Native Dress, Men in Partial Native Dress, One Wearing US Infantry Insignia On Hat; Tipis and Horse-Drawn Cart in Background
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
Post Office Building (Washington, D.C.) Search this
United States Capitol (Washington, D.C.) Search this
Extent:
12.5 Cubic feet (27 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Drawings
Albums
Clippings
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Place:
Georgia
West Point (N.Y.)
Washington (D.C.)
Date:
1870 - 1890
Summary:
The collection documents Mongomery C. Meigs, an Army officer, engineer, architect, and scientist. Meigs's papers include scrapbooks and photographs relating primarily to his work on the Pension Building and the Washington Aqueduct in Washington, D.C. but also his interest in politics, military affairs, construction, Native Americans, inventions, real estate, and financial matters.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents, Mongomery C. Meigs, an Army officer, engineer, architect, and scientist. Meigs's papers include scrapbooks and photographs relating primarily to his work on the Pension Building in Washington, D.C., an extension to the Post Office Building, the Washington Aqueduct, Cabin John Bridge, and the dome of the United States Capitol. The scrapbooks reflect Meigs's interests in politics, military affairs, construction, Native Americans, inventions and technology, real estate, and financial matters.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into two series.
Series 1: Scrapbooks, 1870-1890
Series 2: Photographs, 1850-1885
Biographical / Historical:
1816, May 3, Born, Augusta, Georgia
1832, Entered United States Military Academy, West Point, New York
1837, Second lieutenant, Corps of Engineers. Surveyed Upper Mississippi River
1838, Survey engineering work, Delaware River
1839, Duty at army headquarters, Washington, D.C.
1841, Married Louisa Rodgers (died 1879)
1843-1852, Stationed in Detroit, Michigan, until return to permanent duty in Washington, D.C.
1852, Supervised construction of the Washington aqueduct for Great Falls, Virginia and various United States
Capitol improvements, including a new and larger dome
1861, June Appointed Quartermaster General, United States Army
1865, April 15, Present at the death of Abraham Lincoln
1867, Postwar illness and trip to Europe
1882, Retired from the United States Army. Began engineering work on the Pension Office Building, Washington, D.C.
1892, January 2, Died, Washington, D.C.
*Biographical Chronology courtesy the Library of Congress, Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, 1799-1892 (bulk 1849-1892)
Related Materials:
Materials at the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
William R. Hutton Papers (AC0987)
Materials at the National Museum of American History
Several curatorial divisions hold material culture related to Montgomery C. Meigs and include:
Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life)
Armed Forces History (Division of Political and Military History)
Division of Home and Community Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life)
Division of Medicine and Science
Division of Work and Industry
Materials at Other Organizations
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, 1799-1892 (bulk 1849-1892)
Army officer, engineer, architect, and scientist. Correspondence, diaries and journals, notebooks, family papers,
military papers, drawings and plans, scrapbooks, and other papers relating primarily to Meigs's work in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, his service as Quartermaster General during the Civil War, and family matters.
Provenance:
Parts of the collection were donated by Dr. Paul L. Smith on January 8, 1971 and Mr. and Mrs. Mayo S. Stuntz on March 8, 1974. Other sources are unknown.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
