Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: Materials relating to both Algonquin and related Algonquian peoples, cultures, and languages. Includes Speck's notes on artifacts found near Lake Abitibi and in the Nipissing district; his Seven Islands field notes, including texts with interlinear translations, house data, names of animals, and a letter in French from Marie Louise Ambroise; sketches and comments on shoulder blade divination (scapulimancy), including notes on deer drives (including an undated note from A. Irving Hallowell) and the distribution of artifacts among Algonquin, Naskapi, and Mistissini peoples; two field notebooks containing (1) linguistic notes and informant and population data for Waswanipi, Abitibi, Temiskaming [Timiskaming], Nipissing, Algonquian and (2) Temiskaming ethnography, Wisiledjak (Wiskyjack) [Wisakedjak, a manitou] text (in English), Temagami ethnology and texts (in English), and one Iroquois legend; general information on birch-bark containers, including 37 photographs and 40 pages of notes relating to Algonquin, Cree, Ojibwe and Ktunaxa specimens, and a letter from Bella Weitzner; and a letter from A. G. Bailey sending Speck a copy of his book on Algonquians.

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

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Canada materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Language:English

Date:1927-1943

Contributor:Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Rehnstrand, Jane, 1884- | Hudson's Bay Company | Sargent, R. W.

Subject:Birch bark | Basketry | Canoes and canoeing | Boats | Art

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence

Extent:10 pages

Description: Correspondence relating to Speck's dealings in Canada (particularly his efforts to acquire birch-bark canoes and baskets) and to indigenous peoples, cultures, and material cultures of Canada that are not identified specifically. Materials include 1 letter from Speck to Foster Bennett regarding the purchase of and shipping instructions for three birch-bark canoes and two pairs of paddles; 3 letters from the Hudson's Bay Company regarding the unavailability of birch-bark articles at Longlac, Ontario, and Pointe Bleue, Lake St. John, Quebec as well as the availability of five baskets and one canoe for purchase at Montreal; 1 letter from R.W. Sargent regarding Indian birch-bark baskets with scratched floral and geometric designs available for purchase from R. S. Sargent, Ltd.; and 4 letters from Jane Rehnstrand regarding Speck's writing of an article on Indian Crafts of Canada for School Arts Magazine.

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

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Mi'kmaq materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Wolastoqiyik includes: Wəlastəkwewiyik, Malecite, Maliseet

Wabanaki includes: Wabenaki, Wobanaki

Passamaquoddy includes: Peskotomuhkati

Mi'kmaq includes: Micmac

Cherokee

Beothuk

Language:English | Mi'kmaq

Date:1909-1949

Contributor:Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Butler, Eva L. | Mechling, William Hubbs, 1888-1953 | Barlow, Steve

Type:Text

Extent:8 folders

Description: Materials relating to Mi'kmaq history, language, and culture. Includes Speck's field notes on topics such as wampum, hunting territories, Cape Breton texts, Newfoundland traditions, the Passamaquoddy, etc., as well as a map with names of Bear River Band members and one piece of birch bark with pictographs inscribed; Speck's miscellaneous notes and correspondence on topics such as consultants, specimens, hieroglyphics, linguistics, fieldwork, Mi'kmaq and Cherokee, and the Mi'kmaq mission newspaper; a text on Mi'kmaq dance with interlinear translation, notes, and a musical score; 10 pages of linguistic notes and vocabulary collected along the Miramichi River, along with 6 pages of typed copy by John Witthoft; correspondence with Mechling concerning linguistic research on the Mi'kmaq, Malecite [Malecite-Passamaquoddy], and Oaxaca languages, Mi'kmaq burials, and historic materials on Beothuk and Mi'kmaq; a brief article on a traveler's account of the Mi'kmaq in 1822; an incomplete article or set of reading excerpts taken after 1922 by Speck from John G. Millais (1907); and extracts concerning the sweat house taken by Butler from the Jesuit Relations.

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

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Miscellaneous materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Yuchi includes: Euchee

Wolastoqiyik includes: Wəlastəkwewiyik, Malecite, Maliseet

Wabanaki includes: Wabenaki, Wobanaki

Tunica

Tsimshian includes: Ts'msyan, Ts'msyen, Zimshian

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Navajo includes: Diné, Navaho

Maya

Nanticoke

Mi'kmaq includes: Micmac

Naskapi includes: ᓇᔅᑲᐱ, Iyiyiw, Skoffie

Kwakwaka'wakw includes: Kwakiutl

Klamath

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Innu includes: Montagnais, Mountaineer

Inuit includes: Inuk, Eskimo (pej.), ᐃᓄᐃᑦ

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Cheyenne

Cherokee

Creek

Choctaw includes: Chahta

Catawba includes: Iswa

Dakota includes: Dakȟóta

Chinook

Chitimacha

Catawba includes: Iswa

Chickahominy

Language:English | German

Date:1904-1950

Type:Text

Extent:46 folders

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)