Usage conditions may apply for digital images, video, and sound recordings linked within SOVA collections. While digital content may be restricted, SOVA collection descriptions and catalog records are available CC0 for re-use. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
National Anthropological Archives
James E. McClees Studio photographs of Native American delegates to Washington, DC, circa 1850 to 1863 (bulk 1857-1858)
Summary
- Collection ID:
- NAA.PhotoLot.4286
- Creators:
-
M'Clees, Jas. E. (James E.) (studio owner and photographer)
- Dates:
-
circa 1850 to 1863bulk 1857-1858
- Languages:
-
Undetermined.
- Physical Description:
-
32 Albumen printsmounted
- Repository:
Scope and Contents note
Scope and Contents note
Studio portraits made by the James E. McClees Studio and published by the Blackmore Museum, depicting Native American visitors to Washington, D.C. The series is identified by an 1863 broadside in the collection as "Photographs of some of the principal Chiefs of the North American Indians, made when they have visited Washington as deputations from their Tribes." Yankton, Sisseton, Mdewakanton, Wahpeton, Pawnee, Potawatomi, Sauk and Fox, Ponca, and Ojibwa people are represented. Three additional portraits depict men (possibly Cree) and were probably made by a different photographer.
Biographical/Historical note
Biographical/Historical note
James Earl McClees (1821-1887) trained as a daguerreotypist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before opening a studio in Washington, D.C. in 1857. He was an early user of paper photographic processes and was well-known for photographing delegations of American Indians. His Washington studio, known as the James E. McClees Studio, operated in 1857-1858 with Julian Vannerson (1827-?) and Samuel Cohner as its most established operators. The studio was taken over by Robert W. Addis in 1858. Among Addis's proprietors was Antonio Zeno Schindler, an artist who made copies of photographs for English philanthropist and collector William Blackmore (1827-1878). Blackmore purchased the McClees Studio's negatives from Shindler, later transferring them to the Smithsonian. The Bureau of American Ethnology absorbed the photographs upon its formation in 1878-1879.
Administration
Author
Sarah Ganderup
Existence and Location of Copies note
Digital surrogates for some photographs available online.
Custodial History note
These prints have been in the Archives for an unknown length of time; the broadside was obtained in May, 1968 from the Newberry Library in Chicago, which owns several copies.
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access note
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Conditions Governing Use note
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Preferred Citation note
Photo Lot 4286, James E. McClees Studio photographs of Native American delegates to Washington DC, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Location of Other Archival Materials
Location of Other Archival Materials
Additional McClees Studio and Vannerson photographs held in the National Anthropological Archives in the BAE historical negatives and Photo Lot 4420.
Location of Other Archival Materials
Glass negatives relating to William Henry Blackmore, including copies of photographs collected by Blackmore, held in the British Museum and in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 31 and the BAE historical negatives.
Location of Other Archival Materials
Artifacts collected by Blackmore held in the anthropology collections of the National Museum of Natural History in accessions 1846, 2371, and 1826.
Contained in
Contained in
Numbered manuscripts 1850s-1980s (some earlier)
More Information
Local Call Number(s)
Local Call Number(s)
NAA Photo Lot 4286
Addl. KW Subj
Addl. KW Subj
Sioux
Mdewakanton
Sauk & Fox
Meskwaki; Sauk & Fox
Chippewa
Keywords
National Anthropological Archives
Museum Support Center
4210 Silver Hill Road
Suitland, Maryland 20746
naa@si.edu