This collection contains 85 glass plate negatives depicting Iroquois students and student life at the Thomas Indian School on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in New York state, circa 1900-1945.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains 85 glass plate negatives depicting Iroquois students and student life at the Thomas Indian School circa 1900-1945. The images depict student and class portraits; school activities such as school plays or performances, basketball, football, and Girl Scouts; classes such as woodworking, cooking, and agriculture; and campus buildings and grounds. The photographer is unknown, but was probably affiliated with the school. Iroquois children from Seneca [Cattaraugus], Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Tuscarora communities attended the school.
Arrangement:
This collection is intellectually arranged in 3 series. Series 1: Student and class portraits, Series 2: School activities and classes, Series 3: School buildings and grounds. The collection is physically organized by negative number.
Biographical / Historical:
Located on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in New York State, the Thomas Asylum for Orphaned and Destitute Indian Children was established as a private institution in 1855 and named after benefactor Philip E. Thomas. Orphaned and poor American Indian children from the Seneca [Cattaraugus], Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Tuscarora communities were sent to the asylum for boarding and care. In 1875 the institution was transferred to the State of New York and run under the New York State Board of Charities. It was charged with the education and vocational training of American Indian children in their care, which is reported to have included acculturation and assimilation of Native students by means of prohibiting use of Native languages and traditional cultural practices. In 1905 the institution was renamed the Thomas Indian School. By this time, eight grades were offered at the school, which had a half-day system with students attending classes for part of the day and working the other half. By 1930, the School was classified as a junior high school, but it was eventually closed in 1957 by the State.
Related Materials:
The New York State Archives in Albany, NY holds the Thomas Indian School Agency History Records and a collection of photographs.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by the grandchildren of Victor and Ethel Bissell Seneca.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 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 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.
Indians of North America -- New York (State) Search this
Genre/Form:
Glass negatives
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Thomas Indian School glass plate negatives, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Reel No. I-Seneca-Cattaraugus; Track 1. Solon Jones-origin of False Faces, V-7-57, 0-1:30; Solon Jones, tob. Prayer to FF in curing, V-9-57, 1:40-1:51; Solon Jones-tob. Prayer to FF in LH, sprig & fall, V-10-57, 1:53-2:24; Solon Jones-oyatá-?ke-à? (song), V-13-57, 2:20-2:30; Solon Jones-signal for starting tug of war, V-13-57, 2:31-2:35; Solon Jones-Thanks to FF participant, V-13-57, 2:37-2:47; Solon Jones-tobacco prayer in Sun Ceremony, V-14-57, 2:50-3:46; Solon Jones-Prayer before False Faces start house rounds, V-17-57, 3:47-3:56; Solon Jones-Prayer in house when someone asks for ashes blowing on FF rounds, V-17-57, 3:59-4:01; Solon Jones-Pounding corn in LH cookhouse-(rattle = stoves, dishes, etc), V-18-57, 4:03-4:29; Solon Jones-1. Prayer to give power to new FF, 4:30-4:41, 2. Prayer when transfer FF to new owner, 4:44-4:52, V-25-57; Solon Jones-Myth re FF & "elf" contest, VI-14-57, 4:53-5:08; Solon Jones-Speech at ceremony making ritual friends, VI-23, 5:12-5:30
Collection Restrictions:
Files containing Sturtevant's students' grades have been restricted, as have his students' and colleagues' grant and fellowships applications. Restricted files were separated and placed at the end of their respective series in boxes 87, 264, 322, 389-394, 435-436, 448, 468, and 483. For preservation reasons, his computer files are also restricted. Seminole sound recordings are restricted. Access to the William C. Sturtevant Papers requires an apointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
William C. Sturtevant papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The papers of William C. Sturtevant were processed with the assistance of a Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program grant awarded to Dr. Ives Goddard. Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
Reel No. II-Seneca Cattaraugus; Track 1-Conversation & comments while group looked at False Face photos (set 1) at Sherman Cook's, V-1957, 0-6:20; Track 2-Same, Mrs. Worthington Green et al. (set 2) cont'd on Reel 3; V-26-57, 0-end
Collection Restrictions:
Files containing Sturtevant's students' grades have been restricted, as have his students' and colleagues' grant and fellowships applications. Restricted files were separated and placed at the end of their respective series in boxes 87, 264, 322, 389-394, 435-436, 448, 468, and 483. For preservation reasons, his computer files are also restricted. Seminole sound recordings are restricted. Access to the William C. Sturtevant Papers requires an apointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
William C. Sturtevant papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The papers of William C. Sturtevant were processed with the assistance of a Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program grant awarded to Dr. Ives Goddard. Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
Reel No. III-Seneca-Cattaraugus; Track 1-Continuation (fr. II) of session lkng. At FF photos set 2, Mrs. W. Green et al: a. Comments on FF photos, 0-3:06, b. Mrs. G's account of her FF sickness, 3:06-5:32, V-26-57
Collection Restrictions:
Files containing Sturtevant's students' grades have been restricted, as have his students' and colleagues' grant and fellowships applications. Restricted files were separated and placed at the end of their respective series in boxes 87, 264, 322, 389-394, 435-436, 448, 468, and 483. For preservation reasons, his computer files are also restricted. Seminole sound recordings are restricted. Access to the William C. Sturtevant Papers requires an apointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
William C. Sturtevant papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The papers of William C. Sturtevant were processed with the assistance of a Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program grant awarded to Dr. Ives Goddard. Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
Tribes covered in the photographs are: Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Iowa, Iroquois, Mahican, Menomini, Ojibwa, Oto, Plains Cree, Potawatomi, Seminole, Seri, Shinnecock, Sioux, Winnebago, Zuni Pueblo. The majority of photographs (552) have Skinner listed as the photographer and presumably are photographs he took on his expeditions. However, 104 photos are of the Seminole in Florida. According to Dennis P. Carey's biography of Skinner (Unpublished? 1980) Julian Q. Dimock, a well-known photographer, accompanied him on his expedition to the Seminole in Florida; how many of the photos were taken by Dimock is unknown, but he is listed as the photographer for 23 of them. Skinner's other photographs are of the Seneca Iroquois in New York; the Zuni Pueblo and Hawikku site; several tribes in Wisconsin; the Chippewa in Minnesota; and miscellaneous shots taken in Canada, Costa Rica, Florida and New York. Two photographs of the Mahican were taken by Huron H. Smith (1923) and two of the Winnebago were taken by C.J. Van Schaick (c. 1870). The remaining photographs have no photographer listed but were in Skinner's collection of photographs and are of varying tribes with dates ranging from 1909 to 1923.
Arrangement note:
Collection arranged by item number.
Biographical/Historical note:
Alanson Buck Skinner was born in Buffalo, New York, on September 7, 1886. His parents moved to Staten Island, New York, when Alanson was still very young. There Alanson met W.T. Davis who taught him to find arrowheads and other traces of ancient Indian life. When he was older he consulted with Prof. F.W. Putnam and George H. Pepper at the American Museum of Natural History about his interest. In the summer of 1902 Skinner went on his first fieldwork expedition near Shinnecock Hills, Long Island, for the American Museum of Natural History with Arthur C. Parker and Mark R. Harrington. Two years later Skinner and Harrington went on another archeological expedition in western New York State for the Peabody Museum and while there he attended his first Native ceremony on the Cattaraugus reservation. After high school Skinner joined the staff of the AMNH as an assistant in anthropology. In 1908 he led an expedition to Hudson Bay to study the Cree Indians. In 1910 he went to Wisconsin where he met John V. Satterlee, part Menomini, and Judge Sabatis Perote, a full-blooded Menomini, who adopted him into the tribe under the Thunder clan name of Sekosa or "Little Weasel." He later went on expeditions to collect from the Seminoles in the Florida Everglades, and other tribes in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and other states. During these years he was also studying anthropology at Columbia under Boas, Farrand, Saville, and Bandelier, and at Harvard under Dixon, Tozzer, and Farrabee. In 1916 Skinner joined the Museum of the American Indian and remained there until 1920, when he took a position as curator of anthropology at the Public Museum of Milwaukee. He returned to the MAI in 1924 where he remained until his untimely death on August 17, 1925 in a car accident in North Dakota. He was a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Wisconsin Archeological Society, the Explorer's Club, a York Rite Mason and a Shriner. A more detailed biography by Dennis P. Carey (1980) can be found in the vertical file. A complete bibliography of Skinner's writings can be found in Indian Notes, Vol. II, No. 4 (October 1925).
Restrictions:
Access restricted. Researchers should contact the staff of the NMAI Archives for an appointment to access the collection.
This collection consists of views of New York, Rhode Island, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Newfoundland and Quebec (slides are primarily of Saint Augustin, Quebec).
Scope and Contents:
The Stiles collection consists of views made by Stiles on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation from 1938 to 1974. More than half of these document the life of Innu peoples of Quebec, Canada, in the years 1952, 1958, 1959, and 1964. They depict Innu men, women, and children, and food preparation, dwellings, fishing, canoes, settlements, the preparation of animal skins, and ceremonials. Stiles apparently photographed among the Seminole and Miccosukee peoples of Florida in 1939, 1940, 1941, 1966, and 1974. He also variously photographed the Narragansett and Niantic peoples of Rhode Island, the Onondaga on the Onondaga Reservation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina, the Seneca of New York, the Attikamekw (Tete De Boule Cree) and the Mohawk of Quebec, and the Mushuaunnuat of Labrador. He also photographed various archaeological sites in New York State, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
Prints arranged by print number (P13375-P13385, P13431-P13438, P15331-P15346, P15770-P15773, P15885-P15889, P16102, P17154, P17212-P17217, P17282-P17284, P18537-P18551, P18586, P19991-P20002)
Slides arranged by slide number (S02005-S02178, S02389, S04518-S04519, S04559-S04575, S04675-S04678, S04694-S04702, S04753-S04760)
Biographical/Historical note:
Before joining the staff of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in May 1938, William F. Stiles was George G. Heye's personal driver. An employee of the Museum for almost forty years, Stiles retired in March 1978 as the Curator of Collections. Although Stiles published very little, he was an active field collector and participated in numerous archaeological expeditions. As is evident from his photographs of the Innu and Seminole peoples, he often visited individual communities more than once and over the course of several years.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Excavations (Archaeology) -- Mississippi Search this
Indians of North America -- New York (State) Search this
Indians of North America -- Rhode Island Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New York (State) Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- South Carolina Search this
Genre/Form:
Negatives
Photographic prints
Color slides
Photographs
Citation:
William F. Stiles collection of negatives, slides and photographic prints, 1938-1974, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or print number).
Also "Notes on the Huron language." No date. Autograph document. 3 pages. The vocabulary notebook includes: a newspaper clipping, "At the Methodist Conference at Hornellsville..., on Christian mission work among the Cattaragus Indians, October 23, 1880, affixed with A. notes on page 1; a brief note on the early history of the Hurons, page 65. Filed with the Manuscript is a copy of Richmond Weekly Palladium, Richmond, Indiana, May 28, 1891, in which appears letter from Edward Show, Richmond, Indiana, December 16, 1890 to S. D. Sears, Upper Sandusky, Ohio, recounting old mission church of the Wyandot Nation.
Biographical / Historical:
Informant: John W. Grey-Eyes [Ha'to] (Grand River, P. O. Wyandot Reserve, Indian Territory)
Photography taken by George Heye, Joseph Keppler, David Sinclair and William Stiles during a trip to the Cornplanter Reservation in Pennsylvania and Onondaga, Allegheny, Cattaraugus, Tuscarora, and Tonawanda Reservations in New York October 1939.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes 22 photographic negatives (acetate) made by David Sinclair, William Stiles and Joseph Keppler in October 1939 during a trip in New York and Pennsylvania. The negatives were shot on the Tonawanda Reservation, Cattaraugus Reservation and Allegany Reservation in Erie County, New York as well as the Cornplanter Reservation in Warren County, Pennsylvania. Many of the photographs include images of the log Seneca cabin donated to the Museum of the American Indian by Nicodemus Bailey (Seneca [Tonawanda]), NMAI object number 20/2211. Some of these photograph also feature images of Nicodemus Bailey and his wife Edna Bailey. There are also images of an elm bark tipi made in 1936, NMAI object number 02/6026, views of a monument to Chief Red Jacket in the Forest Lawn Cemetery and views of the Cornplanter Monument on the Cornplanter Reservation. Joseph Keppler is also photographed with Alice White (Seneca) and Mrs. George.
N21785-N21806.
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
In October 1939, George Gustav Heye, director of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation took a trip with Joseph Keppler, William Stiles and David Sincair to several Iroquois Nation (Seneca) reservations in Pennsylvania and New York. This included the Tonawanda Reservation, Cattaraugus Reservation and Allegany Reservation in Erie County, New York as well as the Cornplanter Reservation in Warren County, Pennsylvania. During this trip many Seneca ethnographic items were obtained, most notably the gift of a log cabin from Nicodemus Bailey (Seneca [Townawanda]). The cabin (NMAI 20/2211) was reconstructed on the grounds of the MAI Research Branch in the Bronx, New York and Nicodemus Bailey was elected a Life Member of the Museum. See the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, Annual Report (April 1, 1939 to April 1, 1940).
Related Materials:
Ethnographic materials obtained during this trip can be found in NMAI's ethnographic collections.
Provenance:
Field collections obtained by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in 1939.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 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 users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, 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.
Genre/Form:
Negatives (photographic)
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Field photographs from Seneca Nation Reservations in Pennsylvania and New York, Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
