Indians of North America -- Southern States Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Articles
Notes
Scope and Contents:
Includes: Ms. on comparative Southeast ethnography, with information from the Alabama, Catawba, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Creek, Koasati, Natchez, Seminole, Tunica, and Yuchi. (Koasati material from field work; data on the rest of the tribes from published sources). 73 pages; typed, with pages 3-40 missing (this seems to be the Koasati data, probably among notes loaned to Dan Jacobson by LAT). Also includes 4 pages trait list. List of clans present in tribes listed above. 2 pages with 2 carbon copies. List of dances present in tribes listed above. 2 pages comparative Seminole-Chickasaw ethnography. 27 pages.
Gatschet, Albert S. (Albert Samuel), 1832-1907 Search this
Extent:
300 Items (cards, 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.)
Type:
Archival materials
Clippings
Notes
Scope and Contents:
Contains notes on various subjects. Newsclipping illustrations - portraits of public figures apparently kept for the portraits, not the text. Some brief biographical notes on anthropologists and on Indians.
Indians of North America -- Southern States Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Theses
Notes
Place:
Oklahoma
Date:
circa 1980-82
Scope and Contents:
Copy of J. Daniel Rogers master's thesis, "Social Ranking and Change in the Harlan and Spiro Phases of Eastern Oklahoma," and related notes, raw data, and analytical results.
This subseries is part of the Notes and writings on special linguistic studies series in the John P. Harrington papers. His research on non-American languages are gathered here in an alphabetically arranged file. His notes cover African languages, Ainu, Anglo-Saxon, Aramaic, Bulgarian, Burushaski, Chinese, Danish, English, French, Gaelic, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indic languages, Indo-European languages, Italian, Kurdish, Latin, Lithuanian, Persian, Polish, Russian, Semitic languages, Siamese, Slavic languages, Tagalog, Tamil, Tungus, Turkish, Ural-Altaic languages, Welsh, and Yiddish.The records contain a wide variety of materials, derived largely from secondary sources. There are bibliographic references, library request slips, and reading notes, as well as photostats and some printed matter. Also included are vocabulary lists, phonetic tables, texts, charts of linguistic relationships, notes from interviews, and copies of related correspondence. For the most part notes for any given language are scanty (from one to ten pages) and highly miscellaneous. His notes on Aramaic and Persian, however, are somewhat more organized and considerably more substantial, comprising several hundred pages each. Notes, largely on phonetics, that he obtained from his research at the New York Public Library and Columbia University account for a sizeable percentage of this subseries.
Biographical / Historical:
By far the major focus of John P. Harrington's linguistic studies was the numerous languages of North, Central, and South America. Over the course of his career, however, he amassed perhaps several thousand pages on other world languages.
Harrington studied classical and Indo-European languages at Stanford University from 1902 to 1905 and during his graduate work in Germany from 1905 to 1907. In the early years after his return to the United States he made a study on "The Frequency of French Sounds" and did comparisons between vowel sounds in French, Italian, Portuguese, and English.
Harrington's interest in many world languages was renewed in the early 1920s when he became friends with Paul Vogenitz, a translator in the Division of Foreign Mails at the Post Office Department. Vogenitz, a student mainly of European languages, urged Harrington to attend the language classes which he took from time to time. Although Harrington was not in a position to do this, the two men corresponded frequently in German, Spanish, Russian, and Nahuatl among other languages. Vogenitz also shared much of his knowledge with Harrington by preparing grammatical exercises, word lists, and phonetic summaries. Among the languages for which he provided this type of information are Ainu, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, and Yiddish.
From February through April 1923, Harrington corresponded with T. T. Waterman regarding the latter's plan to prepare a map of the linguistic families of the world. Probably because of their proposed collaboration, Harrington made a trip to New York City in March. On this occasion he made use of secondary sources at the New York Public Library and Columbia University.
As a result of Harrington's interest in Arabic influences on the Spanish spoken in the American southwest, he began his study of Persian in 1928 in "an attempt toward transliterating into an international phonetic script the Calcutta version of the quatrains attributed to Omar Khayyam."
During the 1930s Harrington collaborated with Moses Steinberg and George M. Lamsa in the translation and reinterpretation of various religious texts in Aramaic, such as the Talmud and the Gospels.
Harrington also collected data on a wide variety of languages from approximately 1940 to 1947 while he was at work on a treatise titled "Linguistics." At this time he added material to his files on Latin, Greek, and the Celtic, eastern European, and Indic languages.
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
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.
This subseries of the Notes and writings on special linguistic studies series contains material reflecting John P. Harrington's long-time interest in theories of the Siberian origin of American Indians. Materials consist of notes and drafts for his paper "Siberian Origin of the American Indian.
His early notes include handwritten and typed versions of the outline "Antiquity of Man . . . " from 1915 (dated by handwriting as well as by type of pencil and paper); copies of short early vocabularies recorded by La Perouse (Tchoka) and Father Jette (Ten'a), probably prepared by Harrington around 1922 to 1923; a mimeographed statement by the Science News Service, dated 1923; newspaper clippings on Harrington's theories from 1924; and two pages of notes which Harrington recorded during a discussion with colleague Truman Michelson in November 1926. There is also an undated typed proposal titled "Investigation of the Origin of the Native American Race." This three page document does not appear to have been written by Harrington, but the source is not indicated.
Materials accumulated during the period 1937 to 1938 are the most numerous. They include notes from interviews; copies of correspondence; records regarding the computation of tribal areas; notes on maps and photographs; and reading notes, extracts, and bibliographic references to secondary sources. The transcripts of interviews, dated February 1937 through November 1938, include information from Riley Moore, Carl Bishop, John G. Carter, and B.A.E. colleagues Truman Michelson and Matthew W. Stirling. The lengthiest set of notes is from a discussion with Smithsonian archeologist Henry B. Collins, who described fieldwork he had conducted from May to November 1936. The brief file of correspondence contains letters from Diamond Jenness and H. E. Rollins and a note from John G. Carter. The file on illustrative materials includes maps and charts showing the computation of land areas occupied by the Chukchee, Aleut, Eskimo, and Athapascan tribes. Supplementing these are notes from meetings with staff members of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in March and April 1937. There are also notes on maps, motion picture films, and photographs, as well as illustrations by Clark M. Garber and Joelle Danner. The notes from secondary sources include the title page and table of contents for a manuscript by Ivan A. Lopatin titled "The Cult of the Dead Among the Natives of the Amur Valley." There are also a few pages on file for another paper by Lopatin, "Material on the Language of the Natives of the Amur Region." There is also a sizable set of notes relating to the translation of various terms--mostly tribal names--into Russian. These include cut-and-pasted portions of letters which Waldemar Jochelson sent Harrington.
The material compiled after 1937 is highly miscellaneous. Items from the 1940s include a sixteen-page untitled rough draft on the migration of Siberian man; a three-page typed carbon copy of the article "Stepping Stones Between Eurasia and America" which was used in a release by the Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, on August 4, 1940; a partial draft of an article on boats; a sectional map of the Bering Strait which was mailed to Harrington by C. M. Garber on January 18, 1947; and notes from interviews with Mr. [Tappan?] Adney on March 28, 1941, with William Heslop and King Mooers later in that year, and with Henry B. Collins on December 8, 1947. There is also an Eskimo vocabulary which Harrington copied from William Thalbitzer and three pages of miscellaneous notes dating from the late 1950s.
A separate file of notes on Chukchee spans the entire period of Harrington's work on Siberia. There are a number of pages on Chukchee, Yukagir, and Eskimo mythology which he extracted from his notes for lectures at the University of Washington in 1910; brief notes from discussions with Truman Michelson, Waldemar Jochelson, and Franz Boas around 1926 to 1928; and copies made on February 23, 1937, of "Chukchee polysynthesis words" which had been compiled in an unspecified article by colleague Robert W. Young. The source of data for the latter was Waldemar Bogoras's paper "Chukchee" in the Handbook of American Indian Languages edited by Franz Boas. Later material includes a copy of a letter from Ivan Lopatin (November 23, 1947) with an enclosure titled "Discovery of the Chukchee and Derivation of the Name"; a copy by Harrington of the enclosure; and the rough beginning of a paper by Harrington titled "Short Sketch of the Grammar of the Chukchee Language," also evidently written in 1947.
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Genre/Form:
Notes
Manuscripts
Maps
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.
This subseries of the Notes and writings on special linguistic studies series contains materials resulting from Harrington's efforts to develop a phonetic alphabet for writing all languages.
There are four main groupings of notes relating to phonetics. A large set of uncategorized notes has been arranged in chronological order from 1910 through the 1950s. Most of the material dates from the period 1910 to 1915 and from 1921 to 1928; there are smaller amounts of data for the following three decades. The notes present alternate phonetic systems--sometimes referred to as "sonoscript"--in chart form with accompanying explanations of the rationale behind each proposed alphabet. There are also sample words and sentences written out phonetically. The notes from 1910 include a draft of a letter from Harrington to his mother and those from 1912 contain three large poster-sized charts. A second set of notes is arranged alphabetically by topic and includes subsections on alphabetic order, length, letters practical in handwriting, and pitch accent. A relatively large file labeled "phon[etic] letter forms" consists of various handwritten and typed letters as well as cut-and-pasted examples of letters from printed sources. There is also a clipping dated 1922 regarding an advocate of Esperanto with Harrington's own proposals for word forms in that language. In addition, the files contain a copy of an I.P.A. questionnaire and Harrington's comments on it. A third section of material consists of the notes which Harrington made during or immediately following interviews with about twenty linguists and anthropologists, among them Leonard Bloomfield, Alfred L. Kroeber, Robert H. Lowie, Edward Sapir, Morris Swadesh (misspelled "Schwadesh"), Ruth Underhill, Carl F. Voegelin, T. T. Waterman, and B.A.E. colleagues Hewitt, Michelson, and Swanton. Not all of the notes are dated; those which are clearly labeled cover discussions from the 1920s to the 1940s. The last grouping, compiled around 1923 to 1926, contains brief notes on various alphabets. The alphabetically arranged files cover the proposed systems of Arden, Forchhammer, Jespersen, Murray, Olbrechts, Pierce, Powell, and Rouse.
This subseries also contains drafts for four papers by Harrington on phonetics as well as a brief one-page draft description of a "Seminar in General Phonetics" which Harrington was planning to offer at the University of Southern California in 1935 or 1936.
Biographical / Historical:
One aspect of the study of linguistics of special interest to John P. Harrington was the development of a practical phonetic alphabet for writing all languages. It was an effort to which he devoted a great amount of time from 1910 to 1915, from 1922 to 1928, and again intermittently in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
In 1912 Harrington drafted comments on a proposal for an international conference to devise a universal phonetic system, and on a sample questionnaire which was mailed to many linguists by the International Phonetic Association (I.P.A.). It is unclear whether or not he actually submitted them to the I.P.A.
Also in that year he was chosen to serve on a committee ofthe American Anthropological Association to "prepare a scheme of phonetic representation which [would] have the official sanction" of the organization. Fellow committee members were Franz Boas (chair), Edward Sapir, Alfred L. Kroeber, and Earl Pliny Goddard.
Although later notes indicate that he consulted a number of language specialists, it appears that most of Harrington's efforts at devising a workable alphabet were undertaken alone or with only the cooperation of his friend Paul Vogenitz.
In the mid-1930s he was invited to teach a seminar on "General Phonetics" at the University of Southern California. While correspondence with Dr. Frank C. Touton, vice president of the university, suggests that Harrington contemplated offering the course at various times between the spring of 1935 and the summer of 1936, this plan was abandoned because of more pressing interests. He did touch on phonetics during his course on language at the University of Washington during the summer of 1910
At various points in his career Harrington wrote preliminary descriptions of the phonetic system he favored at that time. None of the early drafts appeared in print and as late as the 1940s, while writing the treatise "Linguistics," Harrington was undecided whether to publish his system or "die keeping it hidden."
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
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.
This subseries of the Notes and writings on special linguistic studies series represents John P. Harrington's miscellaneous writings on a variety of linguistic topics. The subseries is divided into three subsections. The first and largest contains a mixture of preliminary notes, rough drafts, and final drafts for approximately 120 proposed announcements, articles, and papers. The second section contains contributions to the works of others in the form of rough drafts, introductions, and translations, while the third consists of reviews of a number of books and papers, mostly written by friends and colleagues. Within each section papers have been arranged alphabetically.
The papers are based largely on research in secondary sources and cover a broad spectrum of anthropological topics. Some, such as those on binomial nomenclature, captioning, and various inventions, reflect Harrington's interest in scientific method and the technical aspects of the linguistic field. Others deal with the history of linguistic study and, in particular, the contributions of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
One common theme throughout many of the articles is the genetic relationship of the American Indian languages. These papers illustrate Harrington's belief that "language sheds more light on the early history of the American Indian than archeology." Another focus in many of the writings is the importance and uniqueness of the American Indian, especially from the point of view of sign language.
Articles on non-American languages and on the etymologies of certain words reveal his constant sense of curiosity and the numerous sidelines he pursued, as do a set of papers on such historical figures as Chaucer, Columbus, Churchill, and Ghandi. Still other papers ("Counting," for example) were written as part of the "war effort."
Harrington authored all but two of the papers-"New Russian Alphabet Praised by Ethnologist" and "[Translation of the Lord's Prayer]." These items are filed here because they are either based largely on notes from Harrington or contain many quotes from him. A number of the papers were coauthored by associates.
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
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.
This subseries of the Notes and writings on special linguistic studies series contains materials that represent John P. Harrington's work preparing a major work on linguistics. The results of his efforts were four separate manuscripts that not published.
The first manuscript is untitled. Related materials consist of handwritten notes and fragmentary rough drafts. There are extracts from a number of published sources which include linguistic data for Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Chinese, Turkish, Korean, and English as well as a number of American Indian languages. Also included here is material relating to grammatical terminology. There are extracts from a variety of dictionaries, copies of incoming and outgoing letters, and records of interviews.
Files for a manuscript titled "Linguistics" consist of extensive notes, a rough draft, a final draft, illustrations, and a draft of a review of the manuscript. The notes contain a mixture of reading notes, records of interviews, summaries of letters, and newspaper clippings. There are also references to a number of brief discussions which Harrington had at the two linguistic conferences he attended in 1940. At the meeting of the Linguistic Institute in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he learned about the work of Della Brunsteter on Cherokee and made records of a conversation with C. F. Voegelin and his Ojibwa informant, Gregor McGregor. At the Summer Institute of Linguistics at Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, he obtained details on Tule phonetics from a San BIas informant and spoke with Eunice Pike (the sister of Kenneth Pike) and Florence Hansen who were preparing a primer of the Mazatec language. There is also Navajo linguistic information from speaker Howard Gorman, some obtained directly from him and the remainder enclosed in correspondence from Robert W. Young. In addition there is a discrete file of notes which Harrington compiled from and about Kenneth L. Pike. Interspersed with his rough draft are notes reflecting his attempt to devise a personal phonetic system. The draft of a review of his manuscripts was written by Harrington, evidently to serve as a model for a review which would appear under the signature of a colleague.
The third manuscript in this subseries is a revised version of the previous manuscript. The files contain material that Harrington accumulated after submitting the original manuscript to Smithsonian Secretary Charles Abbott in 1941. These include notes recorded from Joseph White and a note from Truman Michelson, several bibliographies, illustrations, and scattered notes reflecting Harrington's attempt to develop a personal system of phonetics. Data from many languages are represented, although there is slightly more emphasis on the North American Indian languages than in the previous manuscript; extracts from Harrington's own field notes are included.
The fourth manuscript is titled "Language" and is represented by a mostly handwritten draft. The draft is basically a sequence of random ideas grouped loosely in outline fashion under the major headings "Phonetics," "Morphology," and "Writing."
The final file in this series contains copies of correspondence which were interfiled with Harrington's notes and writings on linguistics. The letters, which span the dates 1936 to 1951, have been arranged chronologically; three undated items have been placed at the end. Both incoming and outgoing letters are included. The most noteworthy item is a letter from Frank T. Siebert, Jr., dated July 23, 1944. It contains numerous suggestions for improving a chapter which Harrington wrote on phonology.
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.
Smithsonian Institution. United States National Museum. Animal Products Section Search this
Smithsonian Institution. United States National Museum. Department of Anthropology. Fishery section Search this
Collection Creator:
National Museum of Natural History (U.S.). Department of Anthropology Search this
Smithsonian Institution. Department of Anthropology Search this
Smithsonian Institution. United States National Museum. Department of Anthropology Search this
Extent:
Inches (ca. 2 inches)
Container:
Box 1, Folder 10-14
Type:
Archival materials
Notes
Letters
Lists
Drawings
Photographs
Exhibit labels
Date:
1880s-1890s
Scope and Contents:
Includes notes on animal products and fish and fisheries, drawings and notes on specimens, photographs, manuscripts, correspondence, exhibit labels, and so forth.
Collection Restrictions:
Some materials are restricted.
Access to the Department of Anthropology records requires an appointment.
National Museum of Natural History (U.S.). Department of Anthropology Search this
Smithsonian Institution. Department of Anthropology Search this
Smithsonian Institution. United States National Museum. Department of Anthropology Search this
Extent:
2 Inches
Container:
Box 8, Folder 111
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Illustrations
Notes
Manuscripts
Clippings
Scope and Contents:
Includes notes, clippings, illustrations, photographs, manuscripts. Contains data on the cow, buffalo, elephant, horse, ass, reindeer, yak, bee, bird, camel, dog, pig, ox sheep.
Collection Restrictions:
Some materials are restricted.
Access to the Department of Anthropology records requires an appointment.
