Walter C. Shields Photograph album
Culture:
Language: English
Date: 1911-1928
Contributor: Barnette, H. | Shields, Walter C. | Minungun
Subject: Alaska--History | Education | Missions | Social life and customs | Boarding schools
Type: Still Image
Genre: Photographs
Extent: 208 photographs
Description: Walter C. Shields was the Superintendent of Schools of the Northwest district of the Alaska division for the Bureau of Education of the United States Department of the Interior from 1910-1918. The photograph album reflects the dual role the Bureau of Education played in creating schools for Iñupiat children and domestic reindeer herding for their parents as part of a government project to impose Euro-American models of education and subsistence on Iñupiat communities. The 199 original black and white photographs, dated 1911-1913, reflect individual and group portraits of Inupiat Eskimos, interior and exterior views of their homes and schools, reindeer sleds and round-ups. Taken by Shields and his colleague H. Barnette, some specific locations include Barrow (Utqiagvik), Wainwright, Noatak, Selawik, Buckland, Candle, Deering, Wales, Kotzebue, and Shishmaref. Nine other photographs, dated 1916, 1928, are of dwellings and dog sleds in the White Mountains.
Collection: Walter C. Shields Photograph album Mss.SMs.Coll.4