The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 1988 Festival of American Folklife. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 6 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: American Folklore Society Centennial
Series 3: Festival Music Stage
Series 4: Ingenuity and Tradition: The Common Wealth of Massachusetts
Series 5: Migration to Metropolitan Washington: Making a New Place Home
Series 6: Music from the Peoples of the Soviet Union
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 1988 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Office of Folklife Programs and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
The 1988 Festival celebrated the centennial of the American Folklore Society, founded one hundred years earlier because of the need to document and study cultures that were seen as disappearing. Much of the Society's attention today, however, is engaged in the documentation and interpretation of emerging traditions and cultural expressions. Folklorists work in inner cities, conduct research on occupational groups, analyze processes of traditionalization and cooperate with other professionals in devising natural conservation and historical preservation strategies, which also promote cultural continuity, equity and integrity. Visitors to the 1988 Festival could learn about what it is that folklorists do and what impacts they have on the communities with which they work.
The other living exhibitions that made up this year's Festival also provided ample illustrations of this same view of the traditional. The Massachusetts program told a paradigmatic American story. Gay Head Wampanoag, Yankee settlers, Afro American migrants, and immigrants from Italy, Greece, Poland, the Cape Verde Islands, Puerto Rico, and Southeast Asia have not only preserved their traditions; through ingenious acts of individual and community creativity they have adapted them and endowed them with new meanings, as circumstances have changed. The Metropolitan Washington program pointed to the heightened consciousness of cultural issues associated with the migration experience. The program asked how immigrants from El Salvador, Ethiopia, China, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as domestic Anglo and Afro American groups historically migrating from nearby states, discard, reinvent, and reconstitute their traditions as they actively make a new place home. A varied contingent of musicians and performers from several republics of the Soviet Union demonstrated how truly ancient traditions nurtured in various pastoral, tribal, and religious environments have not merely survived but actually flourished in contemporary Soviet life. Also at the Festival were American musicians who, as part of a groundbreaking cultural exchange with the Soviet Union, would later travel to Moscow to participate in the International Folklore Festival in August 1988 and be reunited with the Soviet musicians participating in the Smithsonian's Festival.
The 1988 Festival took place for two five-day weeks (June 23-27 and June 30-July 4) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 10th Street and 14th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan).
The 1988 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; the Program Book essays provided a larger context for the Festival presentations, extending beyond the traditions actually presented at the 1988 Festival.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Office of Folklife Programs.
Office of Folklife Programs
Richard Kurin, Acting Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Anthony Seeger, Curator, Folkways Records; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist; Peter Seitel, Senior Folklorist; Marjorie Hunt, Phyllis M. May-Machunda, Heliana Portes de Roux, Frank Proschan, Nicholas R. Spitzer, Folklorists; Jeffrey Place, Assistant Archivist
National Park Service
William Penn Mott, Jr., Director; Manus J. Fish, Jr., Regional Director, National Capital Region
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://doi.org/10.25573/data.21771155.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1988 Festival of American Folklife forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Herman J. Viola photograph collection relating to Star Hawk Pow Wow, American Indian Cultural Resources Training Program, and acquisition trips for NAA
American Indian Cultural Resources Training Program Search this
Smithsonian Institution, Department of Anthropology, National Anthropological Archives, Native American Cultural Resources Training Program Search this
Photographs made by Herman J. Viola, depicting the 1973 Institute of American Indian Art meeting, Wolf Robe Hunt and his Acoma pottery, the transfer of Blue Eagle collection from Mae Abbott home to National Anthropological archives, and the 1974 Star Hawk Pow Wow in Watonga, Oklahoma. Additionally, there are photographs of NAA staff and the 1974 Acee Blue Eagle reception at NAA, possibly made by Viola. The collection also contains some photographs of Wounded Knee taken by Rev. Salvatore Genete, and copies of official portraits of Governor Aquillar of San Ildefonso Pueblo made by Harry B. Neufeld. There are also National Archives photographs of Chinese Boxer Rebellion prints, and Young watercolors and Alden sketches of American landscapes.
Much of the collection consists of portraits of participants in the NAA's American Indian Cultural Resources Training Program made by Smithsonian photographers, including Victor Krantz. These individuals include: Harry Walters, Navajo; Anna Walters, Otoe-Pawnee; George Sutton, Southern Arapaho; Sarah Yazzie, Navajo; Rubie Sootkis, Norther Cheyenne; David Fanman, Cheyenne; Augustine Smith, Navajo; Lorraine Bigman, Navajo; Jim Jefferson, Southern Ute; Rose Marie Pierite Gallardo, Tunica-Biloxi; George Horse Capture, Gros Ventre; Violet Zospah, White Mountain Apache; Gloria Anderson, Mille Lacs; Wenonah Silva, Wampanoag; Claire Lamont, Oglala; George Wasson, Coos-Coquille; Virginia Martin, Yakama; Gary Roybal, San Ildefonso; Richard Ground, Sihasapa; Almeda Baker, Hidatsa; June Finley, Hidatsa; Lida Young Wolf, Hidatsa; Christine Webster, Menominee; Rose Marie Roybal, Puyallup; Vivienne Jake, Kaibab-Paiute; Kim Yerton, Hupa; Dean Jacobs, Ojibwa; Lois Nowlin, Shawnee; Bonita McCloud, Nisqually; Gloria Maude Blackbird Cheswalla, Osage; Emily Peake, Ojibwa; Gordon McLester, Oneida; Mary Seth, Nez Perce; Bill Tohee, Oto-Missouria; Frank LaPena, Wintu; Juanita McQuistion, Wyandot; Carson Waterman, Seneca; Elton Stumbling Bear, Kiowa Apache; Patrick Chief Stick, Chippewa-Cree; Lynne Walks-on-Top, Spokane; Ethelyn Garfield, Paiute; Nora Dauenhauer, Tlingit; Caroline B. Jones, Tulalip; Grace F. Thorpe, Sauk and Fox; Dixie Lee Davis, Yavapai; Lynn D. Pauahty, Kiowa; David Lee Harding, Ojibwa; Robert V. Bojorcas, Klamath; Patty Leah Harjo, Seneca-Cayuga; Steven DeCoteau, Clallam; Robert Van Gunten, Ojibwa; Danny K. Marshall, Steilacoom; Meredith P. Flinn, Makah; Rhonda Hulsey, Chickasaw; Betty J. Brown, Choctaw; Vernon Calavaza, Zuni; Jack Bowen Jr., Upper Skagit; and Harry William Jr., Pima.
Biographical/Historical note:
Herman Joseph Viola is a historian of Native Americans who was director of the National Anthropological Archives from 1972-1989 and founding editor of Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives. In 1973, he launched the American Indian Cultural Resources Training Program, designed to encourage Native Americans to become professional archivists, librarians, curators, and historians through research and internships at the NAA.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 74-17
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds Viola's papers from 1980-1981.
Records relating to the American Indian Cultural Resources Training Program can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in the Records of the National Anthropological Archives.
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 74-17, Herman J. Viola photograph collection relate to Star Hawk Pow Wow, American Indian Cultural Resources Training Program, and acquisition trips for NAA, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
This subseries of the Notes and writings on special linguistic studies series contains material that supplement Harrington's Northeast/Southeast field notes.
The file on Algonquian includes three slips of Fox, Cree, Ojibwa, and Massachusett (labeled "Natick") vocabulary in the hand of Truman Michelson; typed copies of the above; notes on Cree and Ojibwa from secondary sources; information on the growing of wild rice by the Menominee; and miscellaneous notes on placenames and tribenames regarding the Cree, Ojibwa, Conoy, Nanticoke, and Narraganset.
The Shawnee/Peoria section consists of six pages of notes on Shawnee tribal divisions.
Among the miscellaneous material on the Abnaki languages is a page of Penobscot vocabulary obtained from Frank Siebert in April 1940. The remaining material was compiled during fieldwork on Western Abnaki at St. Francis in 1949. There are four pages on possible informants from Charles Nolet and a page of vocabulary from "Am"; bibliographic references; and lexical and grammatical notes excerpted from the works of Joseph Laurent and Masta.
For Massachusett there are three pages of miscellaneous notes with references to Trumbull's Natick Dictionary.
The bulk of the file on Iroquoian consists of a typed copy of an unidentified historical text from the 1880s. It discusses the relations of the Iroquois with the Spanish, French, and English settlers in the New World. Special mention is made of Gy-ant-va-chia (Cornplanter), chief of the Seneca. The spacing of the lines of text suggests that Harrington was planning to add a translation or annotations of some kind. There are also three pages of miscellaneous notes in his hand.
Most of the file on Delaware consists of information on placenames and tribenames obtained from Frank Siebert, Carl F. Voegelin, and a number of Oklahoma residents in 1940. Siebert gave both Delaware and Penobscot terms, and Unami words were given by Roy Longbone, Salley Fallleaf, and Jake Parks. Munsee forms were obtained from Josiah Montour and Jane Pattice of the Six-Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada. Also included are a carbon copy of a typed list of possible informants and several pages of miscellaneous notes from the works of Brinton, Strachey, and Zeisberger.
The section on Creek/Seminole/Alabama/Koasati/Choctaw contains twenty-one pages of vocabulary (mostly on tribenames) which Harrington obtained in an interview with James Feagin Sylestine, a speaker of the Alabama language, on April 25, 1940. The informant's home was in Livingston, Texas, although he was at the Shawnee Sanatorium at the time Harrington worked with him. The remaining miscellaneous notes were excerpted from various published and manuscript sources. They include references to Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Alabama, and Choctaw.
Miscellaneous material relating to the East consists of brief notes which Harrington copied from a number of secondary sources. There are mentions of the Huron, Wyandot, Powhatan, and Cherokee tribes, among others. Three of the pages consist of a partial typed list (alphabetically arranged K to M) of "Carolina and Virginia Algonquian" words. This list is based on that given in the commentary on the map of Raleigh's Virginia, pages 852 to 872 of The Roanoke Voyages, which was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1955.
Local Numbers:
Accession #1976-95
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Genre/Form:
Field notes
Vocabulary
Collection Citation:
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
The Alfred Tamarin photograph collection consists of negatives and contact prints shot by Tamarin in 1971 during research for his publication We Have not Vanished: Eastern Indians of the United States. Tamarin made photographs among the Passamaquoddy, Mashpee Wampanoag, Narragansett, Cayuga [Six Nations/Grand River (Brantford, Ontario)], Mohawk [Akwesasne (St. Regis), Hogansburg, New York], Seneca, Lenape (Delaware), Nanticoke, Pamunkey, Chickahominy and Eastern Band of Cherokee communities, capturing both events and craftspeople at work.
Scope and Contents:
The Alfred Tamarin photograph collection consists of negatives and contact prints shot by Tamarin during research for his publication We Have not Vanished: Eastern Indians of the United States. In addition to Tamarins own photographs there are also 8x10 black and white prints from other sources used in the same publication.
Series 1: Reasearch Negatives includes photographic negatives made by Tamarin which were shot on 35mm film and 120 (6x6) film and have accompanying contact sheets. Most of the negatives were shot in 1971 along the east coast of the United States in Maine, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia as well as in Ontario, Canada and at the Heard Fair in Phoenix, Arizona. Tamarin made photographs among the Passamaquoddy, Mashpee Wampanoag, Narragansett, Cayuga [Six Nations/Grand River (Brantford, Ontario)], Mohawk [Akwesasne (St. Regis), Hogansburg, New York], Seneca, Lenape (Delaware), Nanticoke, Pamunkey, Chickahominy and Eastern Band of Cherokee communities, capturing both events and craftspeople at work.
Events of note photographed include--the Monroe Powwow sponsored by Lenape (Delaware) Chief Earl Two Bears and a Narragansett anniversary celebration. There are also several photographs featuring Chief Jake Thomas (Ha-da-jib-ghen-ta [Descending Cloud]/Jacob Ezra Thomas) and his daughter Donna Thomas during a mask making demonstration in Brantford, Ontario. At the time, Chief Thomas was a museum preparator at the Mohawk Indian Woodland Indian Cultural.
Series 2: Publication Prints includes 65 8x10 black and white photographic prints and copy prints. Subseries 2.1 includes 19 prints from Tamarin's negatives that can be found in Series 1. Subseries 2.2 includes copy prints requested from outside photographer and institutions for use in We Have Not Vanished. These include photographs from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Florida News Bureau, Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Maine State Highway Commission, and National Anthropological Archives (Smithsonian Institution).
Arrangement:
Arranged in two series. Series 1: Research Negatives and Series 2: Publication Prints.
Biographical / Historical:
Alfred Tamarin (1913-1980) was born in New York to parents Abraham and Fannie. Tamarin worked in publicity and advertising for theatre and film until the 1960s. During that time he worked for the Theatre Guild, United Artists Corporation and was also a founder and vice president of In Flight Motion Pictures Inc. After marrying his second wife Shirley Glubok in 1968, Alfred began his second career as a photographer for a series of art books written by Shirley. Alfred also wrote several books himself including We Have not Vanished: Eastern Indians of the United States (1974). We Have not Vanished was illustrated with photographs taken by Alfred in 1970-1971 among several Native American communities along the East Coast of the United States. Other books written by the Tamarins include Ancient Indians of the Southwest (1975), The Art of the Plains Indians (1975), Voyaging to Cathay (1976), among many others. Shirley Glubok Tamarin donated Alfred's materials related to We Have not Vanished to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye foundation in 1985 following Alfred's death in 1980.
Provenance:
Gift of Shirley Glubok Tamarin, 1985.
Restrictions:
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).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, 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. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Images in Subseries 2.2: Copy prints from other sources are not owned by the National Museum of the American Indian.
Genre/Form:
Photographic prints
Negatives
Copy prints
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Alfred Tamarin photographs for We Have not Vanished, image #, NMAI.AC.376; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Card files containing Truman Michelson's handwritten linguistic notes on Natick (Wampanoag) phonetic shifts based on examples taken from James Hammond Trumbull's Natick Dictionary. Includes English translations.
Includes photographs of individual tribal members, artifacts; and the following archeological sites: Hawikku (Hawikuh), Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico; Mill Creek, Tehama County, California; Coachilla Valley, California; Sandal Cave, New Mexico; Eagle Canyon, Texas; Thea Heye Cave, Pyramid Lake, Nevada; Crown Peak, Chisos Mountains, Texas; Pueblo Grande, Nevada; Salt Caves, St. Thomas, Nevada; Chuckawalla Cave, Nevada; Lovelock Cave, Pershing County, Nevada; other sites in Nevada; cacti in Brewster County, Texas and California; archaeological sites in Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, New York, and Tennessee Collection also includes a variety of scenic shots in different states; shots of persons, identified and unidentified; personal photographs of Harrington, his son, and one of his wives (ELH); and photographs taken during his expeditions to Cuba and Ecuador. Includes photographs of the Alibamu, Apache, Catawba, Cherokee, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Chumash, Comanche, Delaware, Iowa, Iroquois, Kaw, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Klamath, Koasati, Maidu, Mattaponi, Mohegan, Nanticoke, Narragansett, Navajo, Niantic (Nyantic),Ojibwa (Chippewa), Osage, Paiute, Pamunkey, Peoria, Pit River, Potawatomi, Quapaw, Sac and Fox (Sauk and Fox), Seminole, Shawnee, Tolowa, Tulare, Wampanoag, Wichita, Wyandot, Yara, and Zuni tribes.
Arrangement note:
Collection arranged by format and item number.
Biographical/Historical note:
Mark Raymond Harrington was born on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on July 6, 1882. He received his BS in 1907 and his MA in 1908 from Columbia University, where he studied under Franz Boas. He met George Heye while working at Covert's Indian store in New York in 1908 and Heye hired him shortly thereafter. Harrington spent from 1908-1911 visiting and collecting from tribes in the east and Midwest for Heye. From 1911-1915 Harrington was assistant curator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. From 1916-1917 he conducted archeological surveys in Cuba and Arkansas, after which he spent a short time in the U.S. Army during the First World War. After his return in 1919 he started a series of archeological surveys in Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Texas. Harrington worked for George G. Heye as an archaeologist, ethnologist, field collector, and curator, primarily along the eastern seaboard, in the south, Midwest, west, Cuba and Ecuador, from 1908 to 1928. He then joined the staff of the Southwest Museum as curator until his retirement in 1964. He died in San Fernando, California on June 30, 1971. Harrington is the author of many books and several hundred articles. A partial bibliography can be found in the Mark Raymond Harrington manuscript collection in the archives of the National Museum of the American Indian, Cultural Resource Center, Suitland, Maryland.
General note:
NMAItest
Restrictions:
Access restricted. For information on this collection consult the NMAI photo archivist at 301-238-1400 or NMAIphotos@si.edu.
Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
The collection includes materials from cultures in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, and Guiana: Acoma Pueblo, Apache, Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Caddo, Cahuilla, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chibcha, Chinantec, Chippewa (Ojibwa), Choco, Chol, Chontal, Cochiti Pueblo, Crow, Cuicatec, Eskimo, Flathead, Haida, Hopi, Huastec, Huave, Iowa, Iroquois, Isleta, Karaja, Kwakiutl, Laguna Pueblo, Macusi, Mandan, Maya, Mazahua, Mazatec, Mehinaku, Menomini, Mixe, Mixtec, Navajo, Nez Perce, Osage, Otomi, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pima, Ponca, Potawatomi, Salish, San Blas, San Felipe Pueblo, Sauk & Fox, Shuar, Sioux, Taos Pueblo, Tarasco, Teotihuacan, Tepehua, Tlaxcala, Tlingit, Tonkawa, Totonac, Triqui, Tzental, Tzotzil, Ute, Wampanoag, Zapotec, Zoque, Zuni.
Arrangement note:
Collection arranged by item number.
Biographical/Historical note:
Frederick Starr was born in Auburn, New York, on September 2, 1858. He received a Ph.D. in biology in 1884 at Coe College, where he was later appointed professor of biology. Starr did postgraduate work in anthropology at Yale. In 1889 he was appointed head of Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History, and in 1892 he was chosen by William Harper to organize the Anthropology Department at the new University of Chicago. Starr remained at the University until his retirement in 1923. Besides his field studies with various Indian tribes in the United States, Starr traveled to Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Guiana, Japan, the Philippines, and Africa. He died in Tokyo, Japan, on August 14, 1933. Starr was the author of several books and scholarly articles.
General note:
Starr hired professional photographers Charles B. Lang and Louis Grabic to accompany him on his field trips. One lantern slide of Moses Ladd (Menomini) was taken by William H. Jackson.
Provenance:
Dr. Frederick Starr, Purchased, circa 1929
Restrictions:
Access restricted. Researchers should contact the staff of the NMAI Archives for an appointment to access the collection.
The Frank Gouldsmith Speck photograph collection includes portraits of individuals and families, as well as scenic shots and landscape views made between 1909 and 1937. Speck was an anthropologist and ethnographer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and worked on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation collecting ethnographic materials across the Eastern United States and Canada. His collection of photographs includes materials from native communities ranging from Newfoundland to Ontario in Canada and from Maine to South Carolina in the United States.
Scope and Contents:
The Frank Gouldsmith Speck photograph collection includes negatives and a small amount of prints made by Speck throughout the course of his career as an anthropologist and ethnographer. The majority of the photographs in this collection were made while Speck conducted field trips on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation between 1924 and 1932, though there are photographs from before and after this time. This collection has been arranged into Series by geographical location and then into subseries by culture group or community. Series 1: Newfoundland and Labrador: Innu, Mushuaunnuat, 1916-1935; Series 2: Quebec: Innu, Mistassini Cree, Lorette Huron, Wawenock, Mohawk, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, 1910-1937; Series 3: New Brunswick and Nova Scotia: Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, 1909-1917; Series 4: Ontario: Six Nations/Grand River (Naticoke, Mohawk, Cayuga, Mahican, Tutelo), Oneida Nation, 1914-1937; Series 5: Maine and New Hampshire: Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki, 1910-1924; Series 6: Massachussets and Rhode Island: Wampanoag, Nauset, 1914-1931; Series 7: Connecticut: Mohegan, Niantic, Schaghticoke, Pequot, 1912-1931; Series 8: Delaware: Nanticoke and Rappahanock, 1911-1925; Series 9: Virginia and Maryland: Rappahanock, Chickahominy, Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Nansemond, Potomac, Accomac, Powhatan, 1915-1924; Series 10: North Carolina and South Carolina: Catawba, Eastern Band of Cherokee, 1915-1930.
Many of Frank Speck's photographs are individual and family portraits of community members, many identified, posed outdoors in front of homes and community buildings. There are also landscape views as well as photographs taken during community events. There are a small amount of photographs that have now been restricted due to cultural sensitivity though for the most part Speck did not photograph culturally sensitive activities.
Arrangement:
The collection is intellectually arranged in 10 Series by geographic region and within each series by culture group. The negatives are physically arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
Frank Gouldsmith Speck was born on November 8, 1881 in Brooklyn, New York. He studied under the prominent linguist John Dyneley Prince and anthropologist Franz Boas at Columbia University, receiving his BA in 1904 and MA in 1905. He received his Ph.D. in 1908 from the University of Pennsylvania. His doctoral dissertation on the ethnography of the Yuchi became a basis for an article which later appeared in the Handbook of American Indians. That same year Speck became an assistant in the University of Pennsylvania Museum and an instructor in anthropology at the University. He was made assistant professor in 1911, and professor and chairperson of the department in 1925, a position which he held until his death in 1950. Speck was the founder of the Philadelphia Anthropological Society, and was vice-president of the American Anthropological Association from 1945-46. Speck's research concentration was on the Algonkian speaking peoples. Speck studied every aspect of a culture: language, ethnobiology, technology, decorative art, myths, religion, ceremonialism, social organization, and music. Collecting material culture was also an integral part of Speck's fieldwork. His collections can be found in museums around the world, one of which is the National Museum of the American Indian. He is the author of numerous books and articles. Frank G. Speck died February 6, 1950. (A. Irving Hallowell, American Anthropologist, Vol. 53, No. 1, 1951)
Related Materials:
The Frank G. Speck Papers can be found at the American Philosophical Society (Mss.Ms.Coll.126) along with additional photographic materials by Speck.
Frank Speck published extensively in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation publications; "Indian Notes" and "Indian Notes and Monographs." These publications are avialable through the Smithsonian Institution Libraries or online on the Internet Archive.
Separated Materials:
A small amount of notes from Speck's field work can be found in the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation records (NMAI.AC.001) in Box 273, Folder 18 through Box 274 Folder 2.
Close to 4000 ethnographic and archeological items were collected by Speck for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI) and are now in the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) collection. For more information about these objects contact the NMAI Collections Department.
Provenance:
The majority of the negatives were gifted to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI) by Frank Speck in 1927. The group of Nanticoke photographs were purchased by the MAI in 1915 and smaller amounts of photographs were gifted and purchased by the MAI between 1923 and 1942.
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).
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 to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, 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. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank Speck photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
One of the keys, 1676-1776-1976 the Wampanoag Indian contribution : a list of words and definitions from the language of the historical Indians of southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and Rhode Island compiled and written by Milton A. Travers ; drawings by Marie Dupuis
