Davis visited the Diegueno and Luiseno in southern California; the Pi-pi (Pais), Kil-e-wah (Cahuilla), and Waicuri of Lower California, Mexico; the Yuma, Cocopah, Pima, Papago, Maricopa, Mojave, Hualapai (Walapai), Yaqui, and White Mountain Apache in Arizona; the Cora, Huichol, Opata, Mayo, and Yaqui of Mexico; the Seri of Tiburon Island; the Chemehuevi of Nevada and California; the Modoc and Klamath Lake Indians in Oregon; and the Paiute in Nevada. His collection contains photographs of Apache, Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Cochimi, Cochiti Pueblo, Cocopa, Cora, Guaicuruj, Huichol, Kawia, Kiliwa, Kumeyaay (Diegueno), Luiseno, Maricopa, Mayo, Mission, Mohave, Opata, Paipai, Papago (Tohono O'odham), Pima (Akimel O'odham), San Carlos Pueblo, San Manuel, Seri, Ute, Walapai (Hualapai), Yaqui, and Yuma.
Arrangement note:
Collection arranged by item number.
Biographical/Historical note:
Artist, photographer, and artefact collector, Edward Harvey Davis was born on June 18, 1862 in New York. He traveled to California in 1884 for health reasons (Bright's disease i.e. actue of chronic nephritis (a kidney disorder)), arriving in 1885, and settled on 320 acres in an area called Mesa Grande, east of San Diego. Later that year he returned to New York to marry, bringing his new bride, Anna May Wells back to California with him. They would eventually have four children. Shortly after settling in California, Davis became interested in the the Kumeyaay (Northern Diguenos), the Mesa Grande Indians indigenous to that area, and spent the remainder of his life collecting artifacts, studying and photographing them. He collected so many items that his ranch house ran out of room for them, necessitating the building of another structure (adobe) to house them. As a result of this interest and care of the Mesa Grande Indians in San Diego County, in 1907, Davis was named a ceremonial chief by the Indians themselves. Originally trained as an artist, Davis first worked as a drafter and architect. Upon his arrival in San Diego in 1885, he fortuitously invested in and profited from the booming real estate industry of the time. Davis became known to George Gustav Heye when Heye initially purchased a collection of Indian artifacts from him for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in 1915. With the money from the sale of his collection, Davis was able to open a resort lodge called the Powam that same year. His real estate investments and his lodge enabled Davis to finance his fieldwork, most of which he did on his own. In 1916 however, Davis also became an official field collector for the Museum of the American Indian in New York. Sporadically, from 1917 to 1930, Heye contracted Davis to conduct field trips to California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Mexico, and Tiburon Island, visiting over two dozen different Indian peoples in the course of his travels. Wherever he went, Davis continued to photograph the Native peoples, but did not consider these photographs to be part of his contract with Heye. Heye later purchased the bulk of Davis's photograph collection. Davis also had sketched objects and landscapes during his travels as a method of preserving what he saw. Davis died in San Bernardino on February 22, 1951. In addition to his photographs, Davis authored several scholarly articles.
Provenance:
Purchased;, Edward H. Davis;, 1917 and 1948.
Restrictions:
Access restricted. Researchers should contact the staff of the NMAI Archives for an appointment to access the collection.
The collection consists of negatives and photographs made by Halseth from 1920 to 1925 in Arizona and New Mexico.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists of negatives and photographs made by Halseth from 1920 to 1925 in Arizona and New Mexico. The materials are primarily informal, outdoor group and individual portraits of Akimel O'odham (Pima), Diné (Navajo), Yoeme (Yaqui) [Pascua Yaqui], Piipaash (Maricopa), K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Zia Pueblo, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Jemez Pueblo, Cochiti Pueblo, Kewa (Santo Domingo Pueblo), and Tesuque Pueblo men, women, and children. In addition among the Akimel O'odham photographs are depictions of dwellings, potters, ladle makers, baskets, the construction of an oven, food preparation, dwellings, and mattress factory wokers; among the K'apovi ceremonials and village views; among the Zia pottery and portraits of and paintings by Velino Shije Herrera; among the Jemez ceremonials and village views; among Kewa ovens; and among San Ildefonso village views and paintings by Awa Tsireh. The collection also includes photogrpahs depicting the pictographs at Puye.
Arrangement note:
Negatives Arranged by negative number (N32893-N33051)
Prints Arranged by print number (P19345-P19346, P19630-P19631)
Biographical/Historical note:
Born in 1893 in Moss, Norway, Halseth was an anthropologist, museum director, educator, author, art critic, and lecturer. As a young man he studied electrical engineering and anthropology in Germany and served both Norway and the United States during World War I. While in San Diego for military training, he met archaeologist Edgar L. Hewett and after the war accepted a position with Hewett as the curator of art at the San Diego Museum. In 1923, he moved to Santa Fe, where he was on both the staff of the School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico. After four years, Halseth was appointed director of the newly established Arizona Museum in Phoenix and in 1929 initiated the excavation of the Pueblo Grande Indian ruins and founded the Pueblo Grande Museum. Halseth was also Phoenix's head archaeologist and superintendent of the city's Division of Archaeology. Active in his field, Halseth was a fellow of the American Anthropological Association, a member of the Society of American Archaeology, and the author of numerous publications on Arizona archaeology and indigenous arts and crafts. He retired in 1960.
Provenance:
Historically, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation managed all photographic materials separately. This collection description represents current management practices of organizing and contextualizing related archival materials.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Rights:
Restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
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.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- Arizona -- Photographs Search this
Indians of North America -- New Mexico -- Photographs Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Photographic prints
Black-and-white negatives
Citation:
Odd Halseth collection of negatives and photographs, 1920-1925, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution
