Photographs and a lithograph probably collected by W J McGee during the first decade of the 20th century. The photographs were probably made by Bailey Willis during his 1903 expedition to China and were collected by W. J. McGee for his US Department of Agriculture bulletin on Soil Erosion (1911). Photos document terraced rice fields in China. The lithograph, made by Kell Brothers Lithographers and published by the Royal Anthropological Institute, may have also been collected by McGee, depicts a shrunken head made by Macas or Shuar peoples.
Biographical/Historical note:
W J McGee (1853-1912) was a self-educated geologist, anthropologist, and hydrologist best known for his work with the United States Geological Survey and the Bureau of American Ethnology. In 1883, McGee was hired as a geologist for the USGS by its director, John Wesley Powell. McGee stayed with the USGS until 1893, when he resigned to join the Bureau of American Ethnology, again under Powell. During his time with the BAE, McGee made three expeditions to southern Arizona and northern Sonora in 1894, November 1895-January 1896, and 1900. McGee resigned from the BAE in 1903 to head the anthropological and historical exhibits at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, held the following year in St. Louis, Missouri. He later served on the Inland Waterways Commission and studied water resources of the United States for the US Department of Agriculture.
Bailey Willis (1857-1949) was an artist, traveler, geologist, and writer. After studying mechanical (1878) and civil (1879) engineering at Columbia University, he traveled and did geological work in the northwestern United States. Willis joined the United States Geological Survey in 1884 and became known for his research on the southern Appalachian mountains and eastern United States (1885-1892). In 1903-1904, Willis led the Carnegie Institute of Washington's expedition to northern China. He later became a consulting geologist to the Minister of Public Works of Argentina, professor of geology at Stanford Univeristy, and research associate of the Carnegie Institution.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 121
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives also holds W J McGee papers, photographs, and publications, 1883-1914, 1971 (MS 2003-31). The Library of Congress holds the W J McGee papers, 1880-1916.
Additional Bailey Willis photographs and papers are held by the Huntington Library, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, and Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Photo lot 121, W J McGee collection of Bailey Willis photographs and lithograph relating to Macas peoples, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Bailey Willis Glass Plate Photonegatives Collection consists of 160 glass plate photonegatives and 119 modern copy prints mostly of Japanese subjects. Depicting Meiji-era Japan and traditional paintings, the photographs are attributed to the prominent American geologist Bailey Willis, who travelled to Japan in 1904 in his return trip from China to the U.S. From 1903 to 1904, Willis led a scientific expedition to China to conduct geological and paleontological investigations under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The expedition was proposed by Dr. Charles D. Walcott, the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, who would become the fourth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1907. After the expedition, the Smithsonian Institution took custody of 375 glass plate photonegatives taken by Willis during his Chinese expedition. The current Willis Collection does not retain Chinese glass plate photonegatives, which appear to be housed in the Huntington Library. Twelve original prints of China are in the Charles Lang Freer Papers, acquired by Freer directly from Willis. The Willis Collection richly documents Japanese local scenes, people, buildings, industries, agriculture, and art. It also contains a small number of Middle Eastern and Western images. These photographs are thought to be taken and/or purchased by Willis during his short stay in Japan in 1904, although there is no direct evidence that Willis was the original photographer of any or all of these. Since there are many views of locations that Willis never visited, it seems likely that the plates were acquired from another photographer.
Arrangement:
Box 1-3 Japanese paintings; Box 4-11 Japanese scenes; Box 12 Middle Eastern scenes, miscellaneous; Box 13 Western scenes, miscellaneous; Box 14 Japanese painting and scenes; Box 15 Japanese scenes
Biographical / Historical:
Bailey Willis was born at his parents' country estate at Idlewild-on-Hudson, near Cornwall, New York in 1857. He was the son of Nathaniel Parker Willis, a poet and journalist, and Cornelia (Grinnell) Willis of the prominent New England Grinnell family. His maternal granduncle, Henry Grinnell, was a benefactor of Arctic expeditions. His mother was instrumental in nurturing young Willis's interest in nature and exploration. After his father's death when Willis was ten years old, his mother, concerned about her son's "tendency to dream ineffectually," decided to train him in the stern disciplines of mathematics and science (Willis, A Yanqui in Patagonia 4). At the age of thirteen, Willis began schooling in Germany, where he received rigorous Prussian education.
Returning to New York in 1874, Willis entered the School of Mines at Columbia University, graduating with degrees in Mining Engineering in 1878 and Civil Engineering in 1879. After graduation Willis worked as an assistant for Raphael Pumpelly, a prominent geologist, by estimating iron and coal resources for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Geological work in the Pacific Northwest convinced Willis to support the preservation of Mount Rainier and its surroundings. The Mount Rainier National Park was established by law in 1899.
In 1882 Willis married his cousin Altona Holstein Grinnell. After her death in 1896, he married Margaret Delight Baker, daughter of anatomist Frank Baker. Margaret assisted Willis as draftsman and secretary.
Willis first earned international recognition as a geologist in the field of structural geology. Following the bankruptcy of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1884, Willis worked on assignments from the United States Geological Survey. While working in the southern Appalachian Mountains, he became interested in what had caused folding and faulting. By using laboratory experiments, Willis investigated the conditions causing the deformation of strata and published his new interpretation of the deformation in the report "The Mechanics of Appalachian Structure" (1893). This study established him as one of the country's leading structural geologists. His later book Geologic Structures (1923) went into three editions.
In addition to geological studies in the United States, Willis actively engaged himself in foreign expeditions throughout his life. From 1903 to1904, Willis led a scientific expedition to China under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. With Eliot Blackwelder, an associate geologist, and R. H. Sargent, a topographer, the expedition investigated the geomorphology, stratigraphy, and paleontology of the country. The result of the expedition appeared as Research in China in 1907, which won a gold medal from the Geographic Society of France. Furthermore, in recognition of this work, Willis was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Berlin in 1910. In the same year the Argentine government invited Willis to conduct a geological survey of Patagonia for the region's irrigation potential.
In 1915, at age 59, Willis accepted a position of Chairman of the Department of Geology at Stanford University, where he remained affiliated as a professor emeritus after his retirement. In California, Willis extended his research to the area of seismology, and served as President of the Seismological Society of America. Believing in the permanence of continents, he held an oppositional view to the continental drift theories. In 1949, Willis died in Palo Alto, California at age 91.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1991.06
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Bailey Willis Glass Plate Photonegatives Collection. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A1991.06
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
14 photographic prints of locations in China, taken by the Geologist Bailey Willis in 1903-1904 during a Carnegie institution funded geological expedition through China. Scenes include pagodas at Wutaishan and Tang dynasty Nestorian monuments outside of Xi'an. Documentation is sparse, but the photographs appear to have been sent to Charles L. Freer by Willis in November of 1908. At the time, Freer was considering purchase of a modern replica of the Nestorian Stele. His examination of Willis' original photograph of the stele confirmed that the replica was not worth acquisition.
大秦景教流行中國碑
Photographs of China by Bailey Willis
Biographical / Historical:
Bailey Willis (1857-1949) was a geological engineer who worked for the U.S. Geological Survey. He was born in New York and studied at Columbia University. Willis surveyed regions of Appalachia and the Northwestern U.S. He visited Mt. Rainier in 1882, and later contributed to its designation as a National Park. is publications on the region's geology garnered international attention from scientists. In 1903, he led an expedition funded by the Carnegie Institution to northern China, an area previously unexplored by geologists. In 1949, Willis published his recollections of the expedition in his book "Friendly China."
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 12.05WP
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Charles Lang Freer Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
Outlines of geologic history, with especial reference to North America; a series of essays involving a discussion of geologic correlation presented before section E of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Baltimore, December, 1908. Symposium organized by Bailey Willis, compilation edited by Rollin D. Salisbury
Living Africa; a geologist's wanderings through the rift valleys, by Bailey Willis ... illustrated with photographs and drawings, by the author and Margaret D.B. Willis
New York city folio, Paterson, Harlem, Staten Island, and Brooklyn quadrangles, New York-New Jersey. [By F.J.H. Merrill, N.H. Darton, Arthur Hollick, R.D. Salisbury, R.E. Dodge, Bailey Willis and H.A. Pressey] ..
Author:
Merrill, Frederick J. H (Frederick James Hamilton) 1861-1916 Search this
