National Museum of the American Indian

John Peabody Harrington photographs from California

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAI.AC.001.040
Creators:
Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
Dates:
1923
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
17 Negatives (photographic)
16 Photographic prints
2 Copy negatives
Repository:
Negatives and photographic prints taken by John Peabody Harrington in Santa Barbara and Ventura County, California in 1923. John Peabody Harrington (1884-1961) was an ethnologist and linguist who specialized in the Native peoples of California and served with the U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology from 1915 to 1955. Beyond his efforts to document innumerable Native languages, Harrington also collected objects for the Bureau of Ethnology and on his own. Photographs in this collection accompanied the objects he sold to or collected for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The John Peabody Harrington photographs from California include negatives and photographic prints taken in 1923 by Harrington while in the field. All of the negatives were taken at the Ventura County fair in the fall of 1923. These photographs depict a group of Chumash men building a grass lodge, organized by J.P. Harrington, as well as Bob Bautista, a Tachi Yokuts man, demonstrating traditional boat and house building. George Gustav Heye is pictured in several shots while the Chumash grass lodge is being built. Prints [P11568-P11572] were made from the aforementioned negatives. There is also one copy negative made from one of the subsequent prints.
The remainder of the photographic prints in this collection were taken during the Burton Mound expedition, funded by Thea Heye and led by John Peabody Harrington in 1923. Photographs taken by Harrington show workers excavating the mound as well images of the mound itself. There are four additional photographs from Burton Mound that were not taken by Harrington. These include an image Of J.P Harrington, D.B. Rogers and George W. Bayley standing with excavated materials. Some of these photographs have been restricted due to cultural sensitivity.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Physically arranged by catalog number. Negatives: N08762-N08766, N08964-N08975, N35868, N36678. Prints: P06039, P05564-P05566, P09497-P09502, P11568-P11572, P28107.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
John Peabody Harrington (1884-1961) was an ethnologist and linguist employed by the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) for forty years, from 1915 to 1955. He came to the Smithsonian after training at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. He became interested in Native American languages upon meeting historically renowned anthropologist A. L. Kroeber. J. P. Harrington was reportedly fluent in nine international languages and eighteen Native American languages.
In 1923, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye foundation provided funding for J.P. Harrington to lead an expedition in Santa Barbara, California to excavate the Burton Mound.
Additional information on John Peabody Harrington can be found on the National Anthropological Archives' website, home to his collection.

Administration

Author
Rachel Menyuk
Processing Information
Processed by Rachel Menyuk, Processing Archivist, in 2017.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The negatives were acquired from John Peabody Harrington by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation shortly after they were taken in 1923. It is likely that prints [P11568-P11572] were made from the negatives some time in the 1930s. Prints from Burton Mound [P09497-P09502] were cataloged by the MAI in 1929 though the additional Burton Mound prints arrived with the collection in 1923. The provenance of P06039 and P28107 is unknown.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Some images restriced: Cultural Sensitivity.
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); John Peabody Harrington photographs from California, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Related Materials
Archaeological materials excavated from Burton Mound can be found in NMAI's archaeological collection. For more information on these object please contact NMAICollections@si.edu.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Santa Barbara -- California -- archeology Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ventura County (Calif.) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Santa Barbara (Calif.) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Chumash Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tachi Yokuts Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mounds -- California -- Santa Barbara Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Heye, Thea Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bautista, Bob, c.1843-1923 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

National Museum of the American Indian
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nmaiarchives@si.edu