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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Miscellaneous materials, Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection

Culture:

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Cherokee

Language:English

Date:1788-1789; February 3, 1808; circa 1809; June 23, 1819; July 5, 1819; May 29, 1826; August 11, 1834; February 9, 1835; March 14, 1839; December 31, 1882; 1926; Undated;

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Vocabularies | Abstracts | Essays

Extent:13 items

Description: Relavent materials can be found in the finding aid under the specific dates listed. Various materials pertaining to miscellaneous American Indian peoples. Topics include Indian songs; Du Ponceau's "Memoir on the Indian Languages"; ancient and lost Indian languages; Heckewelder's missionary efforts among Indians; the book collection of John and Anna R. Gambold, missionaries to the Cherokees; questionable Snake Creek artifacts; busts of Indians; mineral and shell specimens; speculations on the origin of American Indians; Gallatin's documents for collections of vocabularies forwarded to E. Lincoln, John Pickering, S. Wood, Ebenezer Harris, James Rochelle, and Peter S. Du Ponceau; grizzly bears captured by Indians; Schoolcraft's projected volumes on Indians; Barton's "An essay towards a natural history of the North American Indians"; and Nuttall's Summary of paper "Fresh Light on Ancient American Civilizations and Calendars."

Collection:Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection (Mss.Ms.Coll.200)

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Peter Stephen Du Ponceau Collection

Culture:

Osage includes: 𐓁𐒻 𐓂𐒼𐒰𐓇𐒼𐒰͘

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Kickapoo includes: Kikapú, Kiikaapoa

Kaw includes: Kansa, Kanza

Cherokee

Language:English

Date:1781-1844

Contributor:Du Ponceau, Peter Stephen, 1760-1844 | Adams, John, 1735-1826 | Prescott, William Hickling, 1796-1859 | Coodey, William Shorey, 1806-1849 | Gallatin, Albert, 1761-1849

Subject:Linguistics | Ethnography

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Essays

Extent:.5 linear feet

Description: A pioneer in ethnographic and linguistic studies of the American Indian and one of the most active members of the American Philosophical Society, Peter Stephen Du Ponceau helped to establish the American Philosophical Society's reputation as one of the world's foremost centers for the study of American Indians and their languages. The Peter Stephen Du Ponceau Collection consists of correspondence on legal matters, Indian linguistics, silk culture, maritime law, the American Philosophical Society, and various publications of the early nineteenth century. The collection also includes several essays by Du Ponceau, most of which deal with maritime law. Materials in this collection that relate explicitly to Native peoples include a letter from Du Ponceau to John Vaughan discussing the merits of John Heckewelder's "Account...of the Indian Nations" (1818); a letter from John Adams informing Du Ponceau that his and Heckewelder's studies on Native Americans have diminished certain prejudices he (Adams) had against them, and mentioning certain works which might be of interest in Du Ponceau's study of universal language (1819); another letter from Adams relative to lost languages in general and Adams' desire to see Heckewelder's account of his missionary labors with Indians (1819); a letter from Du Ponceau to Marc-Antione Jullien de Paris mentioning the imposture John Dunn Hunter, who claimed to have been captured by Kickapoo Indians and raised among the Kickapoo, Kansa (Kaw), and Osage (1826); another letter to Jullien de Paris mentioning a review of his Delaware grammar (1828); a letter from William Shorey Coodey (Cherokee) forwarding a book in the Cherokee language translated by S.A. Worcester and Elias Boudinot (1836); and a letter from William Hickling Prescott thanking Du Ponceau for his work on Indian languages and mentioning John Vaughan and John Pickering (1839). There are also two letters from linguist Albert Gallatin, one that informs Du Ponceau of his progress on the Indian vocabularies and another that includes a newspaper clipping defending Gallatin against those who assailed his reputation. See the finding aid for an itemized list of the collection.

Collection:Peter Stephen Du Ponceau Collection (Mss.B.D92p)

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Seneca materials, C. F. Voegelin Papers

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Penobscot

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cherokee

Language:English | Seneca

Date:circa 1930s-1960s

Contributor:Voegelin, C. F. (Charles Frederick), 1906-1986 | Preston, W. D. | Lounsbury, Floyd Glenn | Cooper, Leroy

Subject:Linguistics | Anthropology | Ethnography | Folklore | Iroquoian languages

Type:Text

Extent:12 folders, 1 box

Description: The C. F. Voegelin Papers contain notes, texts, articles, and other linguistic and ethnographic materials relating to Seneca language and culture. These are located primarily in Subcollection I of the Voegelin Papers. Materials in Subcollection I include relevant correspondence with Floyd Lounsbury (regarding Oneida, Seneca, and Cherokee work) in Series I. Correspondence; 1 box of Ojibwa [Ojibwe], Seneca, and Penobscot notes in Series II. "Seneca I" with W.D. Preston in Series III. Works by Voegelin, Subseries III-B: Works Authored by Voegelin; a folder of Seneca linguistic notes in Series V. Research Notes, Subseries V-A: Language Notes; 7 folders of unbound Seneca texts and grammatical notes in Series V. Research Notes, Subseries V-B: Text; and 2 folders of Seneca notebooks in Series VI. Notebooks. Each of the latter two folders contains one of Voegelin's field notebooks, only partially full, and identify Leroy Cooper as his consultant.

Collection:C. F. Voegelin Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.68)

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Shawnee materials, Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers

Culture:

Yuchi includes: Euchee

Shawnee

Ponca

Muscogee includes: Muskogee, Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek

Kiowa includes: Ka'igwu

Cherokee

Cheyenne

Language:English | Shawnee

Date:1936-1952

Contributor:Ballard, W. L. | Lounsbury, Floyd Glenn | Williams, Mary

Subject:Linguistics | Ethnography

Type:Text

Genre:Essays | Autobiographies

Description: The Shawnee materials in the Lounsbury Papers are relatively limited. Of special interest is an untranslated autobiography of Mary Williams in the Shawnee language in Series II.

Collection:Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.95)

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Tuscarora materials, Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Cherokee

Date:1946-1991

Subject:Linguistics | Religion | Folklore | Ethnography | New York (State)--History

Type:Text | Sound recording

Description: The Tuscarora materials in the Lounsbury Papers include a dictionary by Chief Elton Greene, J.N.B. Hewitt's Tuscarora version of the Seneca Cosmology, and Blair Rudes's notes as he was developing his Tuscarora Dictionary in Series II. The recordings in Series VII include Lounsbury's work with Tuscarora speaker and teacher Marjorie Printup, which includes work on grammar, stories with explanations, Christian phrases, pedagogy, and reminiscences, etc. Also included are a significant number of tapes Lounsbury made with Tuscarora speaker Nellie Gansworth, many unidentified.

Collection:Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.95)

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Virginia materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seminole includes: Yat'siminoli

Language:English

Date:1920-1947

Type:Text | Three-dimensional object | Still Image

Extent:40 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's interest in the various Virginia- or Chesapeake-area peoples sometimes collectively lumped as Powhatans, including the Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Nansemond, Pamunkey, and Rappahannock peoples, from the early contact period into the mid-twentieth century. The Cherokees, Seminoles, Tuscaroras, and Penobscots are also mentioned. Correspondence includes Speck's correspondence with Chickahominy consultants like Chief George L. Nelson, Mrs. S. P. Nelson, Chief James H. Nelson, and E. P. Bradby; Pamunkey consultants like Paul L. Miles and Chief O. W. Adkins; Charles Edgar Gilliam, a Petersburg, Virginia, attorney and amateur historian, etymologist, and ethnologist; and a letter from Werner Müller in Berlin to the University of Pennsylvania inquiring whether Speck's book on the Nansamond and Chickahominy Indians was published and mentioniong Speck's publications on the Rappahannock and Powhatan. Other materials, largely arranged by topic, were compiled by Speck as well as by some his students, particularly those who participated in a field research group between 1939 and 1942, such as Mary Rowell Carse, Edmund Carpenter, Royal Hassrick, John "Jack" Kremens, Maurice A. Mook, Robert Solenberger, and Theodore Stern. Of particular interest might be a folder of 1941-1946 correspondence (42 letters) and copies of various documents relating to the efforts of Speck, James R. Coates, and others to overcome the practice of Virginia draft boards to classify indigenous peoples as "Negroes" for Selective Service. Other materials include a folder on Chickahominy efforts to gain recognition, including chartering the tribe as an incorporation; two of Speck's field notebooks on the Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Cherokee, and Chickahominy; Speck's reading notes on topics like gourds and the bow and arrow in early contact days; a description of "Pamunkey Town" in 1759, based on Andrew Burnaby, Travels (1760); a 1940 newspaper article titled "Virginia Indians Past and Present"; notes on Virginia Indian populations in 1668, based on figures obtained from a regulation requiring certain numbers of wolves be killed by various Indian groups; Charles Edgar Gilliam's "Historical sketch of Appomatoc Indians, 1607-1723"; and Gilliam on Powhatan Algonquian birds, etc., in colonial times. Other folders are devoted to topics such as Pamunkey hunting and fishing, Pamunkey games and amusements, Pamunkey celestial and meteorological phenomena, Pamunkey contemporary technology, Pamunkey emergency foods, Pamunkey fish, amphibians, shellfish, and reptiles, Pamunkey reptiles, Pamunkey animals, Pamunkey birds, Pamunkey mensuration, Pamunkey miscellaneous notes and correspondence, Pamunkey social organization, Pamunkey pottery, Pamunkey plants and agriculture, Pamunkey foods, Pamunkey medicines and poisons, Pamunkey folklore and language, Rappahannock field notes, Rappahannock contemporary technology, Rappahanock taking devices, Rappahannock miscellaneous notes and correspondence, Mattaponi miscellaneous notes and correspondence, Chickahominy miscellaneous notes and correspondence, field notes on Western Chickahominy, Nansemond miscellaneous notes and correspondence, and miscellaneous notes and correspondence on Virgina Indians.

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

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Yuchi materials, Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers

Culture:

Yuchi includes: Euchee

Shawnee

Muscogee includes: Muskogee, Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek

Cherokee

Language:English

Date:undated

Contributor:Ballard, W. L.

Subject:Oklahoma--History | Politics and government

Type:Text

Genre:Essays

Extent:20 pages

Description: The Yuchi materials in the Lounsbury Papers are limited to one article written by William L. Ballard: "The Languages and Religions of the Yuchis, Creeks, Cherokees, and Shawnees: Current State, Relationships, and History," found in Series II.

Collection:Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.95)