National Museum of the American Indian

Alanson Buck Skinner photograph collection, 1865-1925

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAI.AC.001.036
Creators:
Van Schaick, C.J.
Skinner, Alanson, 1886-1925
Smith, Huron H. (Huron Herbert), 1883-1933
Dates:
circa 1870 to before 1926
Languages:
No linguistic content; Not applicable
.
Physical Description:
454 Negatives (photographic)
99 Photographic prints
black and white
5 Lantern slides
Repository:
Tribes covered in the photographs are: Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Iowa, Iroquois, Mahican, Menomini, Ojibwa, Oto, Plains Cree, Potawatomi, Seminole, Seri, Shinnecock, Sioux, Winnebago, Zuni Pueblo. The majority of photographs (552) have Skinner listed as the photographer and presumably are photographs he took on his expeditions. However, 104 photos are of the Seminole in Florida. According to Dennis P. Carey's biography of Skinner (Unpublished? 1980) Julian Q. Dimock, a well-known photographer, accompanied him on his expedition to the Seminole in Florida; how many of the photos were taken by Dimock is unknown, but he is listed as the photographer for 23 of them. Skinner's other photographs are of the Seneca Iroquois in New York; the Zuni Pueblo and Hawikku site; several tribes in Wisconsin; the Chippewa in Minnesota; and miscellaneous shots taken in Canada, Costa Rica, Florida and New York. Two photographs of the Mahican were taken by Huron H. Smith (1923) and two of the Winnebago were taken by C.J. Van Schaick (c. 1870). The remaining photographs have no photographer listed but were in Skinner's collection of photographs and are of varying tribes with dates ranging from 1909 to 1923.

Arrangement note

Arrangement note
Collection arranged by item number.

Biographical/Historical note

Biographical/Historical note
Alanson Buck Skinner was born in Buffalo, New York, on September 7, 1886. His parents moved to Staten Island, New York, when Alanson was still very young. There Alanson met W.T. Davis who taught him to find arrowheads and other traces of ancient Indian life. When he was older he consulted with Prof. F.W. Putnam and George H. Pepper at the American Museum of Natural History about his interest. In the summer of 1902 Skinner went on his first fieldwork expedition near Shinnecock Hills, Long Island, for the American Museum of Natural History with Arthur C. Parker and Mark R. Harrington. Two years later Skinner and Harrington went on another archeological expedition in western New York State for the Peabody Museum and while there he attended his first Native ceremony on the Cattaraugus reservation. After high school Skinner joined the staff of the AMNH as an assistant in anthropology. In 1908 he led an expedition to Hudson Bay to study the Cree Indians. In 1910 he went to Wisconsin where he met John V. Satterlee, part Menomini, and Judge Sabatis Perote, a full-blooded Menomini, who adopted him into the tribe under the Thunder clan name of Sekosa or "Little Weasel." He later went on expeditions to collect from the Seminoles in the Florida Everglades, and other tribes in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and other states. During these years he was also studying anthropology at Columbia under Boas, Farrand, Saville, and Bandelier, and at Harvard under Dixon, Tozzer, and Farrabee. In 1916 Skinner joined the Museum of the American Indian and remained there until 1920, when he took a position as curator of anthropology at the Public Museum of Milwaukee. He returned to the MAI in 1924 where he remained until his untimely death on August 17, 1925 in a car accident in North Dakota. He was a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Wisconsin Archeological Society, the Explorer's Club, a York Rite Mason and a Shriner. A more detailed biography by Dennis P. Carey (1980) can be found in the vertical file. A complete bibliography of Skinner's writings can be found in Indian Notes, Vol. II, No. 4 (October 1925).

Administration

Existence and Location of Copies note
99 black and white prints, 454 negatives, and 5 lantern slides, of which 109 have been digitized (11 prints, 93 negatives, 5 lantern slides) as of December 2003.
Processing Information note
Processed by Gayle Yiotis

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access note
Access restricted. Researchers should contact the staff of the NMAI Archives for an appointment to access the collection.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Minnesota Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wisconsin Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Costa Rica Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of Mexico Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of North America -- Wisconsin Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Oklahoma Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Negatives Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of North America -- Great Lakes Region Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographic prints Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mexico Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of North America -- New York (State) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Canada Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Florida Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
New York Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of North America -- Southern states Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of North America -- New Mexico Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
New Mexico Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lantern slides Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wyoming Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Iowa Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Menominee (Menomini) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Odawa (Ottawa) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Plains Cree (Prairie Cree) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Seminole Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bribri Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Plains Ojibwa (Bungi) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cayuga Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Minnesota Chippewa Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Saulteaux Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Shinnecock Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wahpetonwan Dakota (Wahpeton Sioux) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
James Bay Cree Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Seneca [Cattaraugus] Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Potawatomi [Forest County, Wisconsin] Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kesagami (Kesagmi) Cree Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

National Museum of the American Indian
4220 Silver Hill Rd
Suitland, Maryland 20746-2863
Business Number: Phone: 301.238.1400
Fax Number: Fax: 301.238.3038
nmaiarchives@si.edu