Indians of North America -- California Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Notebooks
Date:
1906
Scope and Contents:
Notebook contains the following: Cartier's Iroquoian vocabulary, 1534 and 1535. 8 pages. Kawia (Kaweya) vocabulary, December 29, 1906, taken at Washington, D.C. 12 pages. 4 pages type scrap. Iroquoian metaphors (LaPotherie)- 4 pages. Vocabulary 2nd voyage, from Number 3499. Also extracts- Cartier, from Hakluyt (1534-40), 28 pages.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3879
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Reverend James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895) was a missionary and Bureau of American Ethnology ethnologist who conducted extensive research on Siouan tribes and languages.The papers of James Owen Dorsey comprise mostly ethnographic and linguistic materials on various tribes of the Siouan language family as well as tribes from Siletz Reservation in Oregon. These materials include texts and letters with interlineal translations; grammar notes; dictionaries; drawings; and his manuscripts. In addition, the collection contains Dorsey's correspondence, newspaper clippings, his obituaries, and reprints.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains James O. Dorsey's research and writings as a BAE ethnologist, as well as his earlier work as a missionary among the Ponca. The vast majority of the collection pertains to his research on Siouan-Catawban languages, including the Dakota and Dhegiha languages, Chiwere, Winnebago, Mandan, Hidatsa, Tutelo, Biloxi, and Catawba. His research on Athapascan, Kusan, Takilman, and Yakonan languages from his field work at Siletz Reservation are also present, as well as some notes on the Caddoan languages. Dorsey's research files include linguistic and ethnological field notes, reading notes, stories and myths, vocabularies, drawings, and unpublished and published manuscripts. The collection also contains Omaha, Ponca, Quapaw, and Biloxi dictionaries that he compiled and materials relating to his work editing Steven Riggs' Dakota-English Dictionary. Additional noteworthy materials in the collection are Teton texts and drawings from George Bushotter and drawings by Stephen Stubbs (Kansa), Pahaule-gagli (Kansa), and George Miller (Omaha). The collection also contains Dorsey's correspondence, newspaper clippings, obituaries, and his collection of reprints.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into 6 series: 1) Siouan; 2) Siletz Reservation; 3) Caddoan; 4) General Correspondence; 5) Personal Papers; 6) Miscellaneous & Reprints.
Biographical Note:
Reverend James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895) was a missionary and Bureau of American Ethnology ethnologist who conducted extensive research on Siouan tribes and languages.
Dorsey was born on October 31, 1848 in Baltimore, Maryland. He exhibited a talent for languages at an early age. At age 6 he learned the Hebrew alphabet and was able to read the language at age 10. In 1867 Dorsey attended the Theological Seminary of Virginia and was ordained a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1871. In May of that year, Dorsey traveled to the Dakota Territory to serve as a missionary among the Ponca. Plagued by ill health, Dorsey was forced to end his missionary work in August 1873. By that time, however, he had learned the Ponca language well enough to converse with members of the tribe without an interpreter.
Dorsey returned to Maryland and engaged in parish work while continuing his studies of Siouan languages. His linguistic talents and knowledge of these languages attracted the attention of Major John Wesley Powell. Powell arranged for Dorsey to work among the Omaha in Nebraska from 1878 to 1880 to collect linguistic and ethnological notes. When the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) was established in 1879, Powell recruited Dorsey to join the staff.
As an ethnologist for the BAE, Dorsey continued his research on Siouan tribes. His studies focused on languages but also included Siouan personal names, folklore, social organization, religion, beliefs, and customs. He conducted fieldwork among the Tutelo at Six Nations on Grand River in Upper Canada (1882); the Kansa, Osage, and Quapaw in Indian Territory (1883-1884); the Biloxi at Lecompte, Rapides Parish, Louisiana (1892); and again with the Quapaw at the Quapaw Mission (1894). He also worked with Native Americans that visited DC, including George Bushotter (Teton), Philip Longtail (Winnebago), Samuel Fremont (Omaha), and Little Standing Buffalo (Ponca). He also spent time at Siletz Reservation in 1884 to collect linguistic notes on the Athapascan, Kusan, Takilman, and Yakonan stocks.
In addition to his research, Dorsey helped found the American Folklore Society and served as the first vice-president of the association. He also served as vice-president of Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
At the age of 47, Dorsey died of typhoid fever on February 4, 1895.
Sources Consulted
1st-16th Annual Reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 1881-1897.
Hewitt, J.N.B. 1895. "James Owen Dorsey" American Anthropologist A8, 180-183.
McGee, W.J. 1895. "In Memoriam." Journal of American Folklore 8(28): 79-80.
1848 -- Born on October 31 in Baltimore, Maryland.
1871 -- Ordained a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
1871-1873 -- Served as a missionary among the Ponca in Dakota Territory.
1878-1880 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Omaha in Nebraska.
1879 -- Joined the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
1882 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Tutelo at Six Nations on Grand River in Upper Canada.
1883-1884 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Kansa, Osage, and Quapaw in Indian Territory.
1887 -- Worked with George Bushotter to record information regarding the language and culture of the Dakota.
1884 -- Conducted fieldwork at Siletz Reservation.
1892 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Biloxi at Lecompte, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
1894 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Quapaw at the Quapaw Mission in Indian Territory.
1895 -- Died of typhoid fever on February 4th at the age of 47.
Restrictions:
The James O. Dorsey Papers are open for research. Access to the James O. Dorsey Papers requires an appointment
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Manuscript 4800 James O. Dorsey papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Creation of this finding aid was funded through support from the Arcadia Fund.
Digitization and preparation of additional materials for online access has been funded also by the National Science Foundation under BCS Grant No. 1561167 and the Recovering Voices initiative at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
8 Prints (halftone (including one newspaper clipping))
124 Prints (circa, silver gelatin, albumen, and platinum)
50 Copy prints (circa)
3 copper printing plates
1 Color print
1 Print (wood engraving)
3 Copy negatives (glass)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Copy prints
Color prints
Copy negatives
Photographs
Date:
circa 1860s-1970
Scope and Contents note:
This collection is an artificial collection of photographs, copper plates, and a few notes, all of which depict or relate to anthropologists, many of which were associated with the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Included are portraits of Franz Boas, Q. M. Bond, Arno B. Cammerer, Frank Hamilton Cushing, Edwin Hamilton Davis, J. Woodbridge Davis, Frances Densmore, James Owen Dorsey, Philip Drucker, Jesse Walter Fewkes (including photographs of his home by Frances Densmore), Albert Samuel Gatschet, James A. Geary, De Lancey W. Gill, George Brown Goode, Horatio Hale, Henry Wetherbee Henshaw, John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt, John K. Hillers, William Henry Holmes, William Henry Jackson, Eugene Irving Knez, Alfred Louis Kroeber, Pere Albert Lacomb, Augustus Le Plongeon, James Mooney, Lewis Henry Morgan, Carl Oschsicanes, James Constantine Pilling, John Wesley Powell, Frau Signe Rink, Frank Harold Hanna Roberts, Jr., Charles C. Royce, Robert Lloyd Stephenson, James Stevenson, Matilda Coxe Stevenson, Julian Haynes Steward, Steward Struever, James Gilchrist Swan, John Reed Swanton, Edwin P. Upham, Wilcomb E. Washburn, and Gordon Randolph Willey. Groups depicted include the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1936; the De Soto Commission; officers of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1885; a 1920 expedition group to Hawikuk; staff of the Great Lakes Division, United States Geological Survey, in Salt Lake City, 1882; a group at Moundville, Alabama, 1932; the University of Nebraska archeological field party, 1920; the Pecos conference, 1927; John Wesley Powell with Wild Hank, Kentucky Mountain Bill, and Jesus Aloiso; and the United States Geological Survey staff, ca. 1894.
Among photographers represented are Vernon Orlando Bailey, Blackston Studios of New York, Dana of New York, Frances Densmore, Gene Garrett, C. W. Gilbert, De Lancey W. Gill, John K. Hillers, William H. Jackson, Kets Kemethy, Paul Koby, David McDonough, H. C. Phillips, Rice of Washington, D. C., and J. A. Shuck of El Reno, Oklahoma.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 33
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Four photographs with negatives by Matilda Coxe Stevenson have been relocated to Photo Lot 23.
This collection includes photographs that have been removed from other collections in the National Anthropological Archives, including MS 4970, MS 4851, MS 4780, MS 4250, MS 4751, MS 4516, MS 4860, MS 4695, MS 4970, and MS 4558.
See others in:
Portraits of anthropologists, 1860s-1960s
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Copy prints of original photographs held by the American Philosophical Society, National Geographic Society, and National Archives cannot be copied. Copies may be obtained from these repositories.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 33, Portraits of anthropologists, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- California Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Vocabulary
Songs
Maps
Place:
California -- History
Date:
1914-circa 1957
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Northern and Central California series contains Harrington's research on the Yokuts.
Notes from his fieldwork in 1914 include references to residents who he thought might be able to assist him in his research, detailed descriptions of house construction and the fabrication of sleeping mats, and small sketches of pictographs which Harrington had seen in the region. Amidst the miscellaneous notes are lists of baskets which he purchased, notes on photographs he took and bibliographic references from C. Hart Merriam. Harrington also copied extracts of his field notes onto slipfiles, which he filed under a variety of subject headings. The Tachi file contains ethnographic notes from Roberto Bautista and Agnes Light as well as a few Tachi lexical items. The file labeled "Tule" consists of mixed linguistic and ethnographic data from Jim Alto and Mr. Edmundson at the Tule River Reservation and notes on the Tachi dialect recorded from Pacifico Archuleta.
The section of linguistic, ethnographic, historical, and biographical notes consists of raw field data collected by Harrington and Carobeth from twenty residents of Yokuts territory during the period 1916-1917. Topics include vocabulary, placenames, tribenames, myths, ceremonial regalia and dances, songs, and religion. The notes from Josefa Damian, marked "Jos. Mar.," feature extensive data on relationship terms, age and sex terms, and moieties in Chunut, Tachi, Tejonefio, and Wowol. The most extensive notes were recorded from Francisca Lola. The notes contain voluminous amounts of linguistic data (vocabulary and paradigms) in Koyeti, Yawdanchi, Choynok, and Tachi as well as equivalent forms in "R. C." (Rio Chiquito). The material is also rich in ethnographic detail, providing information on uses of plants (Tejon ranch specimens), ceremonies, fiestas, dances, and material culture accompanied by diagrams and sketches. In addition, there are biographical notes on informants, myths, and texts of songs.
A year after collecting his field data on Yokuts, Harrington made copies of his notes and arranged them into several sizable slipfiles. One major file was created for the Chunut and Tachi languages, and another for the Yawelmani, Koyeti, Yawdanchi, and Wikchamni languages. There are also small slipfiles for Choynok and Palewyami. The slipfiles are organized semantically; headings included are cosmography, plants, animals, "artifacts" (material culture), sociology, religion, tribenames, and placenames. They include information regarding plant speciments collected by Harrington at the Tejon Ranch.
An additional step that Harrington took in the analysis of his Yokuts field data was the development of an outline grammar of the Yawelmani dialect. He extracted vocabulary and linguistic notes from the semantically arranged slipfiles, marking the slips which he copied with a check mark or the notation "gr." The data which he extracted are largely Yawelmani, although vocabulary and sentences from Koyeti, Yawdanchi, Chunut, and Tachi are included for comparative purposes. Harrington also submitted multiple manuscripts of his Yawelmani grammar to the Bureau of American Ethnology (former B.A.E. Mss. 2973, 3041, 3047, 3048, and 3054).
Harrington's files relating to the Tejon Ranch Case contain correspondence dating from 1921 to 1924, legal documents, a copy of a census taken at the ranch, and documentary evidence from a variety of secondary sources including military records, newspaper accounts, and Senate documents. The major portion of the records consists of notes from interviews with about twenty Tejon residents. The content is primarily biographical, with placename references. In many cases the notes were taken down in the form of depositions. Harrington simultaneously recorded lengthy Yokuts myth texts as well as stories in English and Spanish. Information from a number of the informants was formerly cataloged as B. A. E. ms. 3046. There is also a carbon copy of a "Report on Tejon Indians, Kern County, California" submitted by Herbert V. Clotts, Acting Superintendent of Irrigation, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on January 15, 1918.
Records relating to sound recordings pertain to songs performed by five Yokuts speakers and two Kitanemuks. The songs were recorded on wax by Harrington in Yokuts territory during the periods 1916-1917. The cylinders were sent to ethnomusicologist Helen H. Roberts in 1921 to review. The bulk of this section contains her lengthy notes on the texts of songs, accompanied by musical transcriptions.
The final section of this subseries consists of miscellaneous notes. There are notes from interviews and correspondence with information on boat construction, a sketch map received in a 1925 letter, notes relative to a conversation with J.N.B. Hewitt in 1926, notes from an interview with Angel Sanchez and Bill Skinner, and information from Roberts on song text. There are also copies of Harrington's own field notes and notes on secondary sources.
Biographical / Historical:
John P. Harrington worked on the Yokuts language a number of times during his forty years of fieldwork in California. This study certainly matches the breadth of the data for Karok and Salinan and is surpassed in volume only by his output for Costanoan and Chumash.
Harrington's first contact with the so-called "Tulareno" people occurred in late September to early October 1914 on a two-week trip to the San Joaquin Valley. At that time he made short visits to the Santa Rosa rancheria near Lemoore, to the Tule Indian Reservation near Porterville, and to Bakersfield as part of a dialect survey. A limited amount of additional data was obtained in 1914 and 1915 during the course of his work on Salinan and Chumash. Migueleno speaker Pacifico Archuleta, whose wife, Suncion, was Yokuts, gave a limited Tachi vocabulary, and Rosario Cooper, an Obispeno speaker, also provided several words.
In November 1916 Harrington traveled to the Tejon region, ostensibly to work with Jose Juan Olivas, an inland Chumash speaker. It appears, in addition, that for a virtually uninterrupted period from that time until September 1917, Harrington (assisted by his wife, Carobeth) made an in-depth study of a number of Southern Valley and Foothills Yokuts dialects, obtaining extensive vocabularies and texts, as well as a considerable amount of ethnographic and historical data. This work took them to the valley near the Santa Rosa rancheria and to the Tule River Reservation. Harrington also made trips with informants to obtain placename data and to collect, identify, and describe botanical specimens. The observance of ceremonial rituals during that winter afforded him the opportunity of recording on wax cylinders and in writing a significant number of songs.
The flare-up of the Tejon Ranch case, which threatened to disinherit many Indians of their tribal lands, brought Harrington back to the area in February 1922. As a special temporary appointee to the Department of the Interior, he was responsible for obtaining depositions from the elderly residents of the Tejon. He simultaneously elicited additional biographical, historical, and linguistic data for his own work. The case was argued before the Supreme Court on February 28, 1924. In June of that year the court held that the Indians had abandoned the land. The decision was based on the Indians' failure to present their claim to the commission appointed under the act of March 1851 to ascertain and adjust private land claims in territory ceded by Mexico to the United States.
In the fall of 1923, he took a number of Yokuts to the Ventura County Fair to perform dances, to demonstrate house and boat building techniques, and to exhibit their crafts. He also made trips to Yokuts territory in the early 1930s and again in January 1942. These were possibly side trips made during the course of other work to follow upon the Tejon Ranch case.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
This subseries of the Notes and writings on special linguistic studies series contains materials resulting from Harrington's efforts to develop a phonetic alphabet for writing all languages.
There are four main groupings of notes relating to phonetics. A large set of uncategorized notes has been arranged in chronological order from 1910 through the 1950s. Most of the material dates from the period 1910 to 1915 and from 1921 to 1928; there are smaller amounts of data for the following three decades. The notes present alternate phonetic systems--sometimes referred to as "sonoscript"--in chart form with accompanying explanations of the rationale behind each proposed alphabet. There are also sample words and sentences written out phonetically. The notes from 1910 include a draft of a letter from Harrington to his mother and those from 1912 contain three large poster-sized charts. A second set of notes is arranged alphabetically by topic and includes subsections on alphabetic order, length, letters practical in handwriting, and pitch accent. A relatively large file labeled "phon[etic] letter forms" consists of various handwritten and typed letters as well as cut-and-pasted examples of letters from printed sources. There is also a clipping dated 1922 regarding an advocate of Esperanto with Harrington's own proposals for word forms in that language. In addition, the files contain a copy of an I.P.A. questionnaire and Harrington's comments on it. A third section of material consists of the notes which Harrington made during or immediately following interviews with about twenty linguists and anthropologists, among them Leonard Bloomfield, Alfred L. Kroeber, Robert H. Lowie, Edward Sapir, Morris Swadesh (misspelled "Schwadesh"), Ruth Underhill, Carl F. Voegelin, T. T. Waterman, and B.A.E. colleagues Hewitt, Michelson, and Swanton. Not all of the notes are dated; those which are clearly labeled cover discussions from the 1920s to the 1940s. The last grouping, compiled around 1923 to 1926, contains brief notes on various alphabets. The alphabetically arranged files cover the proposed systems of Arden, Forchhammer, Jespersen, Murray, Olbrechts, Pierce, Powell, and Rouse.
This subseries also contains drafts for four papers by Harrington on phonetics as well as a brief one-page draft description of a "Seminar in General Phonetics" which Harrington was planning to offer at the University of Southern California in 1935 or 1936.
Biographical / Historical:
One aspect of the study of linguistics of special interest to John P. Harrington was the development of a practical phonetic alphabet for writing all languages. It was an effort to which he devoted a great amount of time from 1910 to 1915, from 1922 to 1928, and again intermittently in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
In 1912 Harrington drafted comments on a proposal for an international conference to devise a universal phonetic system, and on a sample questionnaire which was mailed to many linguists by the International Phonetic Association (I.P.A.). It is unclear whether or not he actually submitted them to the I.P.A.
Also in that year he was chosen to serve on a committee ofthe American Anthropological Association to "prepare a scheme of phonetic representation which [would] have the official sanction" of the organization. Fellow committee members were Franz Boas (chair), Edward Sapir, Alfred L. Kroeber, and Earl Pliny Goddard.
Although later notes indicate that he consulted a number of language specialists, it appears that most of Harrington's efforts at devising a workable alphabet were undertaken alone or with only the cooperation of his friend Paul Vogenitz.
In the mid-1930s he was invited to teach a seminar on "General Phonetics" at the University of Southern California. While correspondence with Dr. Frank C. Touton, vice president of the university, suggests that Harrington contemplated offering the course at various times between the spring of 1935 and the summer of 1936, this plan was abandoned because of more pressing interests. He did touch on phonetics during his course on language at the University of Washington during the summer of 1910
At various points in his career Harrington wrote preliminary descriptions of the phonetic system he favored at that time. None of the early drafts appeared in print and as late as the 1940s, while writing the treatise "Linguistics," Harrington was undecided whether to publish his system or "die keeping it hidden."
Local Numbers:
Accession #1976-95
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
This subseries of the Northeast/Southeast series contains John P. Harrington's Algonquian research. It consists primarily of material he collected; there is very little original data, most of which are undated. The topics covered are Cheyenne grammar, Fox linguistic notes, Menominee grammar, Miami-Peoria grammar, Mohegan-Pequot-Montauk vocabulary, Montagnais miscellaneous notes, Nanticoke-Conoy-Unalachtigo linguistic notes, Ojibwa linguistic notes, Potawatomi linguistic notes, and comparative and miscellaneous notes.
The Cheyenne material consist of two pages of grammatical excerpts from Rodolphe Petter's English-Cheyenne Dictionary (1915).
The Fox notes stem from conversations which Harrington had with Truman Michelson on the Fox syllabary and grammar. One note is dated September 24, 1924; others are undated. One page gives the etymology of the word Chicago and a Potawatomi equivalent. Phonetic material (former B.A.E. MS 6021 pt. and 6025pt.) is based on William Jones's "Algonquian (Fox)" (1911). A bibliography is included, mainly on Michelson's publications and manuscripts which he submitted to the B.A.E.
The Menominee files contain a phonetic key from Leonard Bloomfield's Menomini Texts (1928), a short report on a conversation with Michelson (former B.A.E. MS 6025pt. and 6030), and a brief description of Menominee tentshaking was excerpted from W. J. Hoffman's The Menomini Indians (1896).
Miami-Peoria vocabulary were copied from Albert Gatschet's B.A.E. manuscripts 3025 and 3026b. (Those entries marked 3026b are no longer listed as part of that B.A.E. manuscript.)
An 1890 copy of a 1798 Montauk vocabulary taken by John Lyon Gardiner was loaned to Harrington by Foster H. Saville. There are also a three-page typescript of this manuscript and several pages of a Mohegan-Pequot bibliography.
For Montagnais, there are three bibliographical notes. Two placenames came from J.N.B. Hewitt in November 1926.
Reading notes on Nanticoke, Conoy, and Unalachtigo were taken principally from Speck's The Nanticoke and Conoy Indians . .. (1927) and from Hodge's "Handbook" (1907). Some linguistic and ethnohistoric material is included and there is a brief bibliography.
Ojibwa forms the largest portion of this subseries. It includes notes from a joint interview conducted most likely in 1940 with C. F. Voegelin and his informant, Gregor McGregor, who was technically considered a speaker of Ottawa. There are also notes Harrington took of Voegelin's lecture at the University of Michigan on June 25, 1940 (former B.A.E. MS 6020pt.). There is a slight emphasis on placenames in an otherwise random vocabulary. From James Hammond Trumbull's Notes on Forty Algonkin Versions of the Lord's Prayer (1873), Harrington copied the Southern Chippeway version (pp. 74 -75) and penciled in a slightly different English translation. A final potpourri of undated notes includes a miscellaneous vocabulary from secondary sources and a few pages of grammatical material. The etymologies of several Ojibwa words are briefly developed. Frederic Baraga's A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language is the most frequently cited source (former B.A.E. MS 6020pt. and 6025pt.).
The Potawatomi files contain material from Harrington's interview with Chief Simon Kahquados in Blackwell, Wisconsin (n.d.) with whom he recorded general ethnographic information, particularly regarding the loss of Potawatomi lands due to Indian Office policies and illegal acts of the Menominee. A brief vocabulary is included. Unrelated to this interview is a Potawatomi phoneme chart.
Comparative material includes reading notes regarding the earliest appearances of certain Algonquian phonetic sounds. Harrington consulted primarily the works of Sir Isaac Pitman, Jean Claude Mathevet (Nipissing, Abnaki), and Silas Tertius Rand (Micmac). Additional peripheral bibliographical information is identified in the notes. The only date recorded is March 26, 1951. There are other scattered reading notes with Menominee, Cree, Fox, and Ojibwa phonetic comparisons, based mainly on Leonard Bloomfield's Menomini Texts (1938) and Plains Cree Texts (1934). One page of Arapaho terms was copied from Kroeber.
In the category of general linguistic and ethnographic notes (former B.A.E. ms. 6025pt.), information results from various conversations with fellow linguists: Truman Michelson and J.N.B. Hewitt on September 24, 1924; Hewitt in November 1924 and November 1926; Michelson in October 1930; and Michelson and Frank G. Speck in May 1934. Under the heading "The Southern Delawares," Harrington arranged random information on the Virginia Indians, touching briefly on history and ethnography. He included some Abnaki, Cree, and Cherokee linguistic terms, as well as a general bibliography. Vocabulary material in this series (former B.A.E. MS 6025pt.) consists of terms from various Algonquian languages, most probably taken from unidentified printed sources. One note gives "The Chief from Mass[achusetts]" as an informant. One group of terms is compared with Natick words and with a vocabulary recorded by Roger Williams.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
This subseries of the Northeast/Southeast series contains Harrington's Northern Iroquoian research. Most of this brief section results from his time in Ontario in 1940. The materials consist of Mohawk and Six Nations linguistic notes, Iroquoian songs, and mixed Iroquoian miscellaneous notes. The Mohawk linguistic notes is comprised of eight pages of random notes given by Mr. and Mrs. Davis on May 4, 1940. The Six Nations linguistic notes contains an interview with Sam Liquors, which provided a variety of linguistic information in Mohawk, Tuscarora, and Seneca, with a slight emphasis on placenames and tribenames. The Mohawk material is usually preceded by the labels "Hag." or "Hagersv.," presumably referring to the Ontario town of Hagersville which Harrington visited in May 1940. A few notes on conversations with Fenton are included, probably taken in 1940 at the University of Michigan. Fenton provided further information on Iroquoian songs in a rough, undeveloped stage. (Fenton later published articles on this subject.) An April 1943 note indicates another conversation with Fenton on Seneca. There are a few pages of highly miscellaneous bits of Seneca, Oneida, and Tuscarora material, some of it from J.N.B. Hewitt. Notes on Iroquoian food preparation were excerpted from a number of secondary sources.
Biographical / Historical:
John P. Harrington spent a few days in Ontario in May 1940, where his primary purpose was to interview Delaware speakers. He apparently came into contact, however, with Iroquoian residents Sam Liquors (Lickerish) and Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Davis. According to Delaware field notes, Davis was a storekeeper just west of the Smoothtown home of Josiah Montour, a Delaware informant. Davis was described as a Cayuga Indian, but he provided Mohawk information. Other notes were apparently taken in 1940 at the University of Michigan Linguistics Institute in Ann Arbor, most of them in conjunction with Bureau of American Ethnology ethnologist William N. Fenton. Two of Fenton's informants were Dozy and Shanks. Harrington mentioned John Jimmieson as a third speaker; his name could possibly be Jimmerson.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
In schedule of John Wesley Powell's Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages. Volume well filled. Also grammatical notes, the Parable of the Sower, and the Lord's Prayer.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 374
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Citation:
Manuscript 374, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
On the following subjects: Nanabozho; (Nothing seen in folder on Nanabozho MCB, 1956); Deganawida, Ohwachira; Cayuga chief titles in various dialects, particularly from A. Charles (Cayuga) in 1917, and George Van Every, May, 1919; miscellaneous notes on clans and social organization. Lists, tables, etc. (1934).
Gibson's first pencil text, and John Buck, Sr, 1st pencil sketch. Also copy of first part (text). (Buck 18 pages-Gibson, 36 pages). Copied 1916, labled "B-l" (Number 856).
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3514
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
