National Anthropological Archives

John K. Hillers photographs of Ute and Paiute people, circa 1871-1874

Summary

Collection ID:
NAA.PhotoLot.87-2N
Creators:
Hillers, John K., 1843-1925
Dates:
circa 1871-1874
Languages:
Undetermined
.
Physical Description:
37 Albumen prints
mounted
Repository:

Scope and Contents note

Scope and Contents note
The collection consists of photographs depicting Ute and Paiute people, mostly informal portraits, with some individuals holding baskets, bow and arrows, and rifles. The photographs may have been made on a Powell expedition. Many of the prints are the same as those normally used to make stereographs, and the mounts appear to be pages removed from an album.

Biographical/Historical note

Biographical/Historical note
John K. Hillers (1843-1925) immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1852. He spent almost twenty years photographing Native Americans and the landscape of the Indian Territories, California, the Southwest, and the Southeast, largely for the Bureau of American Ethnology and the United States Geological Survey. He began work on the Survey as a boatman on John Wesley Powell's second expedition down the Colorado River in 1871. He soon became the assistant, and then the main photographer (1872) for the expedition. From 1879 to 1900, Hillers served as the first staff photographer of Powell's Bureau of Ethnology, and in 1881 he took pictures for the United States Geological Survey.

Administration

Author
Sarah Ganderup
Custodial History note
This collection was found in 1972, along with other collections in Photo Lot 87-2, as something which had been set aside as a "problem collection," though this may only reflect that it was unprocessed.

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 87-2N, John K. Hillers photographs of Ute and Paiute people, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Location of Other Archival Materials

Location of Other Archival Materials
Additional photographs by John K. Hillers can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 14, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 28, Photo Lot 40, Photo Lot 143, Photo Lot 83-18, Photo Lot 90-1, Photo Lot 92-46, and the BAE historical negatives.
Location of Other Archival Materials
The National Anthropological Archives holds Powell's inventory of photographs made on expeditions 1871-1875 (MS 1795-c).
Location of Other Archival Materials
The National Anthropological Archives holds Hillers's diary from 1871-1872 and 1874, 1875 (MS 4410).
Location of Other Archival Materials
The National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Duke University, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at University of California at Berkeley, University of Oregon, Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, and Southern Methodist University also hold photographs by Hillers.

More Information

Local Call Number(s)

Local Call Number(s)
NAA Photo Lot 87-2N


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Colorado Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Arizona Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Utah Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of North America -- Great Basin Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Paiute Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ute Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

National Anthropological Archives
Museum Support Center
4210 Silver Hill Road
Suitland, Maryland 20746
Business Number: Phone: 301.238.1300
Fax Number: Fax: 301.238.2883
naa@si.edu