Scope and Contents

Photographs used to illustrate John Reed Swanton's "The Indians of the Southeastern United States" depicting American Indians of the Southeast and their dwellings, food preparation, and ceremonies.

Biographical note

John Reed Swanton (1873-1958) was an ethnologist and ethnohistorian with the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) from 1900 until his retirement in 1944. Swanton spent his first few years at the BAE studying the Haida and Tlingit groups of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and published a number of significant articles on the language, ethnography, and folklore of Northwest Coast Indians. His focus then shifted to the American Indians of the Southeastern United States, where his interest remained for the rest of his career. In addition to conducting ethnographic fieldwork in the Southeast, Swanton studied extensively the history of the area in order to better understand its indigenous cultures and is considered a pioneer in the field of ethnohistory. During his career Swanton published numerous articles and several major works on Southeastern American Indians, including the reference work The Indians of the Southeastern United States (1946), a Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin (No. 137).

Location of Other Archival Materials

Additional photographs published in BAE Bulletin 137 can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 80-39.

Photographs made by Swanton can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 76 and the BAE historical negatives.

The National Anthropological Archives hold more than 200 manuscripts created or collected by Swanton, in the Numbered Manuscripts.

Objects collected by Swanton, including potsherds from various sites in Southeastern United States can be found in the Department of Anthropology in accessions 111748, 113252, 122679, 129788, 165802, and 062577.

Contained in

Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collections, undated