Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: Materials relating to Speck's research and other professional activities. Items include Speck's notes taken during graduate work at Columbia University under Franz Boas, and utilized for his own anthropology courses at the University of Pennsylvania; Speck's miscellaneous notes comprising circa 500 bibliographic cards and reading notes sorted out by tribe and/or language, dealing with tribes and countries in which Speck did no field work [other entries of this type are to be found among the various groups of materials in the Speck collection, according to tribe]; correspondence concerning exhibits and specimens for the Chicago World's Fair and for the Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts in New York City; two letters from Boas regarding the work of the Committee on Research in Native American Languages; correspondence regarding topics such as the double-curve motif, family hunting areas, indigenous foods and cooking methods, wampum, silverwork, birch-bark technique, baskets, Speck's research and publications, the research and publications of others, obtaining indigenous material cultural specimens for Speck, purchases of indigenous material culture specimens (baskets, masks, etc.) from Speck, Speck's identification of items in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University, Speck's bibliography, and Speck's obituary; letters requesting copies of Speck's publications, or acknowledging the transmission of publications between Speck and others; copies and/or drafts of several of Speck's presentations and publications, including "Lectures on Primitive Religion," "Land Ownership Among Hunting Peoples in Primitive America and the World's Marginal Areas," "Review of Lowie's Introduction to Cultural Anthropology," and "The Double-Curve Motive in Northeastern Algonquian Art"; a bibliography of Speck's publications through 1942; rough drafts of miscellaneous papers, 1928-1948; Speck's notes on topics such as crane posture; Birket-Smith's 1946 "Plan for Circumpolar Research"; ten distribution maps for circumpolar culture traits, colored in with crayon to show distribution of traits including divination and miracle shamanism, sweat bath, turtle Atlas myth and world-tree concept, bone divination, bear veneration, curative power of mystic words and formulae, dog-ancestor myth, dog as soul leader, curvilinear patterns, and confession to cure taboo violation; and a prepublication manuscript of Hallowell's "The nature and function of property as a human institution" with additions and corrections.

Collection:Frank G. Speck Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.126)

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Muscogee (Creek) materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Yuchi includes: Euchee

Seminole includes: Yat'siminoli

Muscogee includes: Muskogee, Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek

Language:English | Muscogee | Yuchi

Date:1904-1947

Type:Text | Three-dimensional object

Extent:14 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's study of Creek history, language, and culture. Includes Speck's own notes and work, including "Notes on Social and Economic Conditions Among the Creek Indians of Alabama in 1941" (published as Speck 1947); an undated earlier version of that essay titled "Creek Indians Surviving in Alabama"; 115 pages of linguistic notes from Taskigitown, dated 1904-1905 and organized by categories; Creek and Yuchi songs; Creek and Yuchi Dance; 98 pages of Creek texts, including some interlineal translations, and related notes dated 1904-1905; and 35 pages of miscellaneous notes and letters on topics like dances, language, clothing, myths, handicrafts, and fieldwork. Also includes two botanical specimens--Coopti (Zamia floridana) used by Seminoles, 1941 and Ilex vomitoria Ait, used by Creeks--accompanied by letters to Speck from Richard Evans Schultes concerning Houma Botany; two letters from female students at the Haskell Institute in 1940 (Leona Giger writes of a Creek doll she is making and mentions the council house at Okmulgee, Oklahoma, while Ann Rolland offers to answer questions on Creek use of feathers); a letter from Morris Opler regarding Opler's work among the Creeks, as well as an essay by Opler about the organization, history, and social and political significance of Creek towns; a letter from Mario Gamio acknowledging the receipt of a Creek Indian pamphlet; and a letter from D'Arcy McNickle returning to Speck photographs of the Creek Indians of Atmore, Alabama to prevent them from getting lost and mentioning that his manuscript of the report is still being copied.

Collection:Frank G. Speck Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.126)