Left, Tohe (?) Charley (mixed-blood); center, Cleveland Kamiakin, (Peo-peo Kow-o-not) last living son of Kamiakin, now living at Nespelem and about 90 years old; right, Charley Telake.
Full-blood Yakima. Paying tribute to "fallen giantess", 9 miles south of Toppenish, a 30 foot marker [natural feature ?] where Indians left tokens when passing.
Photographs depicting tribal delegates, probably made by Robert M. Farring during tribal group visits to the Bureau of Indian Affairs Washington office. Many of the photographs were originally mounted in notebooks with identification of pictured individuals and their affiliations.
Biographical/Historical note:
Robert M. Farring, Jr. is an employee in the Tribal Operations office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 85-21
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs of Native American delegations can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 4286, MS 4638, Photo Lot 87-2P, Photo Lot 90-1, and the BAE historical negatives.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Watercolor
Prints
Graphite drawings
Photographs
Watercolors
Drawings
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents note:
Mostly images of artifacts, architecture, peoples, and some maps published in various Bureau of American Ethnology publications, particularly the Annual Reports. Most of the line drawings were made by Henry Hobart Nichols, while most of the graphite drawings were possibly created by Edward Schumacher.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 78-51
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional illustrations for various BAE publications can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 133 and in the records of the BAE.
Information on these illustrations and publications can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in the records of the BAE.
Portraits of Native Americans made by Charles Milton Bell in his Washington, DC studio. Depicted individuals include Red Cloud, Oglala; Spotted Tail, Brule; Quanah Parker, Comanche; Nawat, Arapaho; Scabby Bull, Arapaho; Wolf Robe, Cheyenne; D. W. Bushyhead, Cherokee; John Jumper, Seminole; Plenty Coups, Crow; Rushing Bear, Arikara; Gall, Hunkpapa; John Grass, Sihasapa; Lean Wolf, Hidatsa; Chief Joseph, Nez Perce; and Lone Wolf, Kiowa; as well as people associated with Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show. The collection also includes copies of some images by other photographers, including G. G. Rockwood and F. T. Cummins.
Biographical/Historical note:
Charles Milton Bell (circa 1849-1893) was the youngest member of a family of photographers that operated a studio in Washington, DC, from around 1860-1874. Bell established his own studio on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1873 and it rapidly became one of the leading photography studios in the city. Bell developed the patronage of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, who sent Native American visitors to the studio to have their portraits made. Bell also made photographs of Native Americans for the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 80, NAA MS 4661
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Copy prints previously filed in MS 4661 have been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 80. These are also copy prints of Bell negatives that were acquired from Boyce and form part of this collection.
Additional C. M. Bell photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 4420, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 60, Photo Lot 81-44, Photo lot 87-2P, and Photo Lot 90-1.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 80, Charles Milton Bell photographs of Native Americans, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs mostly commissioned and collected by personnel in the Bureau of American Ethnology. Most of the photographs are studio portraits of Native Americans made by the Bureau of American Ethnology and Smithsonian Institution, possibly for physical anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka. There are also photographs made by Truman Michelson among the Catawba tribe, copies of illustrations and drawings, and various images of archeological sites and artifacts.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 87-2M, USNM ACC 42191
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Original negatives for many photographs in this collection held in the National Anthropological Archives in the BAE historical negatives.
Additional Michelson photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 13, Photo Lot 24, MS 2139, and MS 4365-c.
Additional Hillers photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 28, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 143, Photo Lot 83-18, Photo Lot 87-2N, Photo Lot 90-1, Photo Lot 92-46, and the BAE historical negatives.
Additional Jackson photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 37, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 60, Photo Lot 93, Photo Lot 143, Photo Lot R82-10, Photo Lot 87-2P, Photo Lot 90-1, Photo Lot 92-3, the records of the Department of Anthropology, and the BAE historical negatives.
Additional Smillie photographs held in the National Museum of American History Archives Center in the Frances Benjamin Johnston and Thomas W. Smillie Glass Plate Negatives and in Smithsonian Institution Archives SIA Acc. 05-123.
Additional Gardner photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 80-18, Photo Lot 87-2P, Photo Lot 90-1, and the BAE historical negatives.
Associated busts and molds held in the Department of Anthropology collections in accession 42191.
Photo lot 87-2M, Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collection relating to Native Americans, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
This collection consists of 534 glass lantern slides depicting Indigenous groups throughout North America. It also includes a small number of publications written by Elmer E. Higley and others about Native Americans and missionary work during the early twentieth century.
Scope and Contents:
The Elmer E. Higley collection consists of both Lantern Slides and Printed Materials. Series 1: Lantern Slides, 1900-1924, includes 534 glass lantern slides, many hand-colored. The lantern slides were used by Higley in lectures to promote his missionary and reform work with the Joint Committee on Indian Work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was the Superintendent from 1919 to 1923. While Higley was the photographer of some of the lantern slide images, specifically those taken in Mesa Verde, the majority of the photographs were not taken by Higley, but rather collected by him for use in his lectures as he traveled around the country. Series 2: Printed Materials, 1914-1968, includes a small number of early twentieth-century publications written by Higley and others about Native Americans and missionary work in the United States during this time.
Please note that the language and terminology used in this collection reflects the context and culture of the time of its creation, and may include culturally sensitive information. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into two series. Series 1: Lantern Slides, 1900-1924 and Series 2: Printed Materials, 1914-1968.
Biographical / Historical:
Elmer Ellsworth Higley was born in Ohio in 1867. He attended high school and college in northwestern Pennsylvania before marrying Alice C. Dowler in 1892. Higley later also attended the Drew Theological Seminary and afterwards worked as a pastor in a number of Methodist churches around the country. In approximately 1919 Higley was appointed Superintendent of the Joint Committee on Indian Work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with his office based in Chicago, Illinois. Employed in this work until 1923, Higley traveled the United States, visiting Native reservations and promoting Christian reform efforts for American Indian education. While traveling, Higley frequently presented illustrated lectures on his missionary work to audiences, using the glass lantern slides now residing in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. In the years after 1923, Higley continued as a pastor in both Ames, Iowa, and Evanston, Illinois, the latter where he eventually died in 1931.
Provenance:
Gift of Mrs. R. S. Jensen and Family in 2018 and 2019.
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.
Some photographs in this colletion are restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Elmer E. Higley collection, NMAI.AC.228; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection consists of forty-one (41) drawings created for the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey by Johnson Kelly Duncan, Gustav(us) Sohon, and John Mix Stanley. The majority of the drawings are portraits.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three series by artist: (1) Johnson Kelly Duncan, 1853-1854; (2) Gustav Sohon, 1853-1854; and (3) John Mix Stanley, 1853.
Historical Note:
The Pacific Railroad Surveys (1853–1855) were a series of five explorations designed to find and document possible routes for a transcontinental railroad across North America. The expeditions included surveyors, scientists, and artists and resulted in an immense body of data on the geology, zoology, botany, paleontology of the land as well as ethnographic descriptions of Native peoples.
The Northern Pacific survey, led by Isaac Stevens, traveled between the 47th and 49th parallel from St. Paul, Minnesota to the Puget Sound. Artists documenting the survey included chief artist John Mix Stanley (1814-1872); astronomer, topographer, and artist Johnson Kelly Duncan (1827-1862); and assistant artist Gustav (or Gustavus) Sohon (1825-1903).
Local Numbers:
USNM Accession Number 13050
USNM Catalog Number 130305
Related Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds additional drawings created by Sohon in MS 384668.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Works of art
Drawings
Watercolors
Citation:
Northern Pacific Railroad Survey drawings, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian include photogravure printing plates and associated proofs made from Curtis photographs and used in the publication of The North American Indian volumes 1-9 and 12-19. The bulk of the images are portraits, though there are also images of everyday items, ceremonial artifacts, and camps.
Scope and Contents:
The collection comprises 183 photogravure plates (101 folio and 82 octavo) and 96 associated proofs used in the printing of The North American Indian volumes 1-9 and 12-19. The original photographs used to make the photogravures were made circa 1903-1926 and the photogravure plates were made in 1907-1930. The bulk are portraits, though there are also images of everyday items, ceremonial artifacts, and camps. About half of the proofs in the collection are originals used for Curtis's publication, though the collection also includes proofs made in the process of later publication by the Classic Gravure Company (circa 1980). Vintage proofs include handwritten notes, likely made by Curtis Studio employees in Seattle and Los Angeles. Many of the photogravure plates do not have matching proofs; in particular, there are no proofs for the octavo plates.
Arrangement:
The plates and proofs are arranged by the volume of The North American Indian in which they were published. They are described in this finding aid by the caption and plate number with which they were published.
Biographical / Historical:
Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) was an American photographer best known for his monumental and now-controversial project, the twenty-volume publication The North American Indian. Here he sought to document in words and pictures the "vanishing race" of American Indians.
Born in Wisconsin in 1868, Edward Curtis grew up on his family's farm in Le Sueur County, Minnesota, from 1874 to 1887. In 1887, he and his father Johnson Curtis settled on a plot near what is now Port Orchard, Washington, and the rest of the family joined them the following year. When Johnson Curtis died within a month of the family's arrival, the burden of providing for his mother and siblings fell to 20-year-old Edward, and Edward set out to do so through his photography. In 1891, Curtis moved to the booming city of Seattle and bought into a joint photo studio with Rasmus Rothi. Less than a year later, he formed "Curtis and Guptill, Photographers and Photoengravers" with Thomas Guptill; the enterprise quickly became a premier portrait studio for Seattle's elite. In 1895, Curtis made his first "Indian photograph" depicting Princess Angeline, daughter of the chief for whom Seattle had been named. The following year he earned his first medal from the National Photographic Convention for his "genre studies."
In 1899, Edward Curtis joined the Harriman Alaska Expedition as official photographer, a position which allowed him to learn from anthropologists C. Hart Merriam and George Bird Grinnell while documenting the landscapes and peoples of the Alaskan coast. This expedition and the resulting friendship with Grinnell helped to foster Curtis's ultimate goal to "form a comprehensive and permanent record of all the important tribes of the United States and Alaska that still retain to a considerable degree their primitive customs and traditions" (General Introduction, The North American Indian). Curtis made several trips to reservations from 1900 to 1904, including a trip with Grinnell to Montana in 1900 and multiple trips to the Southwest, including the Hopi Reservation. He also hired Adolph Muhr, former assistant to Omaha photographer Frank A. Rinehart, to manage the Curtis studio in his absence, a decision which would prove more and more fruitful as Curtis spent less and less time in Seattle.
In 1906, Curtis struck a deal with financier J. P. Morgan, whereby Morgan would support a company – The North American Indian, Inc. – with $15,000 for five years, by which time the project was expected to have ended. Systematic fieldwork for the publication began in earnest that summer season, with Curtis accompanied by a team of ethnological researchers and American Indian assistants. Arguably the most important member of Curtis' field team was William Myers, a former newspaperman who collected much of the ethnological data and completed most of the writing for the project. The first volume, covering Navajo and Apache peoples, was published at the end of 1907, but already Morgan's funding was incapable of meeting Curtis's needs. Despite heaping praise from society's elite, Curtis spent much of his time struggling to find people and institutions willing to subscribe to the expensive set of volumes. After the initial five years, only eight of the proposed twenty volumes had been completed. Fieldwork and publication continued with the support of J. P. Morgan, but Curtis's home life suffered because of his prolonged absences.
In 1919, Curtis's wife Clara was awarded a divorce settlement which included the entire Curtis studio in Seattle. Exhausted and bankrupt, Edward Curtis moved with his daughter Beth Magnuson to Los Angeles, where they operated a new Curtis Studio and continued work on the volumes; volume 12 was published
in 1922. The constant financial strain forced Myers to leave the North American Indian team after volume 18 (fieldwork in 1926) and Curtis made his last trip to photograph and gather data for volume 20 in 1927. After the final volumes were published in 1930, Curtis almost completely faded from public notice until his work was "rediscovered" and popularized in the 1970s.
Curtis's "salvage ethnology," as scholar Mick Gidley describes it, was mildly controversial even during his life and has become ever more so as his legacy deepens. In his quest to photograph pre-colonial Indian life through a twentieth-century lens, he often manipulated and constructed history as much as he recorded it: he staged reenactments, added props, and removed evidence of twentieth-century influences on "primitive" life. Curtis's work continues to shape popular conceptions of American Indians and so, while problematic, his legacy--his vision of American Indian life--continues to be relevant.
Related Materials:
NMAI also holds Edward Curtis photographs documenting the Harriman Expedition (1899) as well as platinum prints and photogravures of the images published in The North American Indian.
The Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives holds Edward Curtis prints submitted for copyright (Photo Lot 59) as well as many of his original negatives, photographs, and papers.
Steve Kern donated photogravure plates to the Center for Creative Photography and the Seattle Art Museum at the same time that he donated this set to MAI.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Steven and Arlene Kern to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in 1984.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- Pictorial works Search this
Genre/Form:
Photogravures
Photographs
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Edward S. Curtis photogravure plates and proofs for The North American Indian, 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.
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.
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
