National Museum of the American Indian

Dane Coolidge photographs from Mexico

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAI.AC.202
Creators:
Coolidge, Dane, 1873-1940
Dates:
1932
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.01 Linear feet
6 Photographs
Repository:
This collection contains 3 photographic prints (and 3 copy negatives) depicting a Seri man in Mexico, photographed by Dane Coolidge in 1932.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
N37332-N37334, P15199-P15201
This collection contains 3 gelatin silver prints shot by Dane Coolidge in Mexico in 1932 and 3 copy prints created from those prints by the Museum of the American Indian. Coolidge and his wife Mary Roberts Coolidge studied the Seri in the 1930s. All three photographs are outdoor portraits of Seri medicine man Santo Blanco. In one photo he is shaking rattles, in a another photo he is depicting playing a musical bow, and in the third photo he is wearing a medicine man's crown. Some of these photos were used to illustrate Dane and Mary Coolidge's book
The Last of the Seris
(1939).

Arrangement

Arrangement
Arranged by catalog number.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Naturalist and novelist Dane Coolidge was a born on March 24, 1873 in Natick, Massachusetts and grew up in Riverside, California. He received his education from Standard and Harvard Universities. He later worked as a field collector for the British Museum, Stanford University, and the U.S. National Zoological Park. He wrote both fiction and non-fiction usually set in Western locales such as California and the U.S. Southwest. In 1906, he married sociologist Mary Roberts and the two collaborated on the books
The Navajo Indian
s (1930) and
The Last of the Seris
(1939). Dane Coolidge died in 1940 and Mary Roberts Coolidge in 1945.

Administration

Author
Emily Moazami
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was purchased from Mary Roberts Coolidge in 1940.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Emily Moazami, 2019.
Separated Materials
Mary Roberts Coolidge also donated Seri objects to NMAI (catalog numbers 203200 - 203414).

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).
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Dane Coolidge photographs from Mexico, catalog #, NMAI.AC.202; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
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 to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, 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. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.

Related Materials
The University of California's The Bancroft Library holds Dan Coolidge Papers (Collection Number: BANC MSS C-H 82).
The Smithsonian Institution Libraries holds a copy of
The Last of the Seris
(Call no. F1221.S43C7).

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Seri Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of Central America Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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