This collection contains 44 photographs in a photo album and 12 loose prints that depict American Indian leaders circa 1898 to 1901. The bulk of the photographs were shot at the Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, 1898 and the Greater America Exposition, 1899, both held in Omaha, Nebraska.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains 44 photographs in a photo album and 12 loose prints that depict American Indian leaders circa 1898 to 1901. The bulk of the photographs depict photographic portraits and scenes of sham battles shot at the Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska, from June 1 to October 31, 1898. Frank A. Rinehart (ca. 1862-1928) and his assistant Adolph F. Muhr were the official photographers. During the Indian Congress they photographed more than 500 individuals and groups representing the estimated thirty-six tribes represented at the Exposition. Rinehart shot the majority of the outdoor battles, dance scenes, and events, while Muhr photographed the majority of the delegate portraits. Rinehart copyrighted the photographs under his own name in 1899 and 1900.
Other photographs in this collection are photographic portraits of American Indian leaders that were photographed by Herman Heyn and James Matzen at the Greater America Exposition in Omaha in 1899. Heyn copyrighted the photographs under his own name in 1899.
Finally, the collection also contains 7 loose photomechanical prints depicting portraits by photographer William Henry Jackson. These prints were colorized and published under Jackson's company the Detroit Photographic Co. Other loose color photomechanical prints include portraits shot by photographer William H. Rau (1855-1920) for the Chicago Inter-Ocean Newspaper in 1901.
The photograph titles were assigned by the photographers.
Arrangement:
The photographs in the album are in original order. The loose prints are organized into 3 folders.
Biographical / Historical:
Byron Harvey, III (1932-2005) was an anthropologist and collector specializing in southwestern American Indian tribes. He was the great-grandson of Frederick Harvey, best known as the founder of the Fred Harvey Company that ran a successful chain of gift shops, restaurants, and hotels known as Harvey Houses. The Company also amassed a collection of American Indian art and sold many collections to museums including the Museum of the American Indian (NMAI's predecessor museum).
The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition World's Fair was held in Omaha, Nebraska from June 1 to October 1898. Over 500 Indian delegates from over thirty-five different tribes were present at the Fair. James Mooney (Bureau of Ethnology) and Captain William A. Mercer organized and managed the Indian Congress in conjunction with the Exposition. It included "living exhibitions," with mock Indian villages and demonstrations of dances, daily activities, and sham battles.
The official photographer of the U.S. Indian Congress was Frank A. Rinehart (ca. 1862-1928) with his assistant Adolph F. Muhr (ca. 1858-1913). The Rinehart and Muhr photographs are considered one of the most comprehensive photo documentations of American Indian leaders at the turn of the century.
After the Trans-Mississippi Exposition ended, the Greater America Exposition opened on the same fair grounds from July 1, 1899 to October 31, 1899. Herman Heyn and James Matzen won the contract to be the official photographer of the new Exposition. This Exposition featured many of the same buildings and set up as the Trans-Mississippi Exposition of the previous year.
Related Materials:
The Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas has a large collection of Frank Rinehart photographs from U.S. Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, including the original glass plate negatives.
The National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center also holds other photographs shot by Rinehart and Muhr at Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, including collection NMAI.AC.118.
Provenance:
Donated by Byron Harvey, III in 1966.
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.
Topic:
Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition (1898 : Omaha, Neb.) -- Photographs Search this
Greater America Exposition (1899 : Omaha, Neb.) Search this
Genre/Form:
Photograph albums
Photographs
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Byron Harvey, III Collection of Exposition and Portrait photographs, P#####; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Portrait of Salish (Flathead) delegate Chief Antoine Moise (ca. 1850-1918), wearing a headdress made from elk hair. Photographed by Frank Rinehart or his assistant Adolph Muhr at the U.S. Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, 1898.
Collection 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).
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Byron Harvey, III Collection of Exposition and Portrait photographs, P#####; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
1. Lillooet ("Lilowat") vocabulary. March 16, 1859. 8 pages in notebook. Note on page 3: "The Lilowat is spoken on the river which feeds Harrison's Lake, a branch of Fraser River. The vocabulary was obtained from the chief of a village at the mouth through Skehukl, the Soomass [Sumass: dialect of Cowichan group of Coast Salish], and may be relied on as tolerably accurate." The Lillooet River feeds into Harrison Lake. The Interior Salish dialect for west British Columbia is referred to as "Lillooet" in Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
2. "Saamena"vocabularies. 1858 and no date. 10 pages in notebook. Two vocabularies: Vocabulary of the "Saamena or as it is called by the Canadians, "Couteau," was obtained at Fort Hope, Mch. 4, 1858 from Kwee-tah-lich-kan, son of Pa-haa-luk, the Chief of the Kletch-ah-meh'h village at Forks of Fraser & Thompson's Rivers." 7 pages. Includes names for varieties of salmon in "Soomass" (Sumass) and Saamena. pages 12-19. Vocabulary obtained from Te-o-sa-luk, a Saamena of the Chileweyech [--?--]," no date. 3 pages. On page 1 note in Mooney's hand: "alias Nientemewh." Page 11 marked "copied".
3. "Yukeh" vocabulary. No place or date recorded. 3 pages in notebook. The word "Ross" follows the name "Yukeh." This refers to note on page iv: Mr Edward Ross says that the Yukehs have no numerals above five; thus they would say o'-pe mahote, twice five, for ten."
4. "Tai-eet vocabulary. Fort Hope, 1850. 10 pages in notebook. "The following vocabulary of the Tai-eet was obtained at Fort Hope, Sept. 25, 1850 from two men and a woman. It is the dialect intervening between the Kwantlen and the Saamena on Fraser River." page 25.
5. "Nevada or Yuba (Ross)" vocabulary. No date. 2 pages in notebook, pages 35-36. Possibly copied from Ross (?).
6. "Chilowhe'huk (Chilliwack) vocabulary. 4 pages in notebook, pages 36-39. No date. "Not completed as it does not differ sufficiently from the Kwantlen & neighboring dialects in Fraser River to make it an object." Chilliwack belongs to the Cowichan group of Coast dialects, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
7. "Hailt-zuk or Belbella" vocabulary" obtained at Victoria, April 26, 1859, from Capt. Stewart." 10 pages in notebook, pages 40-42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54. Note on page 40: "...obtained at Victoria, April 26, 1859, from "Capt. Stewart" and Indian of the tribe through the medium of Frederic Minni, a Canadian, who partially spoke the language. It is generally reliable...." Page 41 marked "copied;" Another copy by Gibbs of this vocabulary in Ms. Number.
8. "Bel-le-whil-la or Bel'hoo-la" vocabulary. Victoria. 1859. 10 pages in notebook, pages 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 56. Note on page 56: "The vocabulary of the Belhoola was obtained from a woman of that tribe with the assistance of the Indian Stewart through the means of the Belbella vocabulary (cf. 277, part 7). With the exception of a very few words, my rendering of the latter [Belbella] was perfectly intelligible to her. The principal difficulty experienced in this was the excessively gutteral pronounciation of the language. I have classed this without hesitation among the Flathead languages from its obvious analogies. Some words, identical with those of the Belbella are marked with an asterisk. These are probably borrowed the one from the other, or perhaps were given by the woman from having mixed with the Belbellas." Page 41 marked "copied." 8-a Words obtained by Mackenzie at "Friendly Village," page 57.
9-10. Vocabularies of the "Okina'kane (O-Kin-ah-kehn[=Okinagan]) & Similkameen." 1853 & 1859. 17 pages in notebook, pages 58-74. "The incomplete vocabulary of the Okinakane was obtained in 1853. That of the Similkameen in 1859 and the latter is to be retained in place of the first as much more reliable. Given by "Sam" the guide employed by the N.W.B.S." The contents at the beginning of this volume has penciled note indicating that "Okinakane" and "Similkameen" are two dialects of one language.--page 1, note in hand of Mooney.
11. "Additional forms in Yakima," from Rev Marie Charles Pandosy, No date. 1 page in notebook, page 75.
12. "Piskwowse or Winatsha" vocabulary obtained 1853 and revised in 1860. 14 pages in notebook, pages 76-90, & 201. Note on page 76: "Revised at Ft. Colville, March 1860, by the assistance of Lahome's daughter. I have not however confidence in its being entirely correct. There may have been a difference in dialect between her and the first interpreter." Marked "copied" on page 76. Originally a Salish tribe, "Gibbs states that by 1853 they were so largely intermarried with the Yakima as to have almost lost their identity." page 264 of Handbook of American Indians. Page 201 has list of Winatsha Indians in 1853.
13. Vocabulary obtained from Spokane Gerry in 1854. 13 pages in notebook, pages 91-104. Marked "copied" on page 91.
14. Klikatat vocabulary obtained from Yahotowit in 1854. Copy by Gibbs of his original vocabulary, 15 pages in notebook, pages 105-119 and 222. Note in Gibbs' hand: "I am not certain that this is unmixed with the Yakama, as it resembles more closely two vocabularies of that dialect which I obtained then I have been led to expect. It was received from Ya-ho-tow-it." Apparently a copy by Gibbs from his original in Manuscript Number 671. Another copy by Gibbs is cataloged as Manuscript Number 693.
14. "Klikatat" vocabulary, copied from (?) "Tolmie." No date. 1 page in notebook, page 222. 15 Kalispel or Pend Oreille vocabulary, 1860. 15 pages in notebook, pages 119-133. "...vocabulary of the Kalispelm or Pend Oreille obtained from a man at Colville Depot, Jany., 1860. It is spoken by the Indians of Clarke's Fork of the Columbia River." Page 119 marked "copied."
16. "Shoos-whap or She-whap-much" vocabulary, 1860. 15 pages in notebook, pages 134-138. "Obtained at Colville Depot, Jany., 1860 from a woman by the assistance of the man from which the foregoing of the Kalispeln was derived [Manuscript Number 227, part 15], and using that in interpreting. Page 134 marked "copied."
17. "Chepewyan vocabulary" extracted from MacKenzie." No date. 7 pages in notebook, pages 149, 150, 152, 154, 156, 158, 160, 162.
18-19. "Knistinaux" (Cree) (18) and "Algonquin" (19) vocabulary "extracted from MacKenzie." 8 pages in notebook, pages 149, 151, 153, 155, 157, 161, 163.
20. "Kootenay" vocabulary. Place and date not recorded, 33 pages in notebook, pages 164-198, not including page 186 and 192. Page 164 is marked "copied." A copy by Gibbs of this vocabulary, pages 164-176 is filed Manuscript 512 with the note that this vocabulary "was taken from the son of the chief at the Chelenta Depot (Che-tam-towse)" with help of half breed interpreter; "I think the vocabulary can be relied on." Also note in Manuscript Number 512: "additional words of the Algonquin Kootenay in the book." This probably refers to pages 177-198 in Manuscript Number 227. Manuscript Number 512 contains 1 page of "Additional words in Kootenay" not found in Number 227.
21. Vocabulary of the Kalispel & Flathead including geographical names, No date. 2 pages in notebook, pages 199-200.
22. "Similkameen", dialect of the Okinagan, vocabulary, No date,. 9 pages in notebook, pages 202-210. Note in Mooney's hand on page 1 says Okinakane and Similkameen are 2 dialects of 1 language. Note on page 202: "Sam says that the Similkameen, Okin-a-kane, Sin-ke-mah-pe-luks, Skla-kum Methone; Che-lehn, Sin-pai-li-hooch; Se-leh-nich, Sins-peh-lich; Swoi-yehlp, Sche-wuch-hooch all understand one another but not the Soushwap & Couteaux." Sam was informant in 1853, cf. 227, part 10.
23. "Nooksaak" ("Nooksahk") vocabulary. June, 1859. 2 pages in notebook, pages 211 & 228. The Nooksak is a dialect of Squawmish coast group, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
24. "Soomass" vocabulary. Place and date not recorded. 3 pages in notebook, pages 212-214. Sumass is a dialect of the Cowichan group of coast dialects, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
25. "Simiahmoo" vocabulary: animals and proper names. 1 page in notebook, page 215. No date. The Semiahmoo is a dialect of the Songish coast group, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
26. "Saamena" vocabulary. 1 page in notebook, page 216. No date.
27. Skagit vocabulary "(vide Dr Craig's corrections)." No date. 1 page in notebook, page 217. Skagit is a dialect of the Nisqualli group of coast dialects, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
28. "Simiahmoo" vocabulary of 10 terms. Date and place not recorded. 1 page in notebook, page 218. The Semiahmoo is a dialect of the Songish coast group, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
29. "Chiloweyuck" vocabulary. Date and place not recorded. 2 pages in notebook, pages 218 & 223. Chilliwack is a dialect of the Cowichan coast group, Handbook of American Indians, page 417.
30. "Nisqually" vocabulary. October, 1858. 6 pages in notebook, pages 219-221, 223 & 226. Note on page 219, "copied."
31. Chehalis vocabulary of 8 words. (Terms for salmon.) No date. page 222. Chinook vocabulary of 9 terms. (Terms for salmon.) No date. Page 224 in notebook. "Cowlitz" vocabulary of 5 terms. (Terms for salmon.) Page 224 in notebook. No date.
32. "Toanhooch" vocabulary. No date. 1 page in notebook, page 227; only 4 terms are recorded.
33. Chimakum- Not filled in; English only.
34. Kwillehyuts- Not filled in; English only.
35. Kwinaiutl- Not filled in; English only.
36. Noo-so-lupsh- Not filled in; English only.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 227
Local Note:
Notes by Gibbs on the source of many of the Salishan vocabularies in this volume are catalogued under Numbers 735 and 742.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Manuscript 227, 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.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1934
Scope and Contents:
Much of this material is relevant to the Dakotas. Includes: miscellaneous notes on Dakota history, bands, and sign for "Dakota," Autograph Document. Approximately 100 pages. (Box 2); account of the Battle of Little Big Horn by He Dog, Red Feather, and Whirling, Autograph Document. 7 pages. (Box 3); "The Custer Battle with the Sioux, Autograph Document. 10 pages. (Box 3); notes on sign language in general, its history and distribution, Autograph and Typescript Document, 1 box (Box 4).
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina
Date:
1932-1958
Summary:
These are the papers of Washington, D.C. attorney James E. Curry, whose legal career included work both as a government attorney and in his own private practice. The bulk of the papers reflect his private practice in the area of Indian affairs.
Scope and Contents:
The material in the collection includes documents relating to many aspects of Curry's career but most of it relates to his work with Indian tribes and the National Congress of American Indians. For the most, the collection is made up of such materials as letters exchanged with government officials, Indians, and other attorneys; copies of legal documents; published government documents; notes; and clippings and other printed materials. Of particular significance is a subject file relating to Indian affairs. It includes material concerning affairs of Alaskan natives and the Aleut (Akutan, Pribilof Islands), Apache (including Fort Sill, Jicarilla, Mescalero, San Carlos White Mountain), Arapaho (Southern), Assiniboine (Fort Belknap, Fort Peck), Bannock (including Fort Hall), Blackfeet, Caddo, Catawba, Cherokee (Eastern), Cheyenne (Northern, Southern), Chickahominy, Chickasaw, Chippewa (including Lac Courte Oreilles), Choctaw, Cochiti, Cocopa, Coeur d'Alene, Colville, Comanche, Creek, Croatan, Crow, Dakota (Big Foot, Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Devil's Lake, Flandreau, Fort Totten, Lower Brule, Mdewakanton, Oglala, Rosebud, Santee, Sisseton-Wahpeton, Standing Rock, Yankton), Delaware, Eskimo (including Gambell, Kiana), Flathead, Fox, Haida (including Kasaan), Havasupai, Hopi, Iroquois (Caughnawaga, Seneca, St. Regis), Isleta, Jemez, Kalilspel, Kansa (Kaw), Kickapoo, Kiowa, Klamath, Kutenai, Laguna, Lummi, Maricopa (Gila River, Salt River), Menominee, Missouria, Mohave (Fort Mohave), Mohave Apache (Fort McDowell), Muckleshoot, Navaho, Nez Perce, Niska, Nooksak, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Papago, Paiute (Fallon, Fort McDermitt), Moapa, Pyramid Lake, Shivwits, Walker River, Yerington), Pima (Gila River, Salt River), Potowatomi, Quinaielt, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Sandia, Sauk, Seminole (Florida, Oklahoma), Seneca, Seri, Shawnee (Eastern), Shoshoni (including Fort Hall), Sia, Spokan, Stockbridge, Taos (Pyote clan), Tesuque, Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa), Tillamook, Tlingit (including Angoon, Craig, Juneau, Kake, Ketchikan, Klawak, Klukwan, Taku, Wrangell), Tsimshian (Metlakatla), Umatilla, Ute (including Uintah-Ouray), Walapai, Washo, Wesort, Winnebago, Wyandot, Yakima, Yaqui, Yavapai, Yuma, and Zuni. There are also materials relating to Curry's work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Congress of American Indians, and material that reflects his interest in conditions and events in given locations (often filed by state) and in organizations with interest in Indians. The material relating to Curry's work in Puerto Rico has been deposited in the Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, in San Juan.
Arrangement note:
The James E. Curry Papershave been arranged into 6 series: (1) Daily Chronological Files, 1941-1955; (2) Subject Files Regarding Indian Affairs, bulk 1935-1955; (3) Miscellaneous Files Regarding Indian Affairs, bulk 1947-1953; (4) Non-Indian Affairs, n.d.; (5) Puerto Rico Work, 1941-1947; (6) Miscellany, undated.
Biographical/Historical note:
James E. Curry was trained in law in Chicago and practiced in that city from 1930 until 1936, serving part of that time as secretary of the local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. From 1936 to 1938, he was an attorney with the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs, being largely involved with matters of credit affecting Indians. From 1938 to 1942, he continued service with the Interior Department but worked in several capacities involving the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, the department's Consumers' Counsel Division, and the Puerto Rico Water Resources Authority.
In 1945, Curry returned to Washington and set up private practice, also maintaining for a time an office in Puerto Rico. In Washington, he became the attorney for the National Congress of American Indians and from that time until the 1950s his practice increasingly involved representation of American Indian tribes, mostly in claims against the federal government. In this work, for a time, he was involved in business relations with a New York Law firm that included Henry Cohen, Felix Cohen, and Jonathan Bingham.
He also often worked closely with lawyers who lived near the tribes he represented, William L. Paul, Jr., of Alaska, for example. This aspect of his practice--representing Indian tribes--was largely broken up during the early 1950s when the Commissioner of Indian Affairs began to use his powers to disapprove contracts between Curry and the tribes. In 1952 and 1953, his official relationship with the National Congress of American Indians was also ended. After this, while Curry continued until his death to act as a consultant in Indian claims with which he had earlier been involved, his career and life developed in a different direction.
Related Materials:
Additional material relating to James E. Curry can be found in the records of the National Congress of American Indians, also located at the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center.
Provenance:
The Curry papers were originally donated to the National Anthropological Archives by James E. Curry's daughter Mrs. Aileen Curry-Cloonan in December 1973. In 2007 The Curry papers were transferred from the National Anthropological Archives to the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center along with several other records concerning American Indian law and political rights.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadbast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Genre/Form:
Notes
Letters
Clippings
Legal documents
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); James E. Curry papers, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection consists of forty-one (41) drawings created for the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey by Johnson Kelly Duncan, Gustav(us) Sohon, and John Mix Stanley. The majority of the drawings are portraits.
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.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three series by artist: (1) Johnson Kelly Duncan, 1853-1854; (2) Gustav Sohon, 1853-1854; and (3) John Mix Stanley, 1853.
Historical Note:
The Pacific Railroad Surveys (1853–1855) were a series of five explorations designed to find and document possible routes for a transcontinental railroad across North America. The expeditions included surveyors, scientists, and artists and resulted in an immense body of data on the geology, zoology, botany, paleontology of the land as well as ethnographic descriptions of Native peoples.
The Northern Pacific survey, led by Isaac Stevens, traveled between the 47th and 49th parallel from St. Paul, Minnesota to the Puget Sound. Artists documenting the survey included chief artist John Mix Stanley (1814-1872); astronomer, topographer, and artist Johnson Kelly Duncan (1827-1862); and assistant artist Gustav (or Gustavus) Sohon (1825-1903).
Local Numbers:
USNM Accession Number 13050
USNM Catalog Number 130305
Related Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds additional drawings created by Sohon in MS 385668.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Works of art
Drawings
Watercolors
Citation:
Northern Pacific Railroad Survey drawings, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The collection consists of twenty-five (25) drawings in pencil, ink and watercolor by Gustav Sohon. The drawings depict landscapes, missions, forts, council meeting scenes, and native life in the Northwest Plateau. There is also one sketch map.
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:
Gustav Sohon, also known as Gustavus Sohon and Gustave Sohon, (1825–1903) was an artist, photographer, interpreter, and topographical assistant best known for his pencil sketches and watercolors of the native people and landscapes of the American Northwest.
Sohon was born in 1825 in Tilsit, East Prussia, and immigrated to the United States in 1842. In the early 1850s, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Over the following decade, he accompanied four historic expeditions across Eastern Washington -- the 1853-1854 Pacific railroad survey, the 1855 treaty tour of Governor Isaac Stevens, the 1858 military campaign of Colonel George Wright against the Plateau tribes, and the construction of a wagon road across the Bitterroot and Rocky Mountains by John Mullan from 1859 to 1862. During this period, Sohon served as an artist, guide, interpreter, and cartographer.
After the completion of Mullan's Road, Sohon accompanied Mullan to Washington, D.C., to assist in the preparation of topographical data, maps, and illustrations for a report on the road's construction. He later operated a photogaphy studio in San Francisco and a shoe business in Washington, D.C. Sohon died in Washington, D.C. in 1903.
Related Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds additional drawings by Gustav Sohon in Northern Pacific Railroad Survey drawings (MS 130305) and vocabularies collected by Sohon in MS 4306-a, MS 4306-b, and MS 4306-c.
The collection includes materials from cultures in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, and Guiana: Acoma Pueblo, Apache, Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Caddo, Cahuilla, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chibcha, Chinantec, Chippewa (Ojibwa), Choco, Chol, Chontal, Cochiti Pueblo, Crow, Cuicatec, Eskimo, Flathead, Haida, Hopi, Huastec, Huave, Iowa, Iroquois, Isleta, Karaja, Kwakiutl, Laguna Pueblo, Macusi, Mandan, Maya, Mazahua, Mazatec, Mehinaku, Menomini, Mixe, Mixtec, Navajo, Nez Perce, Osage, Otomi, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pima, Ponca, Potawatomi, Salish, San Blas, San Felipe Pueblo, Sauk & Fox, Shuar, Sioux, Taos Pueblo, Tarasco, Teotihuacan, Tepehua, Tlaxcala, Tlingit, Tonkawa, Totonac, Triqui, Tzental, Tzotzil, Ute, Wampanoag, Zapotec, Zoque, Zuni.
Arrangement note:
Collection arranged by item number.
Biographical/Historical note:
Frederick Starr was born in Auburn, New York, on September 2, 1858. He received a Ph.D. in biology in 1884 at Coe College, where he was later appointed professor of biology. Starr did postgraduate work in anthropology at Yale. In 1889 he was appointed head of Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History, and in 1892 he was chosen by William Harper to organize the Anthropology Department at the new University of Chicago. Starr remained at the University until his retirement in 1923. Besides his field studies with various Indian tribes in the United States, Starr traveled to Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Guiana, Japan, the Philippines, and Africa. He died in Tokyo, Japan, on August 14, 1933. Starr was the author of several books and scholarly articles.
General note:
Starr hired professional photographers Charles B. Lang and Louis Grabic to accompany him on his field trips. One lantern slide of Moses Ladd (Menomini) was taken by William H. Jackson.
Provenance:
Dr. Frederick Starr, Purchased, circa 1929
Restrictions:
Access restricted. Researchers should contact the staff of the NMAI Archives for an appointment to access the collection.
This collection consists of 43 photographic prints of Native American peoples from throughout North America. Dating from 1882 to 1913, the images in this collection document a variety of Native American communities and events, including the U.S. Indian Congress which took place at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska. Photographers include Frank A. Rinehart, Adolph F. Muhr, and Roland W. Reed, as well as a series of images by an unknown photographer who also documented American Indian life.
Scope and Contents:
The Frank A. Rinehart and Roland W. Reed photograph collection consists of 43 photographic prints of Native American peoples at the turn of the twentieth century. Dating from 1882 to 1913, the images in this collection document a variety of Native American communities and events, including the U.S. Indian Congress which took place at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska. This exposition, also referred to as the 1898 World's Fair, was held in Omaha, Nebraska from June through October, 1898. Attending the U.S. Indian Congress at the fair were over 500 American Indian delegates representing more than 35 Native communities from throughout the United States.
In addition to the Rinehart and Muhr 1898 photographs are also a number of staged portrait images created by Roland W. Reed in the early decades of the twentieth century. Traveling throughout the U.S. West and Canada, Reed photographed Native communities ranging from Minnesota to Montana and Canada, and extending to Arizona in the Southwest U.S.
This collection also consists of 18 photographs contemporary to those of Rinehart and Reed, dating approximately 1882 – 1904. The photographer(s) of these images is unknown. Although specific communities are not identified, many images appear to portray Northern Plains and Central Plains American Indian peoples.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into three series, organized by photographer, and then regionally by location or culture group. Series 1: Frank A. Rinehart photographs, Series 2: Roland W. Reed photographs, Series 3: Unknown photographer
Biographical / Historical:
Frank A. Rinehart (ca. 1862-1928) was born in Illinois, opened a photography studio in Omaha, Nebraska in 1885 or 1886, and is best known for his work as the official photographer of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha. In addition to portrait photographs of Native American delegates attending the U.S. Indian Congress of 1898, Rinehart as official exposition photographer also documented the broader exhibits and events that took place at the 1898 Omaha World's Fair.
Adolph R. Muhr (ca. 1858-1913) worked as Frank A. Rinehart's assistant at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, creating a photographic record of the events and attendees. While Rinehart documented many of the outdoor sham-battles, dance scenes, and other events related to the U.S. Indian Congress, Muhr was responsible for the majority of the posed delegate portraits. Muhr in later years worked with photographer Edward S. Curtis in Seattle, until Muhr's death in 1913.
Roland W. Reed (1864-1934) was born in Wisconsin, and is best known for traveling widely throughout the western United States and Canada, photographing Native American communities. Having apprenticed with photographer Daniel Dutro in 1890s Montana, Reed later ran photography studios in both Ortonville and Bemidji, Minnesota in the early 1900s. Over the next few decades he continued to document the lives and cultures of Native peoples, opening photography studios in Kalispell, Montana in 1909, and later in San Diego, California in 1915. Many of Reed's photographs are clearly staged, representing romanticized and stereotyped images of what Reed believed Native American life to be. He died in Colorado in 1934.
Related Materials:
The NMAI Archive Center collections also include an album of 18 photographic prints of Frank A. Rinehart's U.S. Indian Congress images: U.S. Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition photograph album, NMAI.AC.118.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by the Dakota County Historical Society, South St. Paul, MN, in 2013.
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.
Topic:
Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition (1898 : Omaha, Neb.) -- Photographs Search this
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank A. Rinehart and Roland W. Reed photograph collection, NMAI.AC.289; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This series contains 15 portrait photographs of various Native American men and women photographed by Adolph F. Muhr, under the direction of Frank A. Rinehart, at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska. Rinehart was the official photographer for this exposition, and as such, photographed a large number of Native American delegates who took part in the exposition's U.S. Indian Congress. The photographs that Rinehart and Muhr shot during the Exposition depict the largest gathering of American Indian leaders at the turn of the twentieth century.
Photograph titles were written by Rinehart and/or Muhr.
Collection 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).
Collection 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.
Topic:
Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition (1898 : Omaha, Neb.) -- Photographs Search this
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank A. Rinehart and Roland W. Reed photograph collection, NMAI.AC.289; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographic portrait of delegate Gentle Bird [Salish (Flathead)]. Photographed at the U.S. Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska, 1898.
Collection 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).
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank A. Rinehart and Roland W. Reed photograph collection, NMAI.AC.289; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
1890
Scope and Contents:
Replies to correspondence (circular letter) sent to various Indian Agencies relative to marriage customs among the various Indian tribes. The tribes represented are: Flathead, Kalispel, Kootenai, Mescalero Apache, Navaho, Oto, Pend d Oreille, and Shoshoni.
The Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian include photogravure printing plates and associated proofs made from Curtis photographs and used in the publication of The North American Indian volumes 1-9 and 12-19. The bulk of the images are portraits, though there are also images of everyday items, ceremonial artifacts, and camps.
Scope and Contents:
The collection comprises 183 photogravure plates (101 folio and 82 octavo) and 96 associated proofs used in the printing of The North American Indian volumes 1-9 and 12-19. The original photographs used to make the photogravures were made circa 1903-1926 and the photogravure plates were made in 1907-1930. The bulk are portraits, though there are also images of everyday items, ceremonial artifacts, and camps. About half of the proofs in the collection are originals used for Curtis's publication, though the collection also includes proofs made in the process of later publication by the Classic Gravure Company (circa 1980). Vintage proofs include handwritten notes, likely made by Curtis Studio employees in Seattle and Los Angeles. Many of the photogravure plates do not have matching proofs; in particular, there are no proofs for the octavo plates.
Arrangement:
The plates and proofs are arranged by the volume of The North American Indian in which they were published. They are described in this finding aid by the caption and plate number with which they were published.
Biographical / Historical:
Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) was an American photographer best known for his monumental and now-controversial project, the twenty-volume publication The North American Indian. Here he sought to document in words and pictures the "vanishing race" of American Indians.
Born in Wisconsin in 1868, Edward Curtis grew up on his family's farm in Le Sueur County, Minnesota, from 1874 to 1887. In 1887, he and his father Johnson Curtis settled on a plot near what is now Port Orchard, Washington, and the rest of the family joined them the following year. When Johnson Curtis died within a month of the family's arrival, the burden of providing for his mother and siblings fell to 20-year-old Edward, and Edward set out to do so through his photography. In 1891, Curtis moved to the booming city of Seattle and bought into a joint photo studio with Rasmus Rothi. Less than a year later, he formed "Curtis and Guptill, Photographers and Photoengravers" with Thomas Guptill; the enterprise quickly became a premier portrait studio for Seattle's elite. In 1895, Curtis made his first "Indian photograph" depicting Princess Angeline, daughter of the chief for whom Seattle had been named. The following year he earned his first medal from the National Photographic Convention for his "genre studies."
In 1899, Edward Curtis joined the Harriman Alaska Expedition as official photographer, a position which allowed him to learn from anthropologists C. Hart Merriam and George Bird Grinnell while documenting the landscapes and peoples of the Alaskan coast. This expedition and the resulting friendship with Grinnell helped to foster Curtis's ultimate goal to "form a comprehensive and permanent record of all the important tribes of the United States and Alaska that still retain to a considerable degree their primitive customs and traditions" (General Introduction, The North American Indian). Curtis made several trips to reservations from 1900 to 1904, including a trip with Grinnell to Montana in 1900 and multiple trips to the Southwest, including the Hopi Reservation. He also hired Adolph Muhr, former assistant to Omaha photographer Frank A. Rinehart, to manage the Curtis studio in his absence, a decision which would prove more and more fruitful as Curtis spent less and less time in Seattle.
In 1906, Curtis struck a deal with financier J. P. Morgan, whereby Morgan would support a company – The North American Indian, Inc. – with $15,000 for five years, by which time the project was expected to have ended. Systematic fieldwork for the publication began in earnest that summer season, with Curtis accompanied by a team of ethnological researchers and American Indian assistants. Arguably the most important member of Curtis' field team was William Myers, a former newspaperman who collected much of the ethnological data and completed most of the writing for the project. The first volume, covering Navajo and Apache peoples, was published at the end of 1907, but already Morgan's funding was incapable of meeting Curtis's needs. Despite heaping praise from society's elite, Curtis spent much of his time struggling to find people and institutions willing to subscribe to the expensive set of volumes. After the initial five years, only eight of the proposed twenty volumes had been completed. Fieldwork and publication continued with the support of J. P. Morgan, but Curtis's home life suffered because of his prolonged absences.
In 1919, Curtis's wife Clara was awarded a divorce settlement which included the entire Curtis studio in Seattle. Exhausted and bankrupt, Edward Curtis moved with his daughter Beth Magnuson to Los Angeles, where they operated a new Curtis Studio and continued work on the volumes; volume 12 was published
in 1922. The constant financial strain forced Myers to leave the North American Indian team after volume 18 (fieldwork in 1926) and Curtis made his last trip to photograph and gather data for volume 20 in 1927. After the final volumes were published in 1930, Curtis almost completely faded from public notice until his work was "rediscovered" and popularized in the 1970s.
Curtis's "salvage ethnology," as scholar Mick Gidley describes it, was mildly controversial even during his life and has become ever more so as his legacy deepens. In his quest to photograph pre-colonial Indian life through a twentieth-century lens, he often manipulated and constructed history as much as he recorded it: he staged reenactments, added props, and removed evidence of twentieth-century influences on "primitive" life. Curtis's work continues to shape popular conceptions of American Indians and so, while problematic, his legacy--his vision of American Indian life--continues to be relevant.
Related Materials:
NMAI also holds Edward Curtis photographs documenting the Harriman Expedition (1899) as well as platinum prints and photogravures of the images published in The North American Indian.
The Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives holds Edward Curtis prints submitted for copyright (Photo Lot 59) as well as many of his original negatives, photographs, and papers.
Steve Kern donated photogravure plates to the Center for Creative Photography and the Seattle Art Museum at the same time that he donated this set to MAI.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Steven and Arlene Kern to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in 1984.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- Pictorial works Search this
Genre/Form:
Photogravures
Photographs
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
This collection was processed with funding from the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
This series includes eight folio plates and eight octavo plates depicting Salish (Flathead), Kalispel (Pend d'Oreilles), Yakama (Yakima), and Spokan men and women as well as a Spokan camp. It also has eight proofs made by Classic Gravure from folio plates in the collection.
Collection 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).
Collection Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
This collection was processed with funding from the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Subject, date and photographer from caption on similar print in USNM collection, Cat. Number 387,304: (14), Acc. Number 183,804, received in collection of Norman J. Spawn, August 9, 1949. Glass plate negative received (1/1965) from Bureau of Indian Affairs
Local Numbers:
NAA INV 10063700 ; OPPS NEG 4603
Local Note:
For full name of photographer see Spawn original print entry, N. M. Cat. Number 387,304. ; Number 75 on BIA list.
Original Number 1: "Flat Heads Chief Charlot (bear claws) 72 years old sitting April 5, 1903. Son of Chief Victor of the Salish tribe of Bitter Root Valley."
Original Number 2: "Flat Heads Chief Charlot (bear claws) 72 years old sitting April 5, 1903. Son of Chief Victor of the Salish tribe of Bitter Root Valley."
