Linguistics materials, American Philosophical Society Archives
Culture:
Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'
Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware
Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe
Date: 1798-1897
Contributor: Du Ponceau, Peter Stephen, 1760-1844 | Mitchill, Samuel L. (Samuel Latham), 1764-1831 | Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899 | Barbour, James, 1775-1842 | Collin, Nicholas, 1746-1831
Subject: Linguistics | Social life and customs | Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) | United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842)
Type: Text
Genre: Correspondence | Reports | Catalogs
Extent: 34 items
Description: Items relating to linguists and languages of the Americas. Bulk is the correspondence of Peter S. du Ponceau with Thomas Jefferson, Friedrich von Adelung, John Quincy Adams, John Vaughan, Johann S. Vater, John G. E. Heckewelder, Albert Gallatin, George Ord, and others regarding topics such as linguistics; Native languages and customs; acquiring publications for the American Philosophical Society Library; forwarding publications to others; philological essays; legal essays; Europeans' study of American Indian languages; the efforts of the Historical and Literary Committee and its pursuit of languages, especially comparative grammars; his own collection of Vocabularies; his work as an editor and linguist, including his addition to Barton (1797); Long's expedition and western vocabularies now in print; the origin of the American Indian; Byrd's manuscript of the North Carolina-Virginia boundary; the importance of comparative grammars instead of mere word-hunting; the Lewis and Clark journals; his search for Southern languages; Adelung's comment that Jefferson knew of a Mexican manuscript at New Orleans, and that Washington and others had supplied vocabularies to Catherine the Great; and plans for William Penn papers. Other items of interest include APS reports, including "Catalogue of historical manuscripts in the American Philosophical Society," Du Ponceau's "Report upon philology...and Report upon ethnography," and a letter to Mahlon Dickerson discussing objectives and scientific methods to be used on U. S. exploring expedition.
Collection: American Philosophical Society Archives APS.Archives