Connecting European Collectors to Indigenous Collections

In the early 20th century, archaeological and ethnographic items often travelled through a complicated web of dealers, collectors and museums after leaving their source communities. Some of these objects passed through multiple hands before ending up at museums such as the National Museum of the American Indian. NMAI’s recent collaborative project with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa—the digitization and transcription of the William Ockleford Oldman Research Materials through the Smithsonian Transcription Center (see an earlier blog about the start of the project here)—has helped us begin to untangle some of these webs of relationships and transactions.

Oldman, a British dealer of ethnographic art, archaeology, and weaponry, sold thousands of objects to museums and collectors throughout Europe and the United States. Over several decades, he maintained detailed records of items in his stock in collection ledgers as well as separate sale registers to document his clients and sales. Since January, hardworking volunteers have transcribed nearly 1,000 pages of Oldman records, including four registers dating from 1902 to 1914 and “Part 1” of his collection ledger, where he recorded items in his stock in numerical order. Because of this work, the ledgers are now text searchable and we are able to glean new information about objects in the NMAI collection acquired from Oldman. Through analysis of the Oldman documents, we have been able to identify connections between our objects and other European dealers and collectors, much of which was totally unknown. Previously, we believed that George Heye, the founder of our predecessor institution the Museum of the American Indian, began purchasing objects from Oldman in 1911; however, Oldman’s sale records indicate that relationships between Oldman, Heye, and Heye’s museum staff began as early as 1907.

In 1907, archaeologist Marshall Saville—Curator of Mexican and Central American Archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History—resigned his AMNH position and went to work for George Heye and the Heye Museum (as it was then called). Saville’s duties included identifying and securing objects for the museum and, in 1907, Saville purchased a set of items from Oldman for the Heye Museum: ethnographic objects from Ecuador, including ear ornaments, a necklace, and a club; archaeological axes from the Caribbean; and a steatite dish from Newfoundland. Until now, these items were listed simply as “purchases” and none had any known connection to either Saville or Oldman. However, because Oldman’s ledgers include notations about how he acquired objects, we can now connect these objects to Oldman and to their previous owners. For example, a notation in Oldman’s ledger for the steatite dish from Newfoundland indicates that Oldman acquired it in March 1906 from H. G. Beasley.

Harry Geoffery Beasley (1881–1939) was a British collector and curator who, along with his wife Irene, later founded the Cranmore Ethnographical Museum in Chislehurst, Kent, England, for their collection of objects from Oceania, the Americas, Africa and Asia.

1/2442 Steatite Dish from Newfoundland purchased from W. O. Oldman in 1907 and its catalog card.

In later years, the Museum of the American Indian had other connections to Harry Beasley and the Cranmore Ethnographical Museum, including exchanges of objects in the 1930s, but the possibility of an earlier connection was totally unknown. 

Based in London, Oldman maintained a shop and also produced a series of catalogues to advertise items he had for sale. Established buyers like George Heye received Oldman’s published catalogues and could ask that the item be shipped to them on approval or buy them outright. One such item that made its way from Oldman to the Heye Museum was an early 19th-century Delaware bag, which Heye purchased in 1909. This bag appears in Oldman’s Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens, catalogue No. 71. Along with an illustration, a brief description of the bag and its price, Oldman included his stock number: 17907. Using this stock number, we were able to trace the bag back through Oldman’s records to reveal that he purchased it in October 1908 from W. H. Fenton of Fenton and Sons, who were dealers in antiques and curiosities that operated in London from around 1880 until the 1930s.

2/1288 Lenape (Delaware) Shoulder Bag circa 1820, purchased from W. O. Oldman in 1909.

Excerpt from W. O. Oldman Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens, catalogue No. 71. NMAI Vine Deloria Jr. Library.

The third recorded purchase made by George Heye in June 1909 is the one that began the quest to find the Oldman records mentioned in the previous blog (linked above). Heye purchased a selection of items: pipe tomahawks, beaded bags, carving tools, a dance apron, painted skin, and cape from British Columbia, and two Haida canoe paddles. Oldman recorded that he had acquired the paddles just a month earlier from James Edward Little (1876–1953), a British antiques dealer and furniture restorer. Little was also a forger of Polynesian objects and sold his fakes alongside authentic items; he was arrested several times for stealing artifacts from museums and replacing them with his copies.

2/2107 Haida Canoe Paddles from British Columbia purchased from W. O. Oldman in 1909.

Since the beginning of our collaborative project with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, we have identified about 50 sets of objects purchased by George Heye and the Museum of the American Indian from Oldman between 1907 and 1937, totaling approximately 1500 ethnographic and archaeological objects from throughout the Americas.

As we delve deeper into Oldman’s records, we continue to learn about connections between individual European collectors, much of which is of potential significance to other museums whose collections include objects acquired from Oldman. Because the Smithsonian Collections Search Center now displays the results of the transcribed Oldman materials, the names of collectors, dealers, or institutions that did business with Oldman can be searched: pages in the ledgers that include specific names will be returned and the researcher can go directly to the relevant page.

Another way to search for a collector is by using Oldman’s coding system: he assigned each buyer a code based on the first letter of their last name along with a number. For example, George Heye’s code was H28, Marshall Saville was S29, and H.G. Beasley was B16. Once the code is known, these can be searched as well. Oldman’s stock numbers can also be searched to find where he recorded them both in his sale registers and in his collection ledger.

The final batch of Oldman records—one more sale register for pistols and three more collection ledgers—have been added to the transcription center. Look for these projects at the Smithsonian Transcription Center. Thanks to all of the volunteers that have worked on this project so far and to those that will join: your contributions are helping us re-discover the history of our collections!

Maria Galban, Collections Documentation Manager
National Museum of the American Indian


Sources:
Hales, Robert and Kevin Conru, W.O. Oldman: the remarkable collector: William Ockleford Oldman's personal archive. Graphius, 2016

Oldman, W. O. Illustrated catalogue of ethnographical specimens, reprint of original catalogues, London, 1976.

Waterfield, Hermione and, Jonathan C. H. King, Provenance: Twelve Collectors of Ethnographic Art in England 1760-1990, Paul Holberton Publishing, London, 2010

 

 

Searching for Oldman: Museum Collaboration Across the Globe

Since 2010, a project has been underway at the National Museum of the American Indian to reunite archival records with our collections and reconstruct the provenance, or record of ownership, of objects. You can read more about what we refer to as the Retro-Accession Lot Project here. Our research began by utilizing our own resources in the NMAI Archive Center, the Museum of the American Indian - Heye Foundation Records, but has since grown to include archival resources at other institutions including one halfway around the world.

Early in the project it became evident that the history of the MAI, our predecessor institution, was intertwined with that of other organizations. It was also clear that the world of collecting Native American objects in the 20th century was a relatively small one. Many anthropologists and archaeologists worked for multiple institutions over the course of their lives; the result was that their papers were often spread between several locations. Objects for sale were offered to multiple institutions or collectors and if one potential buyer declined to purchase an item, another might scoop it up. For this reason, documentation about these transactions may exist in multiple archives. We knew that for some objects in our collection, the only way to get the full picture of their provenance was to expand the search to other institutions. This would also give us a better understanding of the interconnected network of dealers in Native American objects.

The George G. Heye Collection of North American Ethnology on display at the University Museum in 1910.
Photo Courtesy of the Penn Museum.

In 2015, we expanded our search for collections documentation to the University of Pennsylvania Museum Archives. In 1908, George Heye struck a deal to place his growing North American ethnology and archaeology collections at the University Museum in Philadelphia. There, the collections were cared for and exhibited in two galleries from 1909 until 1916 when Heye withdrew them to create the MAI, much to the dismay of the University Museum staff, who believed he would donate his collection to their museum. George Hubbard Pepper and Mark Raymond Harrington, who would later join the MAI staff, were employed at the University Museum to care for the Heye collection, conduct research and collect additional objects. Due to these relationships, the Penn Museum archives hold documentation from this early period of Heye’s collecting. 

Surprisingly, correspondence in the Penn archives between Heye and George Byron Gordon, the University Museum’s director, pointed to a new connection. In a letter to Gordon dated July 19, 1909, Heye wrote that he had in his possession “a British Columbia painted skin from Oldman.” This led to the discovery of an incredibly rich archival collection on the other side of the world.

I recognized the name Oldman from Museum of the American Indian catalog records: William Ockleford Oldman (1879–1949) was a British dealer in ethnographic art and European weaponry. He sold to museums and collectors throughout Europe and the United States, including George Heye. The NMAI collections include hundreds of objects recorded as purchased from Oldman, but we had no record of a 1909 purchase. Searching our collections database, I found a painted skin from British Columbia acquired in 1909 but there was no source named: its catalog card simply indicated that it was a purchase.

2/2063 Painted Skin from British Columbia purchased from W.O. Oldman in 1909 and its catalog card. Photo by Ernest Amoroso.

Digging deeper, I learned that Oldman was not only a dealer but also a collector. He sold his personal collection of Oceanic objects to the Government of New Zealand in 1948. This collection, including his business records, is now part of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington.

To learn more about these business records, I contacted Te Papa’s archives and received word that they had several of Oldman’s sale registers as well as his collection ledgers and correspondence. Their archivist, Jennifer Twist, kindly provided a few photographs of the material so I could evaluate the type of information included. One photo from Oldman’s ledger confirmed not only the sale of the painted skin in June 1909 to George Heye but other objects Heye had purchased at the same time. Based on the descriptions in Oldman’s ledgers, I succeeded in identifying several other NMAI objects that were described simply as purchases on their catalog cards. As an added bonus, Oldman had recorded the date he had purchased the items and from whom. The painted skin that began this search was purchased by Oldman from the J.C. Stevens Auction on February 16, 1909. Documentation at Te Papa confirmed the items’ association with Oldman but also provided starting points for research into his sources and the hands objects had traveled through.

W. O. Oldman Sale Register CA000228/001/0001 page 209, New Zealand Museum Te Papa Tongarewa

It became clear that the information in the Oldman ledgers was pertinent not only to NMAI and our provenance research project but also to other museums around the world that also hold collections purchased from Oldman. Gaining a better sense of who Oldman bought from also has the potential to improve our understanding of how Native American objects made their way to Europe in the first place.

To maximize the importance of the Oldman records to NMAI and to other institutions, we initiated a collaborative project with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa to digitize the Oldman ledgers and make digital images accessible to the public. Te Papa has digitized five Oldman sale registers and two collection ledgers dating from 1902 to 1916. These collaborative research materials are now available for review on the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archive here . Since the ledgers date from the early 20th century and are handwritten, we have also begun a Smithsonian Transcription Center project to have them transcribed. Please take some time to check out this important project and become a volunteer!

Without the connections we have made with other institutions, research about the NMAI collections—including the Oldman objects—would quickly have reached a dead end. By researching relationships between early collectors, dealers, and museums, we can fill in some gaps in our catalog data and restore the connections that have long been broken between our objects and the individuals that made, used, or sold these items.

Many thanks to Alessandro Pezzati and Eric Schnittke for providing access and guidance during research at the Penn Museum Archives and to Jennifer Twist, Mike O’Neill, and Victoria Leachman at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa for their hard work in collaborating with us on this project.

Maria Galban, Collections Documentation Manager
National Museum of the American Indian

The Tradescant Museum: A Proto-Smithsonian in London?

In one rare book in the Cullman Library in the National Museum of Natural History is a door to the lost world of two remarkable gardeners and the first museum in Great Britain open to the public.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has digitized the Smithsonian Libraries copy of the Musaeum Tradescantianum (link here)

Musaeum Tradescantianum, or, A collection of rarities preserved at South-Lambeth neer London, published in 1656, is a catalog of curiosities and trees, shrubs and plants assembled by father and son, both named John Tradescant, from far-flung trips. This printing of the contents of the house and gardens, dubbed the Ark, was paid for by Elias Ashmole, who, in turn, under murky circumstances, acquired it all, forming the nucleus of Oxford University’s famous Ashmolean Museum.

John Tradescant’s house at south Lambeth. Line engraving, 1798 (photograph from Wellcome Images)

In the gardens and orchards of the Thames River estate, in the borough of Lambeth, the Tradescants grew over 700 botanical specimens. John the elder (approximately 1570-1638) and John the younger (1608-1662) were gardeners to a succession of nobility and royalty and, owing to these wealthy patronages, plant explorers. Tradescant senior journeyed to the Low Countries and France beginning in 1609 for Robert Cecil’s gardens at Hatfield House (limes, mulberries, cherries, tulips were acquired). He accompanied Sir Dudley Digges to Russia (1618), introducing the larch tree to England, and also explored North Africa (from 1620), returning with Syringa persica (Lilac). Tradescant oversaw the grounds of Oatlands in Surrey for King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria; his son succeeded him there as Keeper of His Majesty’s Gardens, Vines, and Silkworms.

A posthumous oil portrait of John Tradescant the Elder, attributed to Cornelis de Neve. The trompe-l’oeil cartouche contains grapes, pear, peaches, plums, parsnips, turnips, onions, tulips, and shells in a fitting tribute. (Photograph from the Ashmolean, Museum of Art and Archaeology,University of Oxford)

Many North American plants were introduced into England by the Virginia Company of London, a stock (for-profit) company formed to establish a colony in the New World. Tradescant senior became a subscriber to the enterprise in 1617 and was growing about forty specimens from this venture by 1634. His son made the voyage himself, collecting in Virginia during separate trips in 1637, 1642 and 1654. Some of the fruits of these expeditions — “to gather all rarities of flowers, plants, and shells” — including the American cowslip (Dodecatheon meadia), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), were planted in the Lambeth gardens and recorded in the catalog Musaeum Tradescantianum, with many becoming standards of the English cottage garden of today.

Portrait of John Tradescant the Younger, attributed to Thomas de Critz. A wonderful romantic and melancholy presentation of the gardener, with his spade. (Photograph from the Ashmolean, Museum of Art and Archaeology,University of Oxford)

North American botanical specimens were not the only curiosities attracting the Tradescants. Objects came into the collection, not only from the father and son’s journeys, but also from fellow travelers, sea captains, military officers, and diplomats. There were wonders in the Ark: a piece of Christ’s cross, a hand of a mermaid, a unicorn’s horn that Tradescant knew was from a narwhal but believed to be “yet very precious against poison.” Listed in the Musaeum Tradescantianum were “Divers Humming Birds, three sorts whereof are from Virginia.” And, “Pohatan, King of Virginias habit [cloak] all embroidered with shells, or Roanoke.” The 1901 Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution proudly, if not entirely accurately, boasts “The collections of Sloane, who was one of the early scientific explorers of America, were like those of the Tradescants, contained many New World specimens, and the British Museum as well as the Ashmolean was built around a nucleus of American material.”

The Ark’s various collections of weapons, garments, coins, “fourfooted beasts,” birds, insects, fishes, fossils, minerals, instruments, works of art, all numerated in the Musaeum Tradescantianum, are of course the type that are housed, cataloged, studied and displayed in the Smithsonian. Along with the curious public (there are many contemporary accounts), visitors of more serious interests soon started referencing and studying the holdings. Schoolmaster Charles Hoole believed that every child should pay an annual visit. Thomas Johnson, in his edition of Gerard’s Herbal, noted that “Indian Morrice Bells” could be seen at South Lambeth. The dodo, penguin, “Brazilian Merula or blackbird,” and “Indian Mockbird” were studied by the ornithologist Francis Willughby and naturalist John Ray.

The 1656 catalog was a unique publication in England for the time. Materials were divided into two categories, “Naturall” and “Artificialls”. The Musaeum Tradescantianum is particularly important as a detailed record of the gardens, long since destroyed. The main residence of the Tradescants, Turret House, survived until 1881. Oxford’s Bodleian Library contains some of the gardeners’s manuscripts and books, including the wonderful manuscript “Tradescant’s Orchard”, watercolors of fruit, and the only known copy of the 1634 Plantarum in horto Johannem Tradescanti nascentium catalogus. 

“Dodar, from the Island of Mauritius; it is not able to flie being so big:” the description from Musaeum Tradescantianum (page 4). The Tradescant or Oxford Dodo. Skeleton cast and model of dodo at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History

The Tradescants’ collection of the Ark in the Ashmolean is now mostly dispersed. Even the Tradescant Dodo was thrown into a trash bonfire in 1755 although the head and a leg were rescued and displayed in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Today the Garden Museum (near the original estate), with funding from the Ashmolean Museum, is working toward a partial recreation of the Ark. The Musaeum Tradescantianum provides the guidebook to the Tradescants’s Cabinet of Wonders, a 17^th-century precursor to the collections of the Smithsonian.  

Notes: 

The portrait engravings in the Musaeum Tradescantianum were by the famous Wenceslaus Hollar, a family friend.

The Garden Club of Virginia honored both the Tradescants and their state with a stain glass window of the family's coat of arms within a wreath of Tradescantia virginiania, presented to Oxford University in 1926. The generic name Tradescantia dates from 1718 and was recognized by Linnaeus. The stain glass resides in the Museum of the History of Science (Old Ashmolean Building). Photograph by Andrew Gray (Wikimedia Commons).  

Tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart'. Collected by Robert Bruce Faden for the Botany Department of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Photograph by Leslie Brothers

 

Allan, Mea. The Tradescants: their plants, gardens and museum, 1570-1662. London: Michael Joseph, 1964.

Leith-Ross, Prudence. The John Tradescants: gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen. London: Peter Owen, 1984.


Julia Blakely, Special Collections Cataloger
Smithsonian Libraries

Researching Druids

I recently researched a scientist by the name of Druid Wilson in order to create his EAC-CPF record-- EAC schema provides a way of delineating a collection creator's biographical details. I do this type of research because our collection creators commonly don't have archival collections with finding aids or published biographies.

Specimens collected by Druid Wilson in the Paleobiology Collections of the National Museum of Natural History. Clockwise from top left: Maretia carolinensis Kier, 1997 (PAL 398338), Rhyncholampas gouldii newbernensis Kier, 1997 (PAL 398324), Echinocyamus wilsoni Kier, 1997 (PAL 398476), and Psammechinus carolinensis Kier, 1997 (PAL 398321). 

When I began my research, I figured I had three details in my favor. He worked for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), his name is unique, and he published articles with USGS. Given that he was published, worked for a major federal agency, and had an unusual name, I thought finding basic details would be relatively easy. How many Druid Wilsons could there be? 

According to my research, there may be more than one, and both had a demonstrated interest in paleontology. What are the chances?

I started with my favorite online platforms: VIAF, Google, JStor, and Ancestry.com through Smithsonian Libraries. I found a tantalizing bit of information in a JStor article about proposed members in Journal of Paleontology from September 1949:

"WILSON, DRUID, Frostproof, Fla. B.S., 1929, Southern College, Lakeland, Fla. Citrus grower and amateur paleontologist. Interested in Tertiary invertebrata. Proposed by Katherine V. W. Palmer and G. D. Harris."

I checked Ancestry.com and found that life dates that appeared to be for possibly two different Druid Wilsons, approximately 1906 - 2002. My confusion was due to the locations listed in Ancestry. It appeared as if one Druid lived his entire life in Florida and the other didn't. Most long term USGS staff live in the Washington DC area. Florida didn't make sense. However, as I began to catalog his papers, I found a significant portion of them covered the paleontology of Florida. I found a listing for a Druid Wilson in Alexandria, VA, which made more sense geographically.

If I could trust the bits I found online, I could say he was born around 1906, lived in Florida, primarily Frostproof. He earned a B.S. from Florida Southern College. Druid was originally a citrus grower who developed an interest in paleontology, and later worked for U.S. Geological Survey. He married Ethel Adams Wax in 1941 (source: Florida Department of Health), and passed away around 2002.

I would love to think that we have the field notes of a former citrus grower. I want to find out how he became fascinated by paleontology. However, I don't even know Druid Wilson's middle initial to confirm his identity. If there are two Druids, their life dates are also similar.

To add to this mystery, I found a Smithsonian form for official travel, listing travel to Frostproof, Florida in 1978 in volume 7 of his notes on Florida!

With more time and research, I may be able to determine that they are indeed the same person. This brings up a difficult question of balancing time with other work responsibilities. I am personally tantalized by the potential story, but will have to leave the bread crumbs for a future researcher or staff member. The details I leave behind must be definitive and verifiable, so that the EAC record makes an excellent trail of crumbs.

Lesley Parilla, Cataloger
The Field Book Project

Congratulations Hirshhorn!

Unique in style and substance on the Mall, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s opening night, October 4, 1974, was a glamorous affair that showed off the circular building, the sculpture garden grounds, and the collections they housed at their best. This was the first modern art collection on the National Mall, and the museum's design reflected its collection.

On opening night of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, October 4, 1974, a crowd has gathered in the interior court. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Neg. #92-1647. 

Those collections numbered over six thousand items on opening day, their transfer from Joe and Olga Hirshhorn completed just a month before the museum opened.  The couple was avid collectors of modern art, and wanted to see their collection kept together in a museum so that others could enjoy the art as much as they had.  With the help of Lady Bird and Lyndon B. Johnson, Secretary S. Dillion Ripley convinced them to donate their collection to the Smithsonian.

Arriving on the Mall from the Hirshhorn home in Greenwich, Connecticut, Henry Moore's "King and Queen" is gently lowered into place on its pedestal in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Neg. #SIA2011-2398.

As a uniquely modern building on the National Mall, the circular building features curved galleries that float above the grounds that hold the Hirshhorn’s large sculpture collection. On opening night, both the garden and the museum glittered with bright lights. In his opening night remarks Secretary Ripley set the museum a lofty goal saying, “the purpose of the Hirshhorn is to remind us all that life is more than the usual, that the human mind is capable of seeing life subjectively, and being stirred into new and positive ways of thought…. Let its assemblage of shapes and objects continue to stir our slothful minds and jog our minds our sensibilities as they are designed to do.” William Schuman composed a special piece of music for the occasion, “Prelude for a Great Occasion” played by the National Symphony Orchestra during opening ceremonies.

Secretary S. Dillon Ripley (1964-1984) greets Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn, founding donor, on opening day of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, October 4, 1974. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Neg. #SIA74-9851-04.

The Hirshhorn opened to high hopes and lots of enthusiasm.  In its first six months over one million visitors saw the opening exhibit of items from the permanent collection.  The Washington Post claimed that the collection “will enable to the Hirshhorn, better perhaps than any other museum, to present a comprehensive account of the development of modern art from the mid-19th century to the present.” And the Washington Star-News exclaimed “Well, we’ve seen it now. And we’re in love with it. It’s exciting, it’s full of old friends and many new ones that we hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting before, and it’s, above all, great fun.”

Above all, I think that would have most pleased Mr. Hirshhorn and Secretary Ripley that this gift of art was bringing as much joy to its visitors as it brought to them.  This sense of joy and celebration ran throughout its opening days as Mr. Hirshhorn surprised the Museum with ‘birthday’ gift of four additional sculptures for the inaugural exhibition.

Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Archivist on the Road

This October, the Smithsonian Collections Blog is celebrating American Archives Month with a month-long blogathon! We will be posting new content almost every weekday with the theme Discover and Connect. See additional posts from our other participating blogs, as well as related events and resources, on the Smithsonian’s Archives Month website.

In my capacity as a collector at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, I am lucky to be one of those with the opportunity to travel the country to discover new collections to add to our holdings in American art history. In August and September of this summer, I made a circuit around the Rocky Mountains and along the West Coast of the United States in search of letters, sketchbooks, photographs, journals, and other primary resources to acquire for our collection. These voyages of discovery are an incredibly rewarding part of the work we do at SI.

My August trip’s direct route was about 4000 miles, but with side trips to places like Hondo, New Mexico and Aspen, Colorado, among others, I put over 6500 miles on my rental car.

There are many means by which we discover the existence of a new cache of papers we may want to acquire. The first, and most common, is from unsolicited offers from artists, dealers, collectors, scholars, or their heirs. Although we can’t accept everything offered to us, we do often run across collections of exceptional depth and scope, like that of Santa Fe dealer Dwight Hackett. Hackett ran an art foundry in New Mexico and worked to realize in metal the work of some of America’s most highly-regarded artists. The records of Art Foundry and his subsequent business Dwight Hackett Projects contain a wealth of research-ready material on artists like Kiki Smith, Lesley Dill, Bruce Nauman, Luis Jimenez, and Lynda Benglis.

The Art Foundry records and the Dwight Hackett Project records comprise over 40 linear feet of correspondence, photographs, drawings, and project files.

Another method that we employ for discovering interesting collections for potential acquisition is to build networks in art communities throughout the country. Our friends in the field often suggest people whose papers we might be keen to collect. Such was the case on this trip with metalsmith Tom Joyce, another Santa Fean, to whom I was introduced through a mutual friend. Joyce is a self-made man in every sense of the word. This includes his breathtaking home and studio, which he built by hand without any formal training in architecture. Joyce also collects widely in African metalwork. His papers include a shelf of dense sketchbooks with drawings by Joyce of each new acquisition in his metalwork collection.

Tom Joyce in his studio. In addition to his enviable collections of books and African metalwork, Joyce has a remarkable number of tools for his craft.

Tom Joyce draws each new acquisition of his African metalwork collection so that he can “get to know the piece better.”

Often, we look for collections with a connection to people already represented in our holdings. While in Seattle, Washington, I looked at the papers of the artist Byron Randall. Randall was married to Emmy Lou Packard, whose papers contain important material on her friend, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Randall and Packard also ran a gallery together in Northern California. Collecting in “circles” like this allows us to build on our strengths and comes with the added bonus of getting both sides of a correspondence. 

Ahren Hertel in his Reno, Nevada studio.

My favorite thing to do while I’m on the road is to meet young, emerging artists, whose archives may not be of interest to us yet, but whose promising careers mean we may be knocking on their doors later in life. A friend of mine in Reno, Nevada told me I had to meet two local painters, Jaxon Northon and Ahren Hertel. Both work in similar styles but have very different processes and themes. Not only is it important for us to develop these relationships early, but painters like Northon and Hertel represent a generation of artists whose “papers” will contain virtually no paper at all. Learning how they work, communicate with one another, and market their work is crucial to understanding what archives will look like in the coming decades.

Jason Stieber, National Collector

Archives of American Art

Alixa Naff and her Arab American Collection

The Smithsonian Institution is noting the death on June 1, 2013, of Dr. Alixa Naff, a generous donor, passionate collector, and pioneering historian of Arab American culture and immigration history.

The Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection is one of the National Museum of American History's most important collections which document immigrant experiences. Dr. Alixa Naff devoted the better part of her life to assembling this collection of oral histories, photographs, manuscript materials, other documents, and artifacts, and donated it to the Museum in her parents' honor. The archival materials are housed in the Archives Center, and the artifacts, such as religious objects, musical instruments, and personal and household items, are stored with the Museum's "three-dimensional" objects. Following her donation, Dr. Naff worked tirelessly with the collection as an Archives Center volunteer for many years.

The occupations of many immigrant families are well illustrated in the Archives Center's Naff Collection, among them the Doumar family, which operated an ice cream business in Norfolk, Virginia, in the early part of the twentieth century. Studio portraits show family members, while exterior and interior views of Doumar ice cream stands and facilities offer significant glimpses into immigrants' lives. Some record the growth of technology as well, among the multiple layers of information which documentary photographs can convey. Consider this view of George Elicas Doumar using a waffle cone making machine, which was introduced in 1919 and allegedly made hand machines obsolete.

George Elicas Doumar using waffle cone making machine, Ocean View Park, Norfolk, Virginia, 1920.
Photographer unidentified.  From the Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection, Archives Center.

David Haberstich
Curator of Photography, Archives Center

LAX in the Stacks

Creek lacrosse players in Oklahoma fight for the ball by Eugene Heflin, 1938.
(NAA INV 01783800) SPC Se Creek BAE 3302 (V 2) 01783800,
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Spring is here again and in most parts of the country attention is focused on ballparks where the national pastime begins a new season. However, in other parts of the U.S., other  athletes are   pursuing their preferred sport – lacrosse. A couple years ago, we presented one of the earliest ethnographic descriptions of this  game as published by James Mooney in an 1890 issue of The American Anthropologist. In his article, Mooney described the game as it was played by the Cherokee Indians.

Two years after Mooney’s publication, John Napoleon Brinton (J.N.B.) Hewitt, a linguist and ethnologist who worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology (the records of which are the foundation for the NAA’s collection), published his description of the Iroquois version of lacrosse also in The American Anthropologist (vol. 5, 1892, p. 189-191).  Born on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation in New York State, Hewitt offered some insight into how the Iroquois played the game and the significance they placed on the contests.   The National Anthropological Archives (NAA) holds a letter from Hewitt that appears to be a draft of the article as well as an extract from a book by Hewitt that adds more information on lacrosse as it was played in Iroquois communities.

Seneca men playing lacrosse on the Allegheny Reservation in New York State. 
(NAA INV 00750301)SPC Ne Iroquois Gen/Unid BAE 4413 00750301,
NationalAnthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Original photo
(graphics: 2291) is copyrighted by the American Philosophical Society. 
Permission to publish is required.

In his study, Mooney highlighted the taboos and rites the Cherokee observed when preparing for their games in order to increase their chances for success. Hewitt also found strict pre-game preparations among the Iroquois who played lacrosse. Prior to the games, “players would go through a course of stringent fasting, bathing, and emetics, which [the]latter were infusions of the bark of the spotted alder and red willow” and also noted the Iroquois players would invariably carry “some charm or talisman to insure their victory. ” In a more recent publication, Thomas Vennum (1994: 36) indicates that Iroquois lacrosse players, in recognition of the greater powers held by medicine men, would seek out the support of the best among them. Predictably, however, a show of favoritism toward ones’ opponents by a medicine man with a reputation for greater powers almost always had a disheartening impact on players.

Passamaquoddy lacrosse stick
collected by Edward Palmer in
Pleasant Point, Maine and donated
in 1873.  (E11425-0) Department
of Anthropology, National
Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution.

Photograph of the Wolftown lacrosse team of the Qualla Reservation in North
Carolina by James Mooney. (NAA INV 06217800) BAE GN 01041 06217800,
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Such ritual preparations and ferocity with which the Iroquois played the game suggest the importance that the participants and the community placed on lacrosse. Hewitt documented the abandon with which these contests were waged, noting that players were “permitted to trip, throw, push, hold, and run at full speed against any antagonist.” This resulted in “many hands and fingers crushed; arms, legs, bones, and noses broken; brows beaten down; joints dislocated, heads split; sometimes even a player is killed.” 
While players risked life and limb during a lacrosse game, they also could also win high praise for their performance. Hewitt explained that “it was a feat of great honor for a player to take the ball on his bat [stick], elude his pursuers and opponents, outplay the doorguard [goalie] and then carry the ball into the goal, and especially if he was able to walk into the goal.”

Those familiar with the modern game of lacrosse may be surprised to learn that Iroquois players could score by walking through the goal with the ball. The crease – a circle drawn around the goal which only the goalie may enter – prevents such play in the modern game. Other differences between the Iroquois game Hewitt described and the modern one include the size of the teams and timekeeping. The Iroquois did not the limit the size of the lacrosse teams so long as there were equal numbers on each team. There was also no time limit to the games. The first team to score an agreed upon number of points was deemed the winner.

Lacrosse stick probably used in woodlands surrounding the
western Great Lakes and added to Department of Anthropology’s
collection in 1867. (E2670-0) Department of Anthropology,
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

The photos on this page are a sample of the many in the NAA’s collection that depict lacrosse games and players. There are also images of several types of lacrosse sticks that are part of the collections at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. They reflect the different versions of the game that various communities of Native Americans across the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada played as well as the evolution of the game over time (e.g. the use of protective equipment in later years). Check them out and enjoy the rich and proud tradition of a sport inherited from American Indian communities. To learn more about the various forms of lacrosse played by these communities, we recommend American Indian Lacrosse:  Little Brother of War by Senior Ethnomusicologist Emeritus at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Thomas Vennum, Jr.  (Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994).

Adam Minakowski, Reference Archivist 
National Anthropological Archives

Laplako men taking medicine in preparation for a lacrosse game by John Reed Swanton, 1913.  Photo 165h, Photo Lot 76, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.