Increasing Central and South American Archival Collections at the NMAI, and Fulfilling the Museum’s Original Mission

Meeting Minutes from its opening year in 1916 record that the Museum of the American Indian’s founding mission was “the collection, preservation, study and exhibition of all things connected with the anthropology of the aboriginal peoples of North, South and Central Americas.” The following century brought with it many changes to the original museum, including its incorporation into the Smithsonian, its expansion from locations not just in New York but also in Washington, DC and Suitland, Maryland, and a re-wording of the original mission statement that was more inclusive of contemporary Native Americans. Throughout all of that time, however, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) has remained steadfast in its goal of advancing knowledge and understanding of the Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere.

MAI, Heye Foundation Meeting Minutes, 1916. Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records,

Box 99 Folder 1; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Aiding this goal are individual donors such as G. Gage Skinner who recently gifted to the NMAI’s Archive Center a collection of 260 photographic slides and 1 audio cassette documenting his volunteer service and travels throughout South America.

Young Mapuche woman in traditional dress, Chile. Photograph by G. Gage Skinner, 1964.
G. Gage Skinner Collection, NMAI.AC.116, 116_001_005_011.  

Ricardo Antileo and family, Chile. Photograph by G. Gage Skinner, 1964.
G. Gage Skinner Collection, NMAI.AC.116, 116_001_006_007.

Traveling to Chile in 1964, G. Gage Skinner began his service as a Peace Corps volunteer focusing on rural community development, specifically working with the indigenous Mapuche peoples of the Araucanía Region. As President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps only three years prior in 1961, Skinner was among the earliest of Peace Corps volunteers in Chile. Serving from 1964 to 1966, he was instrumental in developing a local beekeeping project as well as a marketing venture to promote the sale of Mapuche-made arts and crafts, with the proceeds returning to the Native communities of the area. Throughout his volunteer service, Skinner documented the daily lives of Mapuche villagers, their homes, ceremonies, and land, and was even invited to attend, photograph, and record a Mapuche Nguillatún ceremony, or annual harvest celebration and festival.

Mapuche men playing chueca, Chile. Photographs by G. Gage Skinner, 1965.
 G. Gage Skinner Collection, NMAI.AC.116, 116_001_005_001.

Mapuche men playing chueca, Chile. Photographs by G. Gage Skinner, 1965.
G. Gage Skinner Collection, NMAI.AC.116, 116_001_005_020

Returning to South America in 1972, Skinner took part in a mountain climbing party through the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range in Colombia. While there, Skinner again documented the lives of the indigenous peoples of the area, including principally the Ika (Ica/Arhuaco) and the Kogi (Kagaba). Particular focus in his photographs was given to Native dwellings and architecture, trade, weaving, and daily village life.

Landscape view of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Photograph by G. Gage Skinner, 1972. 
 G. Gage Skinner Collection, NMAI.AC.116, 116_001_009_011

Ika (Ica/Arhuaco) man with accordion and family. Photograph by G. Gage Skinner, 1972.
G. Gage Skinner Collection, NMAI.AC.116, 116_001_014_005.

Ika (Ica/Arhuaco) woman and child. Photograph by G. Gage Skinner, 1972.
G. Gage Skinner Collection, NMAI.AC.116, 116_001_014_001.

The Archive Center at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian is delighted to receive and make accessible these images which document the lives of Native communities across South America. The 260 photographic slides in the G. Gage Skinner Collection serve to complement and broaden the museum’s growing archival and object collections which highlight the rich and varied histories and cultures of the peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

Examples of other NMAI Archive Center collections which document the Native peoples of Central and South America include the Elayne Zorn Collection, the Gertrude Litto Collection, and the June Alice Spencer Photograph Collection. Many more archival collections relating to Central and South America also exist in the collections, and are currently being processed and digitized by the NMAI Archive Center staff, so please check back often to see how the collections have grown and become more accessible. Finally, you are always welcome to read more about these collections here on the Smithsonian Collections Blog (including recent posts on the Elayne Zorn collection), and to conduct your own searches for similar archival collections via the publicly-accessible Smithsonian Collections Search Center website and the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives (SOVA).

Nathan Sowry, Reference Archivist, NMAI Archive Center