INSIDE NMAI
........................ A VIRTUAL TOUR OF HISTORY
PHOTO ARCHIVES OFFER A WINDOW INTO INDIGENOUS LIFE AND PHOTOGRAPHY’S EVOLUTION
BY MICHELLE ANNE DELANEY A
s many teachers, parents, stu- dents and researchers discov- ered while self-quarantining this spring, the need for on- line resources is greater than
ever. The National Museum of the American Indian recently expanded its bounty of online resources, offering even more behind-the- scenes glimpses into its vast collection of more than 820,000 objects. In January, NMAI increased the number of
images of ethnographic and contemporary art objects in Smithsonian’s Online Collections Search Center (
collections.si.edu) from about 38,000 objects to more than 122,000. This 10- year effort not only grew NMAI’s collection online but also helped update the museum’s records. Staff researched each item’s informa- tion, determining as much of its history as possible, from its creation until its acquisition. The NMAI collections now housed at the
NMAI Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Maryland, have a rich history, beginning more than a century ago with the efforts of passion- ate collector George Gustav Heye. In 1916, he founded the Museum of the American Indian –Heye Foundation (MAI) in New York City, the predecessor of NMAI. Unlike museum staff today, Heye did not usually include de- tailed documentation with objects. Since MAI became the NMAI in 1989, the museum’s staff has been unlocking the origins of its original collections, which has helped expand the on- line records of NMAI objects in Smithsonian’s online collections. Some of NMAI’s most engaging pieces
within its collections are its more than 500,000 photographs and films. Of these, nearly 25,000 photos can be found in the Smithsonian On- line Virtual Archives, or SOVA (
sova.si.edu). This portal contains the manuscripts, cor- respondence, field notes and photographs of
36 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER 2020
Left to right: Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams, Jacqueline Kennedy and then Senator John F. Kennedy met with Frank George of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation and former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, on August 6, 1960. Silver gelatin print. P344188
anthropologists and ethnographers; photo- graphs by agents of the Bureau of Indian Af- fairs; projects by documentary photographers and photojournalists; the papers and personal family photographs of civil rights advocates and other leaders; as well as postcards, illus- trated trading cards and advertisements. The photos in the NMAI collections date
from the 1840s to the present and cover Amer- ican Indian and other Indigenous communi- ties throughout the Western Hemisphere. They capture scenes of everyday Native life
and traditions as well as poignant moments in history, such as tribal leaders at treaty signings, presidential inaugurations and presentations of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “The value of historical photography is that it is a window into people’s lives,” says NMAI’s Head of Archives and Digitization Michael Pahn. Some photos, postcards and advertise-
ments in the collection also demonstrate how American Indians were offensively portrayed as stereotypes or attractions, such as the performers in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS
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