The material consists mostly of photographic prints. A few negatives, photomechanical prints, tintypes, drawings, newspaper clippings, notes, and letters are also included. Much of the material is annotated. In part, the file was assembled for or relates to many accessions and cataloging units of the division.
The material was received from professionals and amateurs, mostly working in North America. The images are of artifactual and skeletal specimens, fradulent specimens, collections of specimens, sites, excavations, site features, ruins, petroglyphs, and field parties. A few are reproductions of maps and portraits of native people. Some of the specimens are in the Smithsonianʹs collections, but many are not.
Included among the many subjects are photographs of Dighton Rock in Massachusetts; many ruins of the 1931 Moundville, Alabama, excavation; Tlingit burial boxes; excavations, specimens, and Aleut portraits taken by Waldemar I. Jochelsonʹs Ethnological Section of the Riaboushinsky Expedition, 1909-1912; Richard Wetherillʹs party in Mancos Canyon, Colorado, and F. S. Hempsteadʹs Archaeological and Topographic Map of Portsmouth," [Ohio].
Some of the material relates to the work of Charles L. Bernheimer in Utah, Burnham S. Colburn in Georgia and North Carolina, Thomas Featherstonehaugh in Florida, Otto William Geist in Alaska, A. T. Hill in Nebraska, Walter Hough in Arizona (for the Gates-United States National Museum Expedition, 1901), George Langford in Illinois, Henry Montgomery in North Dakota, Clarence B. Moore in Florida, Henri F. Pittier in Costa Rica, and F. B. Stebbins in Tennessee. Collections are those of Charles Artes (filed Indiana), Thomas Beckwith (filed Missouri), C. W. Branch (filed West Indies), Burham S. Colburn Cherokee relics (filed North Carolina), James Pillars (filed Ohio), Governor Price (frauds from New Mexico), Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis (filed Ohio).
The material is from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas Utah, Virginia, Washington, Costa Rica, British Columbia, Canada, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, South Pacific, and West Indies.
The works of many photographers are included. Among them are John K. Hillers, William Henry Jackson, Sumner W. Matteson, Edgar A. Mearns, Victor Mindeleff, and Timothy H. OʹSullivan.
Preston Singletary, born San Francisco, CA 1963 Search this
Medium:
cast and sand-carved glass on wooden pedestal
Dimensions:
chest:14 7/8 x 27 1/8 x 16 3/8 in. lid: 3 7/8 x 27 1/2 x 16 7/8 in. pedestal: 45 5/8 x 28 3/8 x 17 1/2 in.
Type:
(not assigned)
Crafts
Date:
2021
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Renwick Alliance in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Renwick Gallery and the 40th anniversary of the alliance, and museum purchase through the Kenneth R. Trapp Acquisition Fund
Viewing of the photographic negatives and transparencies requires advance notice and the permission of the Photo Archivist.
Access to the Edward S. Curtis papers and photographs requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Sponsor:
Processing and digitization of parts of this collection was supported by funding from the Smithsonian Women's Committee and the Small Research Grants program of the National Museum of Natural History.
View of two small white wooden burial structures with windows and pyramid-shaped roofs; the structure on the right has a finial at its peak; the other has a Russian Orthodox cross. RESTRICTED.
Restrictions:
Restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
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 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.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Mary Harriman Rumsey Collection of Harriman Alaska Expedition Photographs, 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.
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Drawings
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Signed with monogram "h" (probably mark of lithographer, "A. Hoen & Co. Lith., Baltimore"). Plate I Tribe-Malemiut "Mahlemute-Man and Woman" Published Plate Number III. Plate III Tribe-Kuskwogmiut "Kuskokvegmute--Male Summer Dress" Published Plate Number IV. Plate III Tribe-Kuskwogmiute "Beluga Hunter and Dwellings--Lower Kuskokvim, Alaska Published Plate Number V Plate IV Tribe-Togiamiut "Burial Place of Togiagamute" Published Plate Number VI Plate V Tribe-Tanana "Tennanah Tribe--Man and Woman" Published Plate Number VII Plate VI Tribe-Tlingit "Thlinkit and man from Copper River" Published Plate Number VIII Plate VIII "Yukon Tundra in Summer" Published Plate Number I.
Lithograph of Painting Showing Two Men in Costume; Tlingit Man Holding Rifle and Man from Copper River with Bow, Arrows, and Quiver; Lake And Mountains in Background
Local Numbers:
NAA INV.08532200
Local Note:
Published: Petroff, Ivan; "Report on the Population, Industries, & Resources of Ak"; Wash, 1884; Pl VI; Signed: H (Monogram)
Colored pencil Watercolor lithograph and photomechanical
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Collection Director:
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957 Search this
Container:
Box 262A, Folder 3
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1928 - 1968
Restrictions:
Image number 011 "Holiday Handcraft" has been removed from the slideshow due to culutral sensitivity.
Collection Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from the 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); Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Collection Director:
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957 Search this
Container:
Box 404, Folder 5
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1931 - 1934
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 the 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); Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The item is number 21035 of an unidentified series. The number 9 is stamped on the front of the photograph. A large frame house is in the foreground. Behind it are the burial houses.
Photo Lot 90-1, George V. Allen collection of photographs of Native Americans and the American frontier, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Access to NMAI Archives 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 or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Peratrovich family papers, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographic prints and copy negatives made by George Thornton Emmons among Native communities in Alaska and British Columbia mostly between 1870 and 1890. Communities photographed include—Nisga'a (Niska), Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl), Yup'ik, Nuxalk (Ballacoola), Haida, and Tlingit.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes photographic prints made by George Thornton Emmons among Native communities in Alaska and British Columbia mostly between 1870 and 1890. Communities photographed include—Nisga'a (Niska), Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl), Yup'ik, Nuxalk (Ballacoola), Haida, and Tlingit. There is at least one photograph that is dated 1917. Many of the photographs include portrait of Native men and women often posed outside of their homes or community structures. There are also photographs of totem poles and masks. There are some images of graves that have been restricted. The copy negatives were later made by the Museum of the American Indian during a large photograph conservation project in the 1960s.
George Thornton Emmons (1852-1945) was born in Baltimore Maryland and attended the U.S. Naval Academy attaining the rank of lieutenant j.g. in 1883 and lieutenant in 1887. While being stationed in Sitka, Alaska Emmons became interested in the native cultures of the region, particularly the Tlingit and Tahltan. He collected over 11000 objects and sold his first collection of 1351 artifacts to the American Museum of Natural History in 1888. Emmons accompanied the Alaska exhibit during the World's Columbian Exposition from 1891-1893 and began writing up his Tlingit research for AMNH in 1894. Following his retirement from the Navy, Emmons continued collecting Alaskan artifacts which he sold to collectors, including George Heye and the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Emmons first started selling and donating collections to George Heye in 1905 and continued to do so for the remainder of his life. In 1932 Emmons moved to Victoria, British Columbia to work on his Tlingit book, which was still unfinished at his death in 1945. Following his death, his manuscript based on 40 years of research and writing was taken over by Frederica de Laguna and 1955 and finally published in 1991.
Related Materials:
George T. Emmons field notes, mostly object lists from Alaska and British Columbia, can be found in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation records (NMAI.AC.001) Box 215-217.
Provenance:
It is unclear when most of these photographs were obtained by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. It is likely they accompanied ethnographic collections sent by Emmons, the earliest of which arrived in 1905.
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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); George Thornton Emmons photograph collection, Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Transparencies are of Tlingit rock shelter or cave burials, probably 18th century or earliier, on the shores of an island in South East Alaska near Ketchikan.
Catalog Number 4765: (1)-(3) Tribe: Tlingit Description: Color transparencies of Tlingit cave burials, probably 18th century or earlier, on the shores of an island in South East Alaska near Ketchikan.
From Mr Grainger's letter of transmittal, (January 17, 1966): "...Apparently the central figure is of a Tlingit native. The empty boxes appear to be of Russian or Chinese origin. However there was at least one native steamed board box, sans nails. The matting and rope are apparently of cedar bark weave. The sacrificial skull might possibly date this burial site before the purchase of Alaska in the era of slavery. The area is all above ground overhanging rocks in a sort of cave..."
