The collection consists of two (2) watercolor drawings collected by Curtin on the Cattaraugus Seneca Reservation in 1883. The drawings are copies of drawings made around 1840 by an unidentified artist, possibly George Wilson, a resident of the Cattaraugus Reservation.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Biographical / Historical:
Jeremiah Curtin (1835–1906) was an American ethnographer, folklorist, and translator. From 1883 to 1891 he was employed by the Bureau of American Ethnology as a field researcher documenting the customs and mythologies of various North American indigenous peoples.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3992-A
Variant Title:
A man bewitched within the house by a woman without... and The patient welcomes his physicians
Conservation Note:
The drawings were laminated, possibly in the 1950s. In the late 1970s, the drawings were delaminated.
Related Materials:
The National Museum of the American Indian holds a version of one of the drawings. See "Man On Sickbed With Spirits" Catalog Number 11/2912.
The National Anthropological Archives holds photographs of the drawings in Photo Lot 155 J.N.B. Hewitt photographs of Iroquois people on the Six Nations Reservation (Item II.85-86).
Provenance:
Jeremiah Curtin submitted three drawings to the Bureau of American Ethnology via John Wesley Powell on Febrary 20, 1884. The third drawing has been lost.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Works of art
Drawings
Citation:
MS 3992-A Seneca drawings collected by Jeremiah Curtin, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution