Indians of North America -- Great Basin Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Albums
Photographs
Date:
circa 1877
Scope and Contents note:
Albums probably assembled by William Henry Jackson, mostly containing portraits of Native American delegates in Washington, D.C. and photographs made on US Geological Surveys (including the Hayden and Powell surveys). Photographs from the field include John K. Hillers' photographs of the Southwest, photographs of Fort Laramie (possibly by Alexander Gardner), Orloff R. Westmann's photographs of Taos Pueblo, and Jackson's photographs of Crow, Shoshoni, Pawnee, and Nez Perce Tribes and related sites. Most of the photographs were made circa 1860s-1870s.
The albums were probably by Jackson while working under Ferdinand V. Hayden for the United States Geological Survey of the Territories. The reason for their creation is uncertain, though it may have been a project set up by Hayden or a continuation of William Henry Blackmore's tradition of publishing albums. Some of the albums include captions pasted from Jackson's Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians (1877) while others have handwritten captions.
Biographical/Historical note:
William Henry Jackson (1843-1942) was an American painter, photographer and explorer. Born in New York, he sold drawings and retouched photographs from an early age. After serving in the Civil War, he opened a photography studio in Omaha, Nebraska, with his brother Edward. As photographer for the US Geological and Geographical Surveys (1870-1878), he documented the American west and published the first photographs of Yellowstone. When the surveys lost funding in 1879, Jackson opened a studio in Denver, Colorado, and also worked for various railroad companies. Many of Jackson's photographs were displayed at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago (1893), for which he was the official photographer.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 4420
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Original negatives for many of the photographs in this collection can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in the BAE historical negatives.
The National Museum of the American Indian Archives holds William Henry Jackson photographs and negatives.
Additional Jackson photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 4605, MS 4801, Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 29, Photo Lot 37, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 60, Photo Lot 93, Photo lot 143, Photo Lot 87-2P, Photo Lot 87-20, and Photo Lot 90-1.
Correspondence from Jackson held in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4517, MS 4881, MS 4821, and collections of personal papers.
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 4420, William Henry Jackson photograph albums based on his Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Tintypes
Chromolithographs
Lithographs
Prints
Pages
Photographs
Newspapers
Woodcuts
Place:
Mexico
Taos Pueblo (N.M.)
California
Oregon
Fort Davis (Tex.)
New Mexico
Fort Snelling (Minn.)
Arizona
Texas
San Juan Pueblo (N.M.)
Zuni (N.M.)
Kansas
Colorado
Date:
circa 1863-1900
Summary:
Scrapbook entitled "Our Wild Indians in Peace and War: Surveys, Expeditions, Mining and Scenery of the Great West," compiled by James E. Taylor, possibly as a source for his own illustrations.
Scope and Contents:
Scrapbook entitled "Our Wild Indians in Peace and War: Surveys, Expeditions, Mining and Scenery of the Great West," compiled by James E. Taylor, possibly as a source for his own illustrations. The album includes photographs (mostly albumen with three tintypes), newsclippings, wood engravings, and lithographs, some of which are reproductions of Taylor's own illustrations and paintings. Photographs depict American Indians, US Army soldiers and scouts, historical sites, forts, and scenery. Some were made on expeditions, including the Hayden and Powell surveys, and created from published stereographs. Many of Taylor's illustrations are signed, and some are inscribed with dates and "N. Y." The scrapbook also includes clippings from newspapers and other written sources relating to illustrations and photographs in the album.
Biographical Note:
James E. Taylor (1839-1901) was an artist-correspondent for Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper from 1863-1883. Born in Cincinatti, Ohio, he graduated from Notre Dame University by the age of sixteen. Taylor enlisted in the 10th New York Infantry in 1861 and the next year was hired by Leslie's Illustrated newspaper as a "Special Artist" and war correspondent. In 1864 he covered the Shenandoah Valley campaign, and was later one of the illustrator-correspondents at the 1867 treaty negotiations at Medicine Lodge, Kansas. He soon earned the moniker "Indian Artist" because of his vast number of drawings of American Indians. In 1883 Taylor retired from Leslie's to work as a freelance illustrator. Colonel Richard Irving Dodge used Taylor's drawings to illustrate his memoir, "Our Wild Indians: Thirty-three Years' Personal Experience among the Red Men of the Great West" (1882).
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 4605
Related Materials:
The National Anthropolgical Archives holds additional photographs by photographers represented in this collection (including original negatives for some of these prints), particularly in Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 37, Photo Lot 60, Photo Lot 87.
Additional photographs by Whitney, Gardner, and Barry held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 80-18.
Julian Vannerson and James E. McClees photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 4286.
Pywell photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 4498.
O'Sullivan photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo lot 4501.
Additional Hillers photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 83-18 and Photo Lot 87-2N.
Provenance:
Donated or transferred by John Witthoft from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, April 14, 1961.
Photograph albums prepared by the Bureau of American Ethnology or the photographic lab, possibly for reference purposes by staff. The use of such albums has been mentioned by BAE photographer De Lancey W. Gill. The albums contain photographs made from the Bureau of American Ethnology's collection of negatives, documenting Apache, Arapaho, Assiniboin, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cocopa, Dakota, Flathead, Fox, Iowa, Kalispel, Kiowa Apache, Nez Perce, Omaha, Osage, Ponca, Santa Clara, Sauk, Shoshoni, Spokane Tonkawa, Wichita, and Winnebago people. The bulk of the photographs are studio portraits, made at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898 or during delegation visits to Washington, DC. There are also other photographs made during Victor Mindeleffʹs work in Chaco Canyon, and on W J McGeeʹs expedition to Sonora, Mexico, in 1900.
Photographers include Charles Milton Bell, William Dinwiddie, Alexander Gardner, De Lancey W. Gill, John K. Hillers, William Henry Jackson, Frank Albert Rinehart, Wells Moses Sawyer, Antonio Zeno Shindler, Victor or Cosmos Mindeleff, Julian Vannerson with Samuel A. Cohner. Included are negative numbers formerly used by BAE, but the National Anthropological Archives also annotated them with current negative numbers.
Arrangement note:
Titles of the albums are (1) Omaha and Winnebago; (2) miscellaneous; (3) Sauk and Fox; (4) miscellaneous; (5) Arapaho and Cheyenne; (6) Chiricahua, San Carlos, and Apache; (7) Sauk and Fox; (8) Osage, Shoshoni and Nez Perce, Siouan, Oto; (9) Santa Clara and Flathead; (10) Ponca; (11) Sauk and (12) Wichita and Kiowa Apache; (13) Cocopa; and (14) Assiniboin and Blackfoot
Biographical/Historical note:
The Bureau of American Ethnology was founded in 1879 in part as a result of the federal geological surveys and under the administration of the Smithsonian Institution. Under the directorship of John Wesley Powell (1879-1902), the BAE supported field research by its staff and collaborators, initiated several anthropological publications, and supported the growth of the anthropological discipline, particularly as it related to Native Americans. In addition to its research and publications program, it developed a manuscript repository, library, and an illustrations section that included (in addition to the preparation of artwork for publications) photography and a photographic collection. The BAE commissioned studio portraits of visiting Indian delegates and hired De Lancey Gill served as the its official photographer and illustrator from the 1890s to 1930.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 60
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives also holds the Bureau of American Ethnology records and the BAE historical negatives, as well as Dinwiddie photographs of the W. J. McGee expeditions are held in (Photo Lot 89 and Photo Lot 144), Charles Milton Bell photographs (Photo Lot 80), and additional photographs by most photographers represented in this collection (Photo Lot 59 and Photo Lot 90-1)
See others in:
Bureau of American Ethnology photograph albums of Native Americans, 1858-1905
Studio portraits made by the James E. McClees Studio and published by the Blackmore Museum, depicting Native American visitors to Washington, D.C. The series is identified by an 1863 broadside in the collection as "Photographs of some of the principal Chiefs of the North American Indians, made when they have visited Washington as deputations from their Tribes." Yankton, Sisseton, Mdewakanton, Wahpeton, Pawnee, Potawatomi, Sauk and Fox, Ponca, and Ojibwa people are represented. Three additional portraits depict men (possibly Cree) and were probably made by a different photographer.
Biographical/Historical note:
James Earl McClees (1821-1887) trained as a daguerreotypist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before opening a studio in Washington, D.C. in 1857. He was an early user of paper photographic processes and was well-known for photographing delegations of American Indians. His Washington studio, known as the James E. McClees Studio, operated in 1857-1858 with Julian Vannerson (1827-?) and Samuel Cohner as its most established operators. The studio was taken over by Robert W. Addis in 1858. Among Addis's proprietors was Antonio Zeno Schindler, an artist who made copies of photographs for English philanthropist and collector William Blackmore (1827-1878). Blackmore purchased the McClees Studio's negatives from Shindler, later transferring them to the Smithsonian. The Bureau of American Ethnology absorbed the photographs upon its formation in 1878-1879.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 4286
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional McClees Studio and Vannerson photographs held in the National Anthropological Archives in the BAE historical negatives and Photo Lot 4420.
Glass negatives relating to William Henry Blackmore, including copies of photographs collected by Blackmore, held in the British Museum and in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 31 and the BAE historical negatives.
Artifacts collected by Blackmore held in the anthropology collections of the National Museum of Natural History in accessions 1846, 2371, and 1826.
Photo Lot 4286, James E. McClees Studio photographs of Native American delegates to Washington DC, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
