Diné (Navajo) lantern slides from Arizona and New Mexico

Scope and Contents

This collection includes 100 glass lantern slides, both hand colored and in black and white. The slides were likely made and used by George Hubbard Pepper for lectures on Diné (Navajo) culture, in particular, Diné (Navajo) weaving practices. Many of the slides are made from photographs shot by Pepper during his time in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, during the Hyde Exploring Expedition from 1896 to 1900. A number of photographs in the collection were made by Sumner Matteson, who was in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico with Pepper in 1899 and 1900.

In addition to scenic views and portraits of Diné (Navajo) textile practitioners, there are photographs of weaving tools. This includes photographs of loom sets made by local Diné (Navajo) women purchased from J. L. Hubbell by George Pepper in 1905. Pepper ordered these from Hubbell in 1904 as he wanted them to demonstrate the weaving process. Many of these items were purchased by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, and are currently in the ethnographic collection at the National Museum of the American Indian.

The photographs are by George Pepper, unless otherwise noted.

Scope and Contents

Catalog numbers: L01469-L01568

Content Warning

Please note that these slides reflect the context and culture of the time of their creation and may include what is considered derogatory and harmful language today on the labels. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.

Arrangement

Arranged by catalog number.

Biographical / Historical

George Hubbard Pepper was born on February 2, 1873 in Tottenville, Staten Island, New York. As a young boy he exhibited a strong interest in archaeology and after his graduating from high school followed encouragement from Prof. Fredric W. Putnam to study at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, where Pepper stayed from 1895-96. In 1896 he was appointed assistant curator of the Department of the Southwest in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. From 1896 to 1900, Pepper was a member of the Hyde Exploring Expedition, which conducted excavations at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. In 1904, he conducted an ethnological survey of the occupied pueblos of the Southwest and at the same time continued his study of the weaving techniques of the Navajo. Pepper also participated in excavations in the yacatas of the Tierra Caliente of Michoacan in Mexico sponsored by George Gustav Heye, and in 1907 he went with Marshall Saville on an expedition to the Province of Manabi in Ecuador, also for Heye.

In 1909 Pepper was appointed assistant curator in the Department of American Archaeology at the University Museum of Philadelphia, but after only a year there he joined the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in New York City, where he stayed until his death. In 1914 he excavated a Munsee cemetery of the historic period near Montague, New Jersey and in the following year he went on the exploration of the Nacoochee mound in the old Cherokee region in Georgia. In 1918 he joined the Hawikku explorations of the Hendricks-Hodge Expedition in New Mexico. Pepper died on May 13, 1924, in New York City. George H. Pepper was a co-founder of the American Anthropological Association, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Ethnological Society of New York, a member of the American Folklore Society, and a corresponding member of the Academia Nacional de Historia of Ecuador. A complete bibliography of his works can be found in Indian Notes, v. 1, no. 3, July 1924, pp. 108-110. The George Hubbard Pepper Papers are in the Latin American Library, Tulane University Library, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Related Materials

Many of the lantern slides are duplicates of negatives and prints that can be found in the following two collections:

See the George Hubbard Pepper photograph collection, NMAI.AC.001.034 See the Sumner Matteson photograph collection, NMAI.AC.129