The collection consists of studio portraits and expedition photographs of anthropologists, administrators, scholars, and others. It includes some photographs of an Native American demonstrating sign language, possibly made during W J McGee's Seriland expedition.
Photographers represented in the collection are Charles Milton Bell, A. E. Dumbie; De Lancey W. Gill, Mme de Hermann, of Paris; Holland, of Trenton, New Jersey; Charles Lainer, J. Notman; Parker, George Prince, Macnabb, of New York; Moses P. Rice; Napolean Sarony; S. S. Teel; and A. Yasvoin, of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 70
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photograph collections of anthropologists held in the National Anthropological Archives are Photo Lot 4822, Photo Lot 33, Photo Lot 39, and Photo Lot 77-80.
See others in:
Department of Anthropology photograph collection of anthropologists, circa 1864-1921
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 70, Department of Anthropology collection of photographs of anthropologists, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs collected in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries that depict animal specimens, the Blackmore Museum in Salisbury England, and portraits of Thomas Ewbank, Ephraim George Squier, and Jose Sabino Uc. The collection also includes a stereograph depicting plantlife and a landscape, probably in San Diego, California.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 76-114
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Museum of the American Indian Archives holds the Ephraim George Squier collection of negatives and photographs.
Correspondence from Thomas Ewbanks held in the National Anthropological Archives in American Ethnological Society records.
Additional photographs of the Blackmore museum held in National Anthropological Archives MS 4801 and MS 4689.
The collection documents Eugen Sandow and other bodybuilders through correspondence and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The collection contains original and copy photographs of Eugen Sandow and other bodybuilders and actors, by well known photographers Warwick Brooks, Napoleon Sarony, Benjamin J. Falk, George Steckel, and others; correspondence with well-known bodybuilders such as Joe Weider and Katie Sandwina; and periodicals and books about Sandow.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into four series.
Series 1: Background Materials, 1894-1958
Series 2: Correspondence, 1902-1954
Series 3: Publications, 1926-03-1955-01
Series 4: Photographs, 1889-1952
Biographical:
Ernest Edwin Coffin (1898-1954) was a California amateur bodybuilder, and weightlifter and collector of bodybuilding memorabilia, especially on the subject of Eugen Sandow. Coffin considered himself the world's expert on "Sandowania" and spent over 40 years writing and collecting memorabilia about Sandow as well as other strongmen such as Joe Weider, Milo Steinborn, and Katie Sandwina.
Born Frederich Muller (1867-1925) in Konigsberg, Prussia, Muller emigrated to England in 1889 and become a citizen in 1906. Muller adopted the stage name of Eugen Sandow and ran several schools of physical culture, performed, lectured, and wrote about strength amd mental and physical health. Sandow toured the United States in 1893 with his manager, Florenz Ziegfeld, the "Follies" showman. Sandow's first American appearance was at the World's Fair in Chicago where he was an instant success. Ziegfeld marketed Sandow as "the perfect man," and "the modern Hercules." Sandow used his popularity to market books, a magazine (Physical Culture), and exercise equipment.
Separated Materials:
Materials in the Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life).
The Division of Culture and the Arts holds hand weights, a cut-out, and a dumbbell belonging to Eugen Sandow. See accession #2001.0179.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives Center by Dan Manhart in 2009.
Restrictions:
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.
The collection consists of correspondence (both of Nicola Tesla and Kenneth Swezey), copies of patents, articles, pamphlets, brochures, stamps, newsletters, and manuscripts, from 1890-1972 collected and assembled by Swezey.
Scope and Contents:
The Swezey papers are divided into four series: Series 1: Correspondence and Subject Files, Series 2: Tesla Photographs, Series 3: Publications and Series 4: Research Notes. Series 4: Research Notes is housed in a small metal box and contains Swezey's research notes presumably for his incomplete biography of Tesla. Series 1: Correspondence and Subjects Files is arranged alphabetically and is composed of correspondence, copies of patents, articles, pamphlets, brochures, stamps, newsletters and manuscripts. The folders within this series are titled and include a diverse combination of correspondence between Swezey and Tesla, and between Swezey and his colleagues, companies, government officials, museum curators, and Tesla's admirers. Box 19 contains photographs of Tesla, his inventions, his laboratories and personal photographs. Boxes 20-26 include bibliographies, biographies and articles.
The collection is strong in articles from magazines such as Electrical Experimentor, newspaper clippings, articles regarding electricity, power, radio, pamphlets, and brochures.
The collection generally follows Swezey's arrangement and is somewhat inconsistent in terms of organization. However, the folder titles are fairly specific and should give the researcher direction. The materials within the folders are arranged chronologically. While some photo prints have been placed together in Series 2, there are also a large number of photo prints throughout the collection, according to Swezey's original arrangement.
The collection provides an overview of Tesla's unusual personality and Swezey's intense preoccupation with Tesla. The collection also provides insight into Tesla's way of life, philosophies, personality and a general overview of his inventions and how society reacted to this prolific and unusual inventor.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into four series.
Series 1: Correspondence and Subject Files, 1891-1988
Series 2: Tesla Photographs, 1983; 1943
Series 3: Publications, 1959-1970
Series 4: Research Notes, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was born in Smiljan, Lika, now Yugoslavia and emigrated to America in 1884. He worked at the Edison Machine Works as a dynamo designer where he was promised a salary of $18.00 a week, with a completion bonus of $50,000. He realized at the end of the year the bonus had been a practical joke and he resigned.
By 1887, he accumulated enough money to build a laboratory and start working on models of motors. Shortly thereafter, he developed his famous polyphase, alternating current motor, using an alternating current instead of the direct current used up until this point. Tesla's motor kept "exact step with the rotations of the field, regardless of load; this was the first polyphase synchronous motor." (Science, Swezey, vol. 127 p.1149) The induction motor which he later invented developed a high torque in starting, built up speed, and could maintain speed with varying loads. In 1888, Tesla received his first patents from the U.S. Patent Office.
George Westinghouse quickly recognized Tesla's lucrative ideas, and hired him. Westinghouse was awarded the important Niagara Falls Power contract using Tesla's patents for his turbine engine utilizing the polyphase system. After a year, despite his very high salary with Westinghouse, Tesla decided to go back to working in his private lab in New York. He experimented with high frequency currents which led to many discoveries, including the famous Tesla coil the forerunner of fluorescent and neon lighting.
At the same time he started delving in the new field of science, telautomatics, now called automation. He built and demonstrated model boats controlled by wireless radio impulses and the first radio controlled torpedo (the forerunner of the guided missile)
One of Tesla's dreams was to transmit electric signals all over the world without using wires . In 1899, he began building a demonstration plant for wireless transmission at his Shoreham, Long Island laboratory. Despite never completing the plant due to lack of funds, his vision earned him the name "father of radio".
In Tesla's latter years he worked on inventions and ideas which he could not afford to develop and became more eccentric and withdrawn from society. He died January 7, 1943 at the age of 87.
Although Tesla was well regarded in his time, he was never revered in this country as he was in Yugoslavia. Most of Tesla's original documents and correspondence are in Belgrade, Yugoslavia at the Nikola Tesla Museum. The Library of Congress Manuscript Division holds 7 reels of microfilm of these materials.
Kenneth M. Swezey (1905-1972) wrote for the New York Sun in his late teens and early twenties. At this time he met and became friends with Nikola Tesla. Swezey regarded him as an unsung electrical genius and collected Tesla materials from 1921-1972. In his capacity as writer for various publications he frequently wrote about Tesla and his scientific advancements. Privately he spent a large part of his time memorializing him, eg. he started the Tesla Society. He also organized anniversary celebrations commemorating Tesla, etc.
Swezey also wrote science books, among them: Formulas, Methods, Tips and Data for Home and Workshop, 1969; Science Shows You How, 1964 and After Dinner Science. When Mr. Swezey died in 1972, the Smithsonian Institution acquired his collection.
Kenneth Swezey felt that the United States should honor Tesla and spent most of his life trying to memorialize him. He was instrumental in organizing a celebration of Tesla's 75th anniversary with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, soliciting admiring statements from both individuals and corporations, for the unpublished pamphlet, "Tribute to Nikola Tesla." Some of Mr. Swezey's other Tesla related activities included: forming the Tesla Society, organizing and designing the 100th anniversary celebration, successfully lobbying for the naming of ships, schools, and a unit of measurement after Tesla, and the striking of a stamp commemorating Tesla.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Robert MacCrate, Attorney, Sullivan and Cromwell in 1972.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Series 1: Leland Anderson correspondence, box 2 is restricted by the donor until 2030.
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.
Nameplate on one of the first 5,000 horsepower generators of the Niagara Falls Power Company [by Westinghouse Electric and Mfg. Co.], citing nine patents by Tesla. [Typed caption glued to verso.] [Black-and-white photoprint.]
1 Item (Silver gelatin on paper, unmounted., 8" x 10".)
Container:
Box 12, Folder 4
Type:
Archival materials
Black-and-white photographic prints
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Photographer unidentified.
Local Numbers:
56-12252 (SI Neg. No.)
AC0047.0000001.tif (AC Scan No.)
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research access on site by appointment. Photographs must be handled with cotton gloves unless protected by sleeves.
Collection 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.
This series consists of personal materials documenting Ernest Coffin, his daughters, June and Marion Coffin, and general background information about strongmen. There is some weight lifting and physical measurement data compiled by Coffin, both typescript and handwritten, detailing various records, such as two arm presses and two hand dead lift. There are print advertisements for books, equipment, vaudeville shows, and physique photography related to strongmen. Many of the ads promote books and equipment about health and strength such as Sandow's grip dumb bells, A.G. Spalding and Brothers dumb bells, the Trevor continental chest expander, and the Terry "spring-way." Other ads promote places of health such as the Universal Institute of Physical Culture (England) with the relevant courses and apparatus. The bulk of the material consists of newspaper clippings about strongmen, especially Eugen Sandow, and other interests of Coffin such as animals and theatre.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection 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 Citation:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, 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:
Ernest Edwin Coffin Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
