The majority of the images are individual and group portraits of Southwestern tribes, photographed between 1900-1902, including Laguna Pueblo, Hopi Pueblo, Zuni Pueblo, Taos Pueblo, San Juan Pueblo, White Mountain Apache, Ute, San Carlos Apache, and Navajo Indians.
Scope and Contents:
The Orchard collection consists overwhelmingly of informal single and group portraits made by Orchard in 1900 and 1902 of Diné (Navajo), Hopi Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, A:shiwi (Zuni), and White Mountain Apache men and women. Among these are photographs of Native children standing before agency schools. In addition, there are informal single and group portraits of Jemez Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Ute, Uintah, San Carlos Apache, and Ohkey Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) men and women; photographs of Walpi, Zuni, Toas, and Acoma villages; and a few landscape views made in the Rio Grande and Little Colorado River canyons. There are a few portraits of Mohawk men and Sac and Fox women. A few photographs date from 1926 and are of Seminole women performing household duties. There are also a few excavations photographs, including those taken of an 1918 excavation along Spuyten Duyvil Creek in New York. Orchard made the later photographs on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Some of the negatives are glass plate negatives and others are copy negatives made of the photographs.
Arrangement:
Prints Arranged by print number (P01319, P01678-P01679, P02767-P03191, P03217-P03319, P03217-P03319, P04165, P08369-P08373, P12703-P12706, P28311)
Lantern slides Arranged by image number (L00353-L00354, L00356-L00363, L00367-L00369, L00371-L00376, L00379-L00384, L00386, L00388, L00390-L00392, L00397, L00401-L00402, L00404-L00406, L00408-L00409)
Negatives Arranged by negative number (N03368-N03373, N03762, N11617, N13457-N13460, N13481, N14935, N14939, N14941, N21574, N21600, N35151-N35158, N35162, N37725, N37879)
Biographical/Historical note:
Born in England in the early 1860s, William C. Orchard moved to the United States around 1885. Before working privately for George G. Heye, he briefly held a position at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. After the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation was established in 1916, Orchard became a museum preparator. In this position, he used his considerable artistic gifts to repair and restore specimens and to create models and dioramas for the Museum's exhibits. Orchard also published several books on porcupine-quill and beading techniques. He died in 1948.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Rights:
Copyright: National Museum of the American Indian
Genre/Form:
Photographic prints
Lantern slides
Photographs
Black-and-white negatives
Citation:
William C. Orchard collection of photographs, lantern slides and negatives, circa 1899-1937, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
