Photographs made by Robert E. Kuntz documenting people and the natural and built environments that he encountered during his world travels. Locations depicted include Asia (Taiwan, India, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Japan), the Middle East (Pakistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Yemen), Africa (Sudan, Libya, Kenya, and Nigeria), and Oceania (Borneo and the Philippines). Images of Taiwan include street scenes of Taipei, festivals and ceremonies (including celebrations of 10-10 Day, Buddha's birthday, and Lantern Festival), temples, villages and agriculture, boats and harbors, artwork and shrines, carving, construction, markets, bridges, and a cemetery. The collection also includes images of the Acropolis of Athens, the Taj Mahal and other structures in India, historical structures and the harbor in Istanbul, markets and vendors in west Pakistan, and Wat Benchamabophit and Wat Arun in Thailand, ancient structures in Baʻlabakk (Lebanon), St. Catherine's Monastery (Sinai) and a parade and ceremonies in Egypt.
Biographical/Historical note:
Dr. Robert E. Kuntz (1916-2003) was a parasitologist for the U.S. Navy and the Southwest Research Foundation. After earning his MS in zoology from Oklahoma University and Ph.D. in parasitology from the University of Michigan, he joined the United States Navy in 1943. He was a parasitologist and medical entomologist with the Naval Medical Research Institute and then Chairman of the department of parasitology at the Southwest Foundation for Research and Education, a position that brought him into contact with groups in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. In 1964, Kuntz retired from the Navy as a captain. He wrote hundreds of publications and his photographs have been reproduced in textbooks, National Geographic Magazine, and other publications.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 2003-25
Reproduction Note:
Modern prints made from original negatives by Smithsonian Institution, 1987.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Kuntz's field notes are held in the Smithsonian Institutuion Archives in the Field Book Project, SIA Acc. 12-254.
Taiwanese fish skins collected by Kuntz held in the anthropology collections of the NAtional Museum of Natural History, accession 231999.
Photo Lot 2003-25, Robert E. Kuntz photographs of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Middle East, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Basin Search this
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Negatives
Photographs
Date:
probably 1870s-1880s
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs of skulls in the United States Army Medical Museum collection, which appear to have been collected for physical anthropological purposes. Included are archeological remains and remains of Native American tribes and some other ethnic groups. Other than tribe or location, data for the specimens include Army Medical Museum specimen number, AMM negative number, and sex; for some, there is also collection data and information on physical or medical conditions. There are also notes identifying donors who included army officers, physicians, scientists, and explorers such as Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, Edward Palmer, Frederic Ward Putnam, George Rolleston, Paul Schumacher, and many others. Some of the photographs may have been made as part of the Army Medical Museumʹs program of distributing images of its specimens.
Represented are Africans, Chinook, Choptank, Dakota, Eskimo of Greenland, Taiwanese peoples, Hawaiians, Hidatsa, Nisqually, Philippine peoples, Ponca, Potowatomi, Pueblo, Tonkawa, and Ute. Archeological specimens are from the Aleutian Islands, California, the Dakotas, England (Roman period), Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, Peru, Vancouver Island, and Vermont. For some, there is also information about the status or physical condition of the individual or observations of medical conditions shown in the specimens. Some additional photographs appear to show specimens at the American Museum of Natural History.
Biographical/Historical note:
The United States Army Medical Museum (AMM, renamed the National Museum of Health and Medicine in 1989) was established by US Army Surgeon General William A. Hammond in 1862. Its initial focus was on collecting specimens of unusual pathology, mostly taken from victims of the American Civil War. By 1867, the museum had expanded to include medical, microsopical, anatomical, comparative anatomics, and other sections. The anatomical collection grew in part as a result of Circular No. 2 of 1867, which authorized military medical officers to collect cranial specimens from deceased Native Americans. Additionally, the AMM made an arrangement with the Smithsonian Institution, by which the Smithsonian transferred their collection of human remains in exchange for ethnological artifacts. AMM photographed and measured many of the specimens in its collection as part of the museum's anthropological research.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 73-26C, NAA Photo Lot 73-26D
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Photographs previously filed in Photo Lot 73-26D have been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 73-26C. These are also Army Medical Museum negatives of skulls and form part of this collection.
Additional Army Medical Museum photographs of skulls can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 6A, Photo Lot 6B, Photo Lot 78-42, Photo Lot 83-41, and Photo Lot 97.
Photographs made during Mary Vance Trent's time in Micronesia, including in Guam, Saipan, Palau, Yap, Pohnpei, and the Marshall Islands and Taipei. The images depict towns, buildings and other remains of the Japanese and Spanish occupations, boats, airplanes, houses and hotels, US military events, aerial views, and people (including residents and United States and United Nations delegates). The collection also includes some photographs made in Cape Cod, Boston, Washington, DC, and New Hampshire, as well as commercial postcards with images of Saipan and other Mariana Islands.
Biographical/Historical note:
Mary Vance Trent (1914-1998) was a foreign service officer for the State Department. She represented the US in the Pacific Islands, including in Samoa and Tonga (1969-1972), and acted as political advisor during the transition of Micronesia from a US territory to a municipality of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (1972-1974). Over her career, Trent acquired many Polynesian and Micronesian objects, some of which she donated to the Smithsonian.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 97-15
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Artifacts collected by Trent in Polynesia, Micronesia, and New Guinea held in the Department of Anthropology collections in accession 416128.
The Library of Congress holds the Mary Vance Trent Papers.
