The collections consists mostly of original and copy prints. There are also some negatives, artwork, photographs of artwork, and printed materials. Included is a large miscellany of ethnological, historical, and some archaeological subjects collected by the Bureau of American Ethnology from a wide variety of sources. To these have been …

The National Congress of American Indian (NCAI), founded in 1944, is the oldest nation-wide American Indian advocacy organization in the United States. The NCAI records document the organization's work, particularly that of its office in Washington, DC, and the wide variety of issues faced by American Indians in the twentieth century. The collection is located in the Cultural Resource Center of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Harrington was a Bureau of American Ethnology ethnologist involved in the study of over one hundred American tribes. His speciality was linguistics. Most of the material concerns California, southwestern, northwestern tribes and includes ethnological, archeological, historical notes; writings, correspondence, photographs, sound recordings, biological specimens, and other types of documents. Also of concern are general linguistics, sign language, writing systems, writing machines, and sound recordings machines. There is also some material on New World Spanish, Old World languages. In addition, there are many manuscripts of writings that Harrington sketched, partially completed, or even completed but never published. The latter group includes not only writings about anthropological subjects but also histories, ranging from a biography of Geronimo to material on the history of the typewriter. The collection incorporates material of Richard Lynch Garner, Matilda Coxe Stevenson, and others. In his field work, Harrington seems sometimes to have worked within fairly firm formats, this especially being true when he was "rehearing" material, that is in using an informant to verify and correct the work of other researchers. Often, however, the interviews with informants (and this seems to have been the case even with some "rehearings") seem to have been rather free form, for there is a considerable intertwining of subjects. Nevertheless, certain themes frequently appear in his work, including annotated vocabularies concerning flora and fauna and their use, topography, history and biography, kinship, cosmology (including tribal astronomy), religion and philosophy, names and observations concerning neighboring tribes, sex and age division, material culture, legends, and songs. The fullness of such materials seems to have been limited only by the time Harrington had to spend with a goup and the knowledge of his informants.

This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.

This collection contains the professional papers of William Curtis Sturtevant and documents his activities as Curator of North American Ethnology at the National Museum of Natural History, his work as the editor-in-chief of the Handbook of North American Indians, his research among the Seminole and Iroquois people, and other professional activities. The collection is comprised of books, sound recordings, research and field notes, realia, artifacts, clippings, microfilm, negatives, slides, photographs, manuscripts, correspondence, memorandums, card files, exhibition catalogs, articles, and bibliographies.

The bulk of this collection documents the professional life of Ruth Leah Bunzel from the 1940s to 1970s. The collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, notes, research files, teaching materials, card files, artwork, and sound recordings.

William Duncan Strong's early interest was in zoology, but, while an undergraduate at the University of California, he was brought into anthropology under the influence of Alfred Louis Kroeber. He conducted archaeological and ethnological field research in several areas of the New World and was the first professionally trained archaeologist to focus on the Great Plains, where he applied the so-called direct historical method, working from known history in interpreting archaeological sites. Strong's papers include correspondence, field notes, diaries, newspaper clippings, teaching notes and student papers, manuscripts of his writings, writings by other authors, papers from the various organizations in which he served, maps, and a considerable number of photographs from his field work. The materials date from 1902 to 1965, with most of the materials being from 1927 to 1955.

These papers primarily contain photographs, journals, maps, manuscripts, postcards, and related materials concerning Heller's collecting activities from 1908 to 1917. There are also some personal photographs and material as well as photographs taken by Heller at the National Zoological Park of personnel and animals.

The Beals papers in the National Anthropological Archives include field notes, correspondence, printed materials, copies of historical documents, drafts and final manuscripts of writings, photographs, and cartographic materials. Most relate to research projects and sometimes include materials of colleagues and assistants. Especially notable is the abundant material regarding Oaxaca markets. There are some materials relating to aspects of Beals's career other than his research but they are generally widely distributed throughout the collection. Materials relating to events that happened to occur at the time of certain field work are often interfiled with the material relating to that certain field work. There are also some personal materials included. Conspicuously missing from the papers are notes on Beals's archeological work, which he has retained. There are relatively few materials relating to his teaching career, although some of the letters exchanged with Alfred Louis Kroeber concern the establishment of anthropology at the University of California at Los Angeles; and correspondence with students in the field concerns teaching as well as research activities. A typesript of notes on the Nisenan are at the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Some of the letters concern Elsie Clews Parsons and Carlos Castenada.

The papers of Robert E. Silberglied provide comprehensive documentation of his professional career. They include materials relating to his initial interest in entomology; his academic training; his teaching career at Harvard University; his duties as a staff member of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI); his efforts as a conservationist …