Connecting Archives and Artifacts: Year Two of the Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project

Year two of the Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project is underway! In the upcoming weeks, you’ll hear from three Solecki Project interns about how the Solecki Project Team integrated artifacts into storage, a Neanderthal murder mystery, and the fascinating Proto-Neolithic site of Zawi Chemi Shanidar.

While the first year of the Solecki project focused on processing the archival materials of paleoarchaeologists Ralph and Rose Solecki including field notes, maps, photographs, and correspondence, this year the project is devoted to cataloging artifacts unearthed during the Soleckis' excavations at sites throughout the Near East, most notably at the site of Shanidar Cave and Zawi Chemi Shanidar in northern Iraq in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as artifacts from their teaching collections.

Ralph and Rose Solecki analyzing artifacts at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, 1966. [1]

As archaeologists, Ralph and Rose Solecki meticulously documented the sites at which they excavated. This documentation included detailed maps of their excavations with the exact locations of artifacts, faunal (or animal) remains, charcoal and soil samples, and other finds like Neanderthal remains in situ, or in its original position in the ground; field data cards with drawings or photographs of each artifact; data sheets containing analysis of artifacts to determine the methods in which they were created and utilized by ancient peoples; and countless other mediums of recording their archaeological work.  All of this documentation created by the Soleckis can be found within their archival collection and is crucial for fully understanding the artifacts during the cataloging process.

Notched Steep Side Scraper (A607238-0) and an illustration from Season IV excavations of the Zawi Chemi Shanidar site, 1960. [1&2]

Now that the wealth of information within the Soleckis’ archival collections has been realized through the first year of the project, the goal of the second year is to catalog the artifacts and connect the information in the archival collection to the catalog records for each artifact within the NMNH Department of Anthropology’s collections database. By consulting the documentation, the catalog records will include exact locations from which the artifacts were uncovered, the temporal and cultural affiliation of the artifact such as Mousterian (the time period associated with Neanderthals) or Protoneolithic (the era just before the emergence of agriculture), and the type of tool or purpose of the artifact as evaluated by Ralph and Rose Solecki. All of this information from the archives provides context to the artifacts that could otherwise be lost and make future research of the material much more difficult if not impossible. By connecting the archives to the artifacts and vice versa, both collections become more accessible to anyone who might be interested in the Soleckis’ seminal archaeological work.

Catalogued artifacts from Season III excavations (1956-1957) of the Shanidar Cave site [2]

Revisiting the Soleckis’ archives and the original finds is a vital part of new investigations at Shanidar Cave, which have been ongoing since 2014 and which are led by Professor Graeme Barker from the University of Cambridge, UK [3]. Shanidar Cave is one of the most important Neanderthal sites ever discovered, and modern archaeological techniques that were unavailable at the time when Ralph Solecki was excavating have enormous potential to deepen our knowledge of when Neanderthals and modern humans used the cave, what they ate, the tools they used, and how they lived. Dr. Sacha Jones (University of Cambridge) has already re-analyzed the stone tools recovered during Ralph Solecki’s excavations to better understand Neanderthal and modern human technologies at Shanidar. Unpublished archive photos from Ralph Solecki’s excavations also proved invaluable for identifying and understanding exciting new Neanderthal remains discovered during the more recent excavations [4]. The archival material provides an essential foundation on which to build current and future research, and to which researchers return with new questions, methods and perspectives to gain a more complete picture of the lives of our ancestors.

As the second year of the Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project continues, look out for more highlights from both the archival and artifact collections of Ralph and Rose Solecki!

Next week, Tiffany Priest will discuss how we integrated the artifact collections of Ralph and Rose Solecki into storage at the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center. Then, Matthew Capece will tell us about the mystery surrounding the death of the Shanidar III Neanderthal. Finally, Sophia Carroll will highlight Rose Solecki’s work at the Proto-Neolithic site of Zawi Chemi Shanidar.

Thank you to Drs. Ralph, Rose, John, and William Solecki; Dr. Melinda Zeder, curator emeritus in the NMNH Department of Anthropology; the staff of the National Anthropological Archives and the NMNH Department of Anthropology; the Solecki Project volunteers, Michelle Fuentes, Kennis Pieper, and Taylor Reynolds; the Fall 2018 interns, Matthew Capece, Sophia Carroll, and Tiffany Priest; Winter Break Intern Moni Islam; and Spring 2019 interns Viridiana Garcia and Kayla Kubehl for their diligent work and overall support of the Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project. Thank you to Dr. Emma Pomeroy of the University of Cambridge for contributing updates on the current archaeological work at Shanidar Cave. The Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project was made possible by two grants from the Smithsonian Institution’s Collections Care and Preservation Fund.

Molly Kamph, Project Archivist and Archaeological Collections Technician
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History


Sources
[1] The Ralph and Rose Solecki Papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
[2] Accession 220078, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution.
[3] Tim Reynolds, William Boismier, Lucy Farr, Chris Hunt, Dlshad Abdulmutalb and Graeme Barker, 2015. “New investigations at Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan.” Antiquity: A Review of World Archaeology vol. 89, no. 348.
[4] Elizabeth Culotta, 2019. “New remains discovered at site of famous Neanderthal ‘flower burial’” Science, doi:10.1126/science.aaw7586

“My curiosity was stronger than my fear”: The Michiko Takaki Papers

It was 1964 when Michiko Takaki boarded a plane to take her from Tokyo to Manila to begin her ethnographic fieldwork. She was planning to spend one year among the Kalinga people of the northern Luzon region of the Philippines, a location she had chosen because her doctoral advisor (Harold “Hal” Conklin) studied the nearby Ifugao. “The usual allotment for doing doctoral research and observation is one full year,” she said in 2010. “That’s what I had thought going in, but that went right out the window because I couldn’t speak the language in one year.”[1]

It was 1968 before Takaki finally returned to Yale University to complete her doctoral dissertation. In what a later colleague described as “an unprecedented 46-month uninterrupted period of fieldwork,” [2] the planned one year of research had turned into four. The data and notes gathered during those months form the bulk of the Michiko Takaki papers, 1921-2011 (bulk 1960s), the most recent collection opened to researchers at the National Anthropological Archives (NAA).

Michiko Takaki surrounded by Kalinga associates and assistants, 1965, Box 116, Michiko Takaki papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Born in Japan in 1930, Michiko Takaki (also known as “Michi”) had traveled to the U.S. in the early 1950s with a precursor to the Fulbright program (then called GARIOA, or Government Appropriation for Relief in Occupied Areas) to earn her bachelor’s degree in literature. She returned to America for her master’s in journalism, from Southern Illinois University. Anthropological study followed soon after. She began her PhD studies at Columbia University, then transferred to Yale. She received funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to pursue her doctoral fieldwork, which began when she was in her early thirties.

In a series of oral history interviews recorded between 2006 and 2010, Takaki reflected on her experience completing fieldwork in the Philippines as a woman and an outsider among the Kalinga, a people known for ritual violence associated with headhunting. [3] “I chose to go to Kalinga, but with tremendous apprehension,” she is recorded as saying. “Now for a man, an American man, to go into that part of the Philippines would be fine because Americans had prestige. Nothing would happen to a white American male, but a Japanese woman would be a very different story…Professor Conklin, my mentor, assured me that it isn’t too bad, but he is a white American. In the city, it’s a different story, but anything can happen up in the mountains. No one can come quickly to rescue you as it’s not just a single mountain range. I was frightened on my way, but my curiosity was stronger than my fear.” [4]

Michiko Takaki in the Philippines, 1965, Box 116, Michiko Takaki papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

The danger Takaki felt was palpable. “Anyone who is not one of the Kalinga is an outsider,” she said. “Eventually, you’ll be beheaded and people will know that you were killed. I don’t think it’s possible to survive in Kalinga unless you are protected by someone there.” Conklin had connected Takaki with a Kalinga man named Tan Jin, who served as her entry point to the Kalinga. “Once you are allowed to enter somebody’s house and drink their water, the master of the house is obliged to help you in the event that you are attacked…I was very fortunate, early on, that Tan Jin took me in as a guest and it was known that I had eaten his food and had drunk his water.” [5]

In the end, Takaki felt, perhaps ironically, that her gender aided her immersion into Kalinga society. “I don’t think they really knew what to do with me. I didn’t fall into [any] category they had known. I appeared to be a harmless female and it was to my advantage because, from the very start, they had sensed that I was not there with hostile intention.” For the next four years, Takaki would study the Kalinga, predominantly in the villages of Uma and Butbut. With notebooks, pencils, tape recorder, and two cameras (one for color film and one for the less expensive black and white), she compiled meticulous notes on Kalinga culture, language, and the subsistence activities of rice cultivation and livestock ownership. “At the beginning, I couldn’t even think of the means by which to communicate. I was always afraid because I didn’t really know what I could or could not do.” But by the time she left, “In Uma…they came to know me and I came to know them.” [6]

Michiko Takaki in her field office, 1968, Box 116, Michiko Takaki papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Takaki flew out of Manila and back to Tokyo – and from there to New Haven and Yale – in 1968. The trove of ethnographic material she had gathered during her four years in the Philippines made a similar cross-continental trip. Over the next nine years, she would work with this material to complete her 3-volume doctoral dissertation, “Aspects of Exchange in a Kalinga Society, Northern Luzon” (1977). She continued to refer to the same field notes and field-gathered data for the remainder of her anthropological career, as a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Now preserved at the NAA, these materials serve as rich mid-twentieth century documentation on the Kalinga that should interest anthropologists and other scholars working on the northern Luzon, as well as Kalinga community members interested in their language and cultural heritage. This collection also shines a light on the life and work of Michiko Takaki, who overcame the challenges of her status as an “outsider” to complete an immersive and extended field experience, the documentary results of which have continuing value.

The NAA thanks the colleagues of Michiko Takaki at UMass/Boston who helped to facilitate the transfer of her papers to the NAA. The Michiko Takaki papers, 1921-2011 (bulk 1960s) were processed with funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. The collection is open for research at the NAA. A finding aid for the collection is available on the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives (SOVA).


Kate Madison, Processing Archivist
National Anthropological Archives

Sources

[1] “Kalinga story,” Box 109, Michiko Takaki papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
[2] “Tenure dossier,” Box 109, Michiko Takaki papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
[3] Headhunting, the practice taking and preserving the head of an adversary, has been widely studied by anthropologists in an effort to understand the relationship between ritual violence and attaining manhood and/or sustaining cosmological balance among peoples like the Kalinga.
[4] “Kalinga story.”
[5] “Kalinga story.”
[6] “Kalinga story.”

"Lots of love…" Letters from Antarctica, December 1962

Below are letters written by Invertebrate Zoologist Waldo Schmitt to his wife, nicknamed "Stummy", while he was completing field work in Antarctica during 1962-1963.  Schmitt wrote these letters during his last major trip into the field.  Schmitt had been going into the field since 1911 when he served aboard the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries Albatross as an Assistant Naturalist during its cruises along the west coast of America and Alaska.  He married his wife Alvina in 1914.

The letters below were taken from crowdsourced transcriptions from the Smithsonian Transcription Center.  Photographs were taken by Waldo during his time in Antarctica.

Participant sitting with a penguin on the Palmer Peninsula, Antarctica c.1962,
SIA RU007231 - Waldo L. Schmitt Papers, 1907-1978, Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2012-0662. 

December 15, 1962

Dear Stummy, 

Here we are in Antarctica at McMurdo. A bright and sunny day; there are puddles of water, ice-edged to be sure in the streets (such as they are of volcanic ash largely; and no colder than a

crisp winter day at home; maybe a little more crisp about 15° this early a.m and now at 8 p.m it is 18°, the same as at noon. We are in the "land of the mid-night sun. The sun is high in the heavens, and as bright as the clearest day at home at mid-day.

Oh! yes from the shore as far out as you can see a sheet of snow covered ice over which the tractors plough back and forth hauling supplies from the ice - airfield where the planes land about 3 miles from the Station proper. 

Quite a place and honestly it doesn't feel as cold as the thermometer has it. We sleep two In about an 8x8 room, one cot above the other bunk bed style with a fair sided [[bedsi?]] locker, one ceiling lamp, & one chair. The sleeping accommodations are quite primative - the meals on the other hand quite lavish - meat twice a day, and a hot plate of beans on the side at lunch

and dinner to day. Dessert at lunch today was bread pudding with raisins; at dinner a square of chocholate cake with white icing. The coffee seems quite good. Canned milk does not stand up well, tends to separate they say, and so Proam is used instead. We have to walk about half a block, or is it a block to the toilet facilities. There are no showers - "sponge baths" are what serves here. I got about 4 hrs sleep on the plane and am beginning to feel sort of dopy. Tomorrow the mail goes out so I shall try to send this and a few cards. A pretty one to each

of you in Coronado.

Gee Stummy, I should have sent you out to Barb's before I left. Please don't feel apprehensive about money matters or Barb, or me either things will work out alright. I believe I get $12 a day per d for the days we are not either on a ship or at this station. Of course I [[Had?]] pay the

hotel, but I shall get the per diem which will more than offset it. Then I should get the $1,800 on top of that. It will more than cover all the bills and some besides, and that is not taking the "pay" checks into account.

Stop worrying. It looks as though I shall come through alive to plague you the rest of our days. And don't worry about Barb until you see for yourself this time out there. Too bad about Ruth. To think after all these busy years that she had to run into this trouble whatever it is. ||| The Seiglers sent me an Xmas card! 

Be good Stummy we aren't going to be so badly off. I'll check over those taxes when I get back

Lots of love girl and then some 

Waldo

View of vessel during specimen collecting near Peterman Island, Antarctica, 1962-1963,
SIA RU007231 - Waldo L. Schmitt Papers, 1907-1978, Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2012-0666.

Dec. 16, 1962

Dear Stummy,

Here we still are, I hardly know what to write. In the hotel they moved me to a single room on the second floor a bother because I'll only be here another day or two. Tomorrow or the next day I move in with Jack Crowell at Eddie Goodall's place. I did not go out Sunday with Jack
because I wanted to see the Museum director G.A. Turbot, and a Dr Stonehouse who has been up on the Palmer Peninsula where we are going or expect to go. Stonehouse was due last night at 5 oclock but did not return on the plane. I had thought he was on vacation but he's down at McMurdo.

The weather is/as I wrote before. The present is the more rainy season and though its summer we get temperatures in the low 40's at night, and in the low 60's (63) at midday if the sky clears by then and the sun comes out.

There is no heat in these rooms or this hotel except the hot water tap and a fireplace in some of the rooms. There was one in the double room we had but none in the cubicle I am in now.

I am sitting here writing on my lap because there is no table and bureau top is too high, wearing my heavy blue shirt. On bed I have besides sheet, two thin blankets and 2 spreads white, and red one. Yes, I am plenty warm, but at that the room is colder than out of doors, at least when I go out after breakfast. The other reason I have not yet moved out of hotel is that Eddie
Goodalls place is way out by the airport and the busses that go by his place run 45 mins apart in busy - rush hours - and 1.10 mins apart during day. Most of yesterday I spent in the public Library here checking up on Antarctic animal & biology literature. I want to go back at
least another day to check over some of the reports of earlier expeditions.I had intended doing this at home and would have done so except for that darn moving. I hate to think of what I have awaiting me back at Museum.

Too bad that mail is going to be so little and far between. Now take this one. If I send it home Thelma will have to forward it, but at that it will just about reach you when you get to California.

There is nothing much else to write a-bout. Here at this hotel the meat is mutton most all the time but they do have a fish course and now and then pork and chicken, of course eggs for breakfast almost smothered in bacon strips, not crisp fried either. I try to have them bring me only one strip, but they seem incapable of doing it, or just won't from force of habit. The hot tea at 7 a.m served in room is not so bad - in a fairly cold room. However the
water runs hot and that's a comfort.

Maybe at Eddie's place over the week end I'l have a table to write on. Next week if we still are here I shall try to get in a little collecting. I'd hate to be here a couple of weeks and not have a New Zealand crab for the Museum collection, but nothing is handy, and the few "tools" I brought are so tied up in warehouse at airport that I can't well get at them. They are also too well packed to undo for fooling around here.
Also I am afraid I'll have to let Christmas buying go over. the sending is the chief problem after trying to think of what to buy. I do hope you are keeping "weller," getting over that too worried spell. It will be nice to see Barb and the kids again. Lots of love girl first to you and then the rest

- from the old man - Waldo

Helicopter fire on McMurdo Base, Antarctica, prior to arrival of emergency response team,
SIA RU007231 - Waldo L. Schmitt Papers, 1907-1978, Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2012-0665.

Penguins on the Palmer Peninsula, 10-11am January 28, 1963,
SIA RU007231 - Waldo L. Schmitt Papers, 1907-1978, Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2012-0665.

Dec. 16, 1962

Dear Stummy,

Today we had snow - a brief flurry this a.m. a bit of a let up and then with lunch more through the rest of the afternoon and supper perhaps till 7 or 8 // I got off a number of Xmas cards including one to Dick.

This was an earlier letter, Before the unfinished one above. The part that got carboned read as follows "You may not think that I know what I am doing, but we are utterly dependent on the Navy. Today I want to get Xmas cards; its finally come to the point where I get them, or not. The
question is to whom to send them and how many. If as the bunch here is doing I would get U.S. stamps on them which we can do from here out, but there is the thought that folks would expect N.Z.stamps. - That decision I wont make till I get cards written /// As ^ [[insertion]] is
[[/insertion]] always the case, we are having unusual weather, the summer has suddenly descended upon us - after all the cool weather I have been complaining about in the 40s and 50's - day before yesterday was in mid 80°s and yesterday it was over 90°! Believe it or not, today, the temperature is back more to normal summer temperature. When its cool here its delightful, when its chilly, not so good! [When its hot, it is pretty hot & uncomfortable, you want to move along.

Lesley Parilla, Cataloging Coordinator

Field Book Project, Smithsonian Institution Libraries

From the Mountains to the Sea: Vin Hoeman and POBSP

The Division of Birds in the National Museum of Natural History holds an extensive collection of field books that are part of Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 000245, and contain the notes of researchers who worked for the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program (POBSP). A significant portion of my internship has involved finding out more about the people who were involved with POBSP, and creating biographical profiles for these researchers. While many of the researchers who worked on POBSP went on to careers as botanists, entomologists, ornithologists, and zoologists for the Smithsonian and other academic institutions, there were a few that went in other directions. One especially notable example was John Vincent “Vin” Hoeman.

Vin worked with POBSP in 1964 and 1965, but his path to working with birds was somewhat unorthodox. He earned his B.S. from Colorado State University in Forest Management, and later moved to Alaska, where he did graduate work in zoology and worked for the Arctic Health Research Center in Anchorage. Life in the outdoors, especially mountaineering, had been an important part of Vin’s life from an early age, so it is not surprising that he was interested in working on these types of projects. Although he had no formal training in ornithology, his detailed notes for the field books indicate his keen interest in studying birds and other wildlife. Vin worked as a research assistant for POBSP, participating in six at-sea expeditions, as well conducting research on the main Hawaiian islands while not at sea. His main duties involved bird banding, taking blood samples, and general wildlife observation.

An example of bird banding data

Vin’s field notes come across as thoughtful and intelligent, even poetic at times. After his arrival in Hawaii to begin work with POBSP, he writes, “the steady stream of thoughts kept sleep from reaching me.” (SIA RU000245, Series 60, Volume 57) Notes about interactions with fellow crew members frequently included details about family and physical descriptions. He was also in Hawaii at the time of the April 1964 Alaskan earthquake, the second most powerful earthquake in recorded history. The field notes show Vin’s internal monologue, worrying about his friends in Anchorage, and debating the pros and cons of leaving POBSP to help with the recovery efforts:

Tell Pat when I get back, waking him to do so. “Do you think it’s that serious?” he says. I tell him I think the lives of my friends are of importance. He later agrees and would’ve let me go on my own. I’d thought of doing so, of course, but told myself that would be irresponsible. After all I’m unauthorized and probably not needed. Civil defense and the Army will have things under control. What matters that I’m a member of ARG [Alaska Rescue Group]. I’d just be another mouth to feed. If I was any good or a first aid instructor my pupils will save lives.
I hope these were my foremost thoughts rather than the cost of fare I’d have to bear, the possibility of losing my job, the fact that I’d have to buy arctic gear in Seattle before going up; the threat of prolonged discomfort. (SIA RU000245, Series 60, Volume 57)

Destruction on 4th Avenue in Anchorage after the April 1964 earthquake. On the left, Mac's Foto (mentioned in Vin's notes) is visible as one of the damaged businesses (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AlaskaQuake-FourthAve.jpg)

 When Vin finally visited Anchorage as he prepared for a POBSP expedition in the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands in June of 1964, he saw a city that had been devastated, making note of a “rubble-pile and a terrific fault full of sunken houses.” Despite this (or perhaps because of this), he also tries to find humor in the situation: “Walk up to 4th Ave., and look at the gap where all those bars, Mac’s Photo, Dendi Theater and Hautbrau used to be. Urban renewal I call it – a fine view.” (SIA RU000245, Series 60, Volume 57)

Mountaineering was never far from Vin’s mind, even when he was out at sea. His field notes from March 5, 1965 give some insight into his plans for after his work with POBSP was finished, saying “If I’m going to be a great anything it’ll be [a] mountaineer and mtn. writer I think.” (SIA RU000245, Series 60, Volume 57) Vin did end up returning to Alaska, and became a mountain climber of some renown. Among his many “firsts”, one that stands out is his accomplishment of being the first person to reach the summit of all 50 states. He was also part of the team that became the first to cross the Harding Icefield on the Kenai Peninsula. Sadly, Vin was killed in an avalanche during a climbing expedition on Dhaulagiri, a peak in the Himalayas, in 1969, leaving behind his wife Grace, as well as many family members and friends.

Notes from an at sea expedition

Although he was only with POBSP for a few seasons, Vin evidently thought highly enough of his cohorts to send a letter in 1967, informing everyone of what he had been doing since leaving the program. And Vin certainly had a positive impact on POBSP through the data he collected. I believe that this story points to the importance of “citizen scientists” – that no matter what a person’s academic background or training might be, if someone is passionate about a certain topic, they can make a contribution to the world’s understanding of that topic. It also reminds us that behind the data, there are wonderful human stories to be shared. I hope you have enjoyed learning about Vin’s story.


Conal Huetter, Intern
Field Book Project, Smithsonian Institution Libraries

To learn more about the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program and its field documentation, check out “Life in the Field: a Reflection on Cataloging Field Notes in the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program”  on the Field Book Project Blog, images on Flickr, and field book records on Smithsonian Collections Search Center.

Sources consulted:
Hoeman, J. Vincent. Field Notes. 1964-1965. Series 60, Volume 57. SIA RU000245, National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program, Records, circa 1961-1973, with data from 1923. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. 15 July 2016.

Gonzales, J. (2014). Project 49: Grace without Vin, a love story without a happy ending. Green and Gold News. Retrieved from http://greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/blog/30162/project-49-grace-without-vin-love-story-minus-happy-ending/.

Johnston, D. (1969). John Vincent Hoeman, 1936-1969. American Alpine Journal, 16 (2). Retrieved from http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12196950100/John-Vincent-Hoeman-1936-1969.

Anthropologists in the Parks

National Park Week is this week! From April 16th to the 24th, you can visit all national parks for free. National parks and anthropology have always had an important relationship, and here at the National Anthropological Archives we have many materials related to the work that anthropologists have done in national parks. In the 19th century, many of the first professional anthropologists were also advocates for national parks. John Wesley Powell, first director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, was also the leader of the first recorded expedition of white men through the Grand Canyon.

This view of the Grand Canyon was sketched in 1872 during Powell's second expedition down the Colorado River. NAA MS 2030: 363 Drawings for Illustrating Major Powell's Memoirs. National Anthropological Archives, NMNH.

Powell also participated in surveys of the Rocky Mountains and was later the director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Shortly before a monument was erected in Powell’s honor in the Grand Canyon in 1916, a Department of the Interior press release declared that “if, as is expected, Congress meantime makes the Grand Canyon a national park (it is a national monument now), the two dedications will take place together, making a celebration altogether notable in the history of national parks.” The Grand Canyon was made a national park slightly later in 1919, and you can still see Powell Point there today.

Page from a 1915 letter planning Powell's Grand Canyon memorial. NAA MS 4910: Material Related to the Construction of the John Wesley Powell Memorial at the Grand Canyon," 1915-1916. National Anthropological Archives, NMNH.

William Henry Jackson, a BAE photographer, was also a member of the 1871 Hayden Geological Survey that explored the area that is now Yellowstone National Park. Jackson’s photographs of Yellowstone Lake, Old Faithful, and other natural landmarks helped convince Congress to make Yellowstone the first national park in 1872. In 1874, Jackson also took the first photographs of the cliff dwellings in what is now Mesa Verde National Park. William Henry Holmes, Jackson’s colleague and the second director of the BAE, surveyed more cliff dwellings nearby in Mancos Canyon the following year. The attention these two helped create in the area eventually led to the creation of Mesa Verde National Park in 1908.

Hayden Survey camp near Lake Yellowstone. NAA MS 4605: "Camp Scene of Hayden Survey," 1871. National Anthropological Archives, NMNH.

Map of Mesa Verde Area Showing Locations of Ruins, 1908.

But anthropologists haven’t just been involved in the creation of National Parks, they’ve also been instrumental in the preservation of natural and historical resources that you can still see in the parks today. Jesse Walter Fewkes, Smithsonian archaeologist and chief of the BAE in the 1920s, was closely involved in early excavations and repairs of major sites at Mesa Verde National Park. Centuries of deterioration, vandals, and destructive tourists were major problems in the park. Fewkes and his colleagues worked hard to restore cliff dwellings, pueblos, towers, and many other structures built by the Western Anasazi people between 600 and 1200 A.D. Without their work, there would be way fewer historical sites remaining in national parks for us to visit and enjoy. More recently archaeologists have worked to protect prehistoric sites, natural wonders, and archaeological artifacts in Zion, Canyonlands, and many other national parks.

Thomas Dale Stewart papers,
Series 5, National Geographic Society,
 Wetherill Mesa Project, 1962-1964. National
Anthropological Archives, NMNH.

Anthropologists have always been an important part of the creation and protection of our national parks, but their involvement didn’t stop there. The knowledge and information gained from anthropological field work and research in national parks has also helped improve our understanding of peoples and places in the United States.

While John Wesley Powell was helping survey what is now Rocky Mountain National Park, he also collected ethnographic and linguistic data on many of the Native American tribes he encountered along the way. In the 1950s and 1960s, archaeologists sponsored by the National Park Service and National Geographic Society conducted the Wetherill Mesa Archeological Project. The project helped excavate many historic sites and made many notable archaeological, botanical, and geological discoveries. More recent surveys in Grand Teton and other national parks have contributed to our knowledge of where and how prehistoric peoples lived in the present day U.S. Anthropologists also conducted research of mounds at places like Shiloh Military National Park, Isle Royale National Park, Everglades National Park, and Mammoth Cave and you can find their reports and photographs at the NAA. Without each other, anthropology and our national park system would be a whole lot different today.

Thomas Dale Stewart papers, Series 5, National Geographic Society, Wetherill Mesa Project, 1962-1964. National 

Anthropological Archives, NMNH.

Interested in learning more about national parks? You can visit the National Park Service website here to find a park near you. The NAA and Human Studies Film Archives have films, records, and photographs from many national parks across the United States, and many are available online. Happy exploring!

Tyler Stump
Processing Archivist
National Anthropological Archives

Out of Egypt: a Napoleonic Study of the Ibis

Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, plate no. 1

Thanks to the keen eye of Dr. Storrs Olson, a rare book was spotted in a reprint file in the Division of Birds in the Museum of Natural History and transferred to a more suitable habitat, the Cullman Library for cataloging and preservation. It is Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, by Jules-César Savigny (1771-1851). Published in Paris in 1805, the work explores both the zoology and the mythology of the Sacred Ibis and the Glossy Ibis in Egypt (QL696.C585 S38 1805). This copy once belonged to Alexander Wetmore (1886-1978), the Sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian who was a distinguished ornithologist; his signature is on the front paper cover.

Hand-colored plate from Description de l’Égypte (Typ 815.09.3210, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

The author, Savigny, had been one of the 151 members of the Institut d’Égypte, a scientific organization created by Napoleon to accompany his disastrous campaign with 55,000 troops in Egypt from 1798-1801. The ambitious goal set for the Institut was an encyclopedic survey of the ancient and modern country of Egypt. The “Savants”—the carefully assembled naturalists, geologists, mineralogists, mathematicians, architects, engineers, cartographers, artists, one musicologist—were left in Cairo after the British Navy under the command of Lord Nelson sunk the French fleet. When the formal surrender was made in September 1801, the British military demanded as spoils of war the Savants’ notes, drawings, plans, artifacts, and specimens, all collected under trying circumstances (to say the least), and the French, wanting to be done with the whole fiasco, agreed. However, zoologist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire took an immovable stand, refusing to give up their work and threatening to destroy it all. The British eventually settled for a few trophies, including the Rosetta Stone.  

Plate from Description de l’Égypte (Typ 815.09.3210, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

With the gathered materials finally sent back to Paris, the veteran Savants published Description de l’Égypte from 1809 to 1828—which has now become a headache for librarians and conservators everywhere. It is a major undertaking both to catalog and shelve because the publication, spanning such a long period, is variously bound (up to thirty-five volumes), with four different issues of the first edition, and it is not easy to determine a complete set. It is also a backache. The outsize Carte Topographique measures about three and a half feet and the plates are in several formats, some unfolding over four feet, and quite heavy. Various copies have now been scanned so today it is easy to browse through the images.

Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, plate 4

Savigny, despite being a trained botanist, was in charge of the invertebrate and ornithological portion of the Description de l’Égypte. His treatise on the long-legged and curved billed bird, Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, was printed before any of the published volumes of the Description de l’Égypte appeared but can be viewed as reflecting the whole of the encyclopedia. It is a detailed examination of both the biology and mythology surrounding the bird in ancient and modern Egypt. Naturalists of the campaign were fascinated that the ibis was not only portrayed so frequently in the tombs, on monuments and in sculpture but also mummified by the thousands. Savigny’s work contains six plates of engravings, some anatomical, others of the hieroglyphics with images of the ibis. The artists of the illustrations were Henri-Joseph Redouté (1766-1852), brother of the better known botanical painter, Pierre-Joseph, and Jacques Barraband (1767-1809); the engraver, Louis Bouquet.

It is an uncommon book. Sadly, the Sacred Ibis is extinct in modern Egypt.  

Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis

The African Sacred Ibis in Pilanesberg Game Reserve, South Africa (photo by Hein Waschefort, June 2010, Wikimedia Commons)

Ibis Statuette, from Tuna El-Gebel (Hermapolis Magna (no. 209497, donated by President Eisenhower; National Museum of Natural History)

Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, plate no. 3

A copy of Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis in Oxford University has been digitized by the Internet Archive (the Cullman Library copy lacks the half title)

Burleigh, Nina. Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt (New York, 2007). 

Thomas, Janet. The Role of the Sacred Ibis in Ancient Egypt. 

Funerary Urn of Earthenware containing Ibis Mummy, 332-30 B.C.E. (Abydos, Upper Egypt, National Museum of Natural History; no. 055827)

African Sacred Ibis flying at Durban Botanic Gardens, South Africa (photo by Johan Wessels, September 2009, Wikimedia Commons)

Julia Blakely
Special Collections Cataloger
Smithsonian Libraries

Mosaic Plaque depicting an Ibis, 305-30 B.C.E. (Egypt; Freer Gallery of Art, F1908.66)

Trail Tradition: When Hikers Shun Innovation

For generations of Americans who have hiked and camped outdoors, spring days in the city mean time to stop daydreaming about where to travel and start packing. Outdoor equipment advertisers are eager to attract consumers attention with latest in high-tech gear: The newest pack! The lightest sleeping bag! The most flavorful food! Yet one famous hiker chose to ignore the hype and stick with what he knew. Meet Earl Shaffer:

Shaffer used this slide as a part of his talk in the years after his AT hike.
Earl Shaffer Collection 1999.0189, Appalachian Trail Slides,
Division of Culture and the Arts, National Museum of American History

Shaffer was the first person to hike the full length of the Appalachian Trail, back in 1948. His gear was unremarkable. He used an army surplus pack and wore surplus pants and a plaid shirt. It was the best rugged, inexpensive clothing available to ordinary people for outdoor sports. (Check this out if you want to learn more about Shaffer’s AT hike in 1948.)

When I came across Earl Shaffer’s papers at the NMAH Archives Center and artifacts in the NMAH Division of Culture and the Arts, what surprised me wasn’t that he had worn those clothes in 1948. What surprised is that fifty years later, when Shaffer hiked the Appalachian Trail again, he chose the same, old-school outfit.

Earl Shaffer donated his gear to the National Museum of American History after his last big hike.
Earl Shaffer Collection, 1999.0189, Division of Culture and the Arts, National Museum of American History

In 1998, most hikers, long distance or not, had traded in external frame metal army surplus packs for internal frame backpacks. They wore clothing built for hiking, not for war—zip off pants perhaps. But not Earl Shaffer. His outfit was memorable for how it stood out from the crowd. “Here came this old fellow that warm, sticky day in well-worn, long-sleeved shirt of blue flannel, long-legged blue work pants, in jungle-style pith helmet with mosquito netting, carrying his minimalist gear in a backpack out of Saving Private Ryan, aiming to hike all the way to Maine.” (1)

So why did Shaffer stick with the old when there was so much good in the new? Shaffer wrote about his gear philosophy in a letter to an editor at Outside magazine just after his first big hike: “The Trail can be hiked in one trip only by sacrificing much of the present day highly touted equipment…. This doesn’t mean that all new things are rejected, but that the new improved versions of old reliables must be chosen.” Fifty years later, Shaffer was still practicing what he preached; he carried old reliable flannel, wool, and canvas instead of the latest innovations. 

Earl Shaffer to P.A. Parson, January 10, 1949, Earl Shaffer Papers, 1903-2002, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Maybe Shaffer was on to something—how many 79-year-olds do you know who’ve hiked 2,000 miles in one go?

What old hiking gear do you hold on to, even when you learn about high-tech innovations? What hiking clothes or equipment would you like to see preserved for future generations? 

Rachel Gross, Predoctoral Fellow
National Museum of American History

1. David Corriveau, “Shaffer Back on the Trail He Pioneered,” Valley News, Sept 17, 1998, Box 2, Folder 5, Earl Shaffer Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History