Photographic negatives shot by George H. Pepper and George G. Heye during farm excavations in New York and New Jersey in 1914.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes 141 glass plate negatives shot in 1914 and 1915 related to New Jersey and New York farm excavations led by George G. Heye and George H. Pepper. Although George Gustav Heye is listed as the photographer it is much more likely that the photographs were shot by George Hubbard Pepper.
Photographs in this collection include: Images from the excavation of a cemetery site during summer of 1914 on the Burson W. Bell Farm in Montague, NJ and Milford, Pike County, PA (N00316 - N00361); Object photography taken circa 1915 for the publication "Exploration of a Munsee Cemetery near Montague, New Jersey" by George G. Heye and George H. Pepper (N00362 – N00463). It appears that all objects in this set were excavated from Burson Bell Farm; Images of the excavation at Cleary Farm, Avon, Livingston County, New York during October 1914 (N00437-N00439); Images of the excavation at George Marsh Farm, Canandaigua, Ontario County, New York during October 1914 (N00440 - N00450); Images of the excavation at W.G Raines and H. Reichelt Farms in Wheeler Station, East Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York during October 1914 (N00451 - N00456). N34267 is a copy negative of N00357. There are also acetate copy negatives (with the same N numbers) of all the glass plate negatives made in the 1960s during a large photographic conservation project.
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
In the summer of 1914, George Gustav Heye and George Hubbard Pepper took a crew to the Burson Bell Farm in Montague, New Jersey to excavate a Munsee Cemetery which contained over 60 burials. In early July, the men working the site were arrested for grave robbing on charges of violating a statute prohibiting the disturbance of human burials. Though Heye and Pepper were not there at the time, a warrant was issued for George Heye's arrest. George Heye faced trial and was convicted and fined $100 but he successfully appealed the conviction to the New Jersey Supreme court where the decision was reversed. Heye and Pepper resumed their excavations in October of 1914 in New York State at the Cleary Farm in Avon, Livingston County, the George Marsh Farm in Canandaigua, Ontario County, and the W.G Raines and H. Reichelt Farms in Wheeler Station, East Bloomfield, Ontario County.
It should be noted that since the passing of the NMAI Act in 1989, which governs the repatriation of human remains and funerary objects, as well as scared objects and cultural patrimony, many of the materials that were collected by George Heye during these 1914 excavations have now been repatriated to their source communities. Any photographic materials related to these repatriated materials are restricted.
Separated Materials:
See George Pepper's field notes from the New Jersey and New York excavations in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation records (NMAI.AC.001) in Box 190, Folders 11-12, and Box 191, Folder 1.
Provenance:
The field photographs accompanied the lots of archeological material that arrived at the Heye Museum in 1914, the object photography (N00362-N00463) was shot at the museum by staff in 1915.
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). Photographs with burials, human remains or any other cultural sensitivity are restricted.
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.
Topic:
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New York (State) Search this
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New Jersey -- Photographs Search this
Genre/Form:
Negatives (photographic)
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); George Gustav Heye's New York and New Jersey Farm excavation photographs, Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution
Inventory and assessment of human remains and funerary objects requested for repatriation by the Stockbridge-Munsee band and Delaware Nation in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Instituttion / R. Eric Hollinger, J. Christopher Dudar and Erica Jones
