Were joined by the smithsonians michel delaney. Tell us what your title is and what your job is . Thank you. My job is assistant director for culture at the smithsonian Smithsonians National team of the American Indian. I lead the scholars, the historians the curators at the museum who are in charge of producing exhibitions, the books a lot of the Educational Programs and symposiums, and work with a collection of about 824,000 objects. But i have a real interest in photography and we have also over 500,000 photographs in the National Museum of the American Indian archives center. So i have been working very hard in the years that ive been spent at this museum. I am a 30 year career at the smithsonian but i just joined the American Indian museum in the last year and these photographs are of much interest to me is an archivist. So you wrote an article about the collection. Tell us why you wrote the this article a virtual tour of history. Thanks richard. We have a great magazine. American indian magazine that is a members magazine for our museums. It has become more and more familiar with it over time, so when i was asked to think about the opportunity to consider what photographs we have online for the public to see and for students to study online, it was a great opportunity because i was able to review and get really deep into all the collections of photography that are on line, about 25,000 photographs of these for 500,000 we are continuing to work all the time to get more online. But for me to do a deep dive into everything we have now was just fantastic. That is what i love, i love to do research and for me to understand the depth of collections for the beginning of photography in the 18 forties here in america to present day contemporary and digital. So i was asked to do an article about a virtual tour of photography on line. And it really got me up to date with everything we have while i cannot physically get into that archive which i do so want to do. So what i can do was to bring to our readers a glimpse of what they can see online. So why dont we take a look, just jump right into the photographs and the first one that you reference in the article is a garrett tape. When it you tell us about . That when i to join the museum and got a quick tour of the Archive Center i asked about the earliest images because i really wanted to know how far the collection went back. I know that to garrett types one of the earliest forms of photography invented by of daguerrotypes the earliest forms of photography invented in france in 1839 was very popular in the u. S. By 1840 we were seeing these images. This image on the screen of dr. Peter wilson was from the early 1850s in buffalo, new york. And so when these incredibly expensive looking hundred and 80 year old images open up, its always exciting to me. First of all if you dont look at them right they are mirror images. So scanning them are reproducing them is difficult, so this is an excellent image by our staff photographers. We capturing the image of this American Indian man went on to became a doctor so early on in our nations history, but in a time when you would think few leaders in the native community would become accredited to university and become a doctor. But it shows you really a window back into a different time anyone learn more about who doctor wilson was and why he was dressed as he is dressed in western attire. And why he looks the way he does, and possibly really give this image . To was it something that he kept . Was it something that we share with family . Or was it something that was possibly meant for Something Else . We spent a lot of time on Providence Research promenades research, which is learning about the creation of the five hotter photograph, in this case who made it, who is the sitter and trying to find out just why was made. So i wanted to go back right to the beginning and know that American Indians and our indigenous native populations here in the u. S. And in the western hemisphere, they were being photographed. And what story does that . So it was a pleasure to find this image right away when i was searching online . And in a lot of these pictures you have the back, decide what is that . Thats unlocking history. That is when your history detective when you open up the case and you see Something Like this with Peter Wilsons name, his name spelled out. His native name his American Indian name is there which i will not try to pronounce. Because i do not want to do it and injustice. And there it says, gifted to his friend p e. Thomas. Its through thomas that this image was donated to the National Museum of American Indian collection. You have to remember, our collection is a century old but the museum was only founded in 1989. So all of the early Collection Items that come in to the george foodstuff high collection that was based in new york city in particular. So we have so many collections that have come in over the course of the century. And so it is taken us decades and we continue to try to research and get the origins of the objects in the images that we have. Next in your article you have ambrosia type . Amber type comes into being in the 18 fifties a wet cologne in process on glass you can see that they are fragile. Part of what i shot want to show the viewers that we do try to take the best care we can of our objects. We have a conservation department, we take a lot of pride in keeping our collections in the best storage environment as possible. I work at the museums Cultural Resources center and suit learned maryland when we are open. Not in these covid times. And all of the images are stored at the Archive Center. But you can see overtime, an image from the mid to late 18 fifties goes through somewhere and tear. So the image is cracked but we try to keep it in the best shape possible. So you see a man here in this image who is about 100 years old. And again, zooming in you can get such detail from these early images. You can see that there could be a stain there at the top obscuring some of the image. But what it is gone through in a century and a half, more than, we are lucky to have it in the condition that it is. This is an individual fought in wars, probably in the war of 1812. And has, you know lived a tough life potentially. But he was also part of some major decisions and treaties that were signed with native americans. One in michigan, one treaty seeding millions of acres of land to the u. S. Government. He was part of that. So recording the industry and having this window in the history to be able to recognize and identify some of the eye of individuals in these early photographs up today really brings history full circle and you can understand that these are individuals who have had exceptional lives sometimes. Or we learn a lot about daytoday life and some of the photographs that we have. Theres also this extra thing with this photograph. What is that . So sometimes well see the small clippings from news paper articles. Talking about chief kelly miss and a long life outlining his battles as he was involved in some of the wars. His wife near lansing michigan and also outlined sometimes he made the photograph, this was photographed by henry h. Smith in michigan in 1858. Again there were all that many photographers working that early so to have it identify, both the sitter and the photographers quite extraordinary. The next thing you reference in your article chronologically is alexander gardner. And there are a lot of photographs here but what are we looking at here . Were looking at a group of crow indians who participated in the signing of the treaty of four laramie in 1868. They were hoping for reservation and land and rights to live in the black hills. Again, so many treaties have not come to fruition but there was hope on this day. In this and this collection is just expansive, its about 200 images by alexander gardner. Gardner gained fame during the American Civil War worked with the Matthew Brady studio out of washington d. C. Many of the images that are memorable from gettysburg battle, the aftermath of the soldiers, this soldiers that died during that battle our gardeners work. And little was known about these photographs for many years. I mentioned earlier that ive spent 30 years studying photography at the smithsonian, first at the National Museum of American History and now at the daschle museum of American Indian. And this small collection, but significant collection was unknown to many of us at the institution until the 150th anniversary of the civil war, just in the last decade. And as we were researching collections and i was chairing editorial Editorial Committee for a book on civil war collections at the x, one of the archivists invited me over to the American Indian museum to see this collection that i did not know about. Many of my fellow curators did not know about. And up there was a retrospective of alexander gardners work at our National Portrait gallery. And for the first time the American Indian museum loan photographs to another museum. So, that was just astounding to me. To be able to think about these gardner images, think about gardner being part of the civil war photography, the first time americans were seeing wartime photographs published in books and then in newspapers and illustrated monthly journals. Then he traveled with general sherman west as the indian wars begin. Just after the civil war. So, from 1866 to 1868 gardner is traveling with the generals troops and visiting the various sites, meeting these individual indians and visiting the tribal communities, being witness to treaty signings and the gatherings and documenting for history what is happening as the wars move again from east to west with the indian wars that would go right up until 1890. For that twoyear period gardner is photographing and these were the images kept by general sherman. And then donated to the smithsonian. So, just thinking about that journey that was happening and the hard moment in American History that continued going from the difficult times getting to the civil war coming back together as a union. And then launching right into war in the american west. With the Indian Tribes and trying to move through the treaty making. It was, again, a hard time, but gardners images capture it forever. You selected this particular image as the kind of, the banner for the lead into your article. What drew you to this one . You can see several images, at the top of the screen you can see the variety of images online for this collection. I wanted to show the specific group that was signing the treaty. Again, we have exhibition called nation to nation at the museum, which i highly recommend people see when we are able to get open again. But it goes through the history of u. S. Government treaties with native American Communities across the u. S. And, you know, a lot of times those treaties were not fully executed. And i wanted to highlight the treaties a couple of the images referenced treaties. And gardner being present at that moment and showing the men who were there to sign with the u. S. Government was important for me to show within the article. What do you suppose gardeners purpose was . Did he make money with these photographs . You know, he was the first wartime photojournalist. In america. Not in the world, but here in the u. S. So, he made his livelihood from photography. First working for the Matthew Brady studios, as i mentioned in d. C. , then publishing a sketchbook of the civil war and selling volumes of those. You can find those in museums at the Smithsonian Library of congress and a couple of museums also still have that twovolume sketchbook he produced. And then his images would be sold for use in news periodicals, journals, monthly journals, newspapers. So, he was for many years, very successful in his work. The next photograph that you had in your article was this. Tell us what we are seeing here. Ok. This is an image from the frank lennar collection. A photograph from Buffalo Bills wild west show. I have done a lot of research on William F Cody and Buffalo Bills wild west. My phd dissertation is an ardent advertising of Buffalo Bills wild west. My interest in this area started from one collection at the American History museum which is a portrait collection of sioux indian performers from the wild west. They photographed those images that i started out with the american in images represented in the collection have behind the scenes photos, which i like to see. What were the performers doing when they were not in the arena . A different element of what was happening. Instead of the performers in the arena reenacting things like, you know, the battle of little bighorn or horse races and other types of program acts that would happen during a visit to the wild west, here is cody sitting with a couple of the performers that i am thinking it is possibly chief iron tail at codys left who performed for more than 20 years on the show circuit with cody traveling nationally and internationally with the show. Many of the performers were sioux indians from pine ridge reservation. I had the opportunity with another smithsonian colleague to visit pine ridge just two years ago. And to learn more about the families and the individuals who chose to leave the reservation and perform, whether it was one season or many seasons, there were lots of Different Reasons why an individual would choose to contract with the wild west show. And i wanted to be able to show one of these images that highlighted there was a relationship between cody and the indians. He was hoping this opportunity was not just a stereotypical look at indian life. It was an education for the public. And some indians chose to join him. And, yes, they were sometimes reenacting scenes they had lived, but they were also being paid. They were seeing the country and seeing the world, at least europe, at times when the show would go there. And there were many personal reasons for an American Indian man or woman to join the show. The families could also travel with the show. So, women would be behind the scenes taking care in the camp, teepees, were able to travel and live like and also Wear Clothing as they would. And they were not always allowed to do that when they were on the reservations in the u. S. So i wanted to highlight the collection and show the behind the scenes and the friendships that transpired between a lot of the indian performers and cody gelatin. What is that . Silver gelatin photographs become popular through the Eastman Kodak company from the late 1880s all the way up to digital, what we know up until the 1990s. You do not see too much photographic film available for sale these days, but the photographic paper made those beautiful blackandwhite images that we have seen through time. And much of the history of the wild west show were documented in the silver gelatin photographs from the 1890s until 1916 when cody was traveling with the show. Until color becomes popular in the 1930s, the silver gelatin is really primary, and it remains today a favorite of some artistic photographs, photographers as well, for photographs that we see. And throughout the archives, at the American Indian museum, there are many distinctive silver gelatin collections. Stereo. In your article, the next category in the history of photography is stereo. What are we seeing here . Another popular type of image for many decades from the 1850s all the way to the 1940s to the world war ii era. What we see is an inaugural parade. A president ial inaugural parade from the time of theodore roosevelt. From 1905, in the parade we have six American Indian chiefs coming down pennsylvania avenue. We are very familiar with potentially seeing this on television or in d c, many folks make it a tradition to go and watch the parade after the inauguration. And, again, just seeing ever present in American Life are our native and indigenous communities. And that is really at the heart of what we want to do at the National Museum of the American Indian is to make sure that our public, our visitors, students and teachers understand the rich history of American Indians pre u. S. And all the way through American History and today and being part of a president ial inaugurations is about as american as it gets, i think. Is there a way for people to see these and stereo . Or is that something that is her to do . You know, some stereo enthusiasts do have that, you know, opportunity through all time viewers, handheld viewers. And i think there are some programs online. Im sure you can search stereo photography and learn how to do it with your laptop at home. Or your our laptop or your ipad. Do searching to see the three dimensional reality of what those images sidebyside can bring. And it is really fun to see them as a photographer this is another category that you address in your article, tell us about this. Yes, so there are some subjects that i think we even need to investigate and research more and bring onto our exhibition floors and into our online exhibitions and that is the history of American Indian boarding schools in the u. S. And this postcard photograph is from the 19 teens, 1914. And it is showing nurses at the Carlisle School in carlisle, pennsylvania, inoculating students, and, you know, of course, just after this time would be another worldwide epidemic of the flu in 1918. But here in the dispensary at the hospital, you can see that the health and welfare of the students was being taken care of. There is a long history from the late 1870s to the 1960s and even some Indian Schools persist today outside the reservation system for educating American Indians. And there is a complicated history, and these postcards, again, a test to that history and the groups, the Young Children here shown at this Indian Training School photo, beautiful color images. Again, these are real photo postcards. You can see an upper left of the screen shots, if that was reversed you can share a memory. Talk about the schools, send this image to a friend or family member. Hence reading, you know, what folks are writing on the back of these postcards is also fascinating. Training room at the Indian School for girls a sewing room. Theres also images that ive seen in these postcards of kitchens and cooking it happened at the school. Lots of athletics in teams also were part of school life. And again, these were individuals, children who were separated from their families who were sent to live and learn to assimilate and to wear western clothes, western hairstyles and its a tough as you can imagine for these students to be separated from native ways, native culture, native ceremonies but, there are ways that they also chose to succeed and excel here in the band. Military schools were also gained at the schools. And these historic images are way for us to research that, and for us to include in exhibitions that we consider around these schools as well. So while were out this page, could you walk us through this information first for people who are exploring photographs online . What is this over here . Okay, so if you look at the smithsonian online virtual archives, its one of the sites online that i recommend for you to find thousands of interesting photographs. Youre gonna see the fields that are archivists complete as they enter information. And we tried to we try to enter information as much as possible into these online collections. See the series indian boarding schools the collection title. You can know who donated the image of this jenkins pulled postcard and photograph collection, it holds many many postcards like this. Youll see the image name and the date, the image name is gonna clue you in, as is the number at the bottom to how our archivists it, if you want to use it in a book on a website or publishing article, youre gonna need to have that detailed image number information. These images that you see online are not usually not restricted by copyright. Most of the time theyre so old, theyre historic there is no copyright restrictions still on them. But all of that information that goes into documenting for our cataloguing also then appears when you pull it up on line in silva, the smithsonian online virtual archives. There is a pdf biden the you can click on and then you can download all this information and save it if you like, printed out, use it for future research. Thank you. So the next category of photograph of this and bomba photographed collection . Again, and broom bergh is it working for a journalist undocumented photography. And shes using black and white silver gelatin in 1996 to photograph dorothy obligated sheep herder in navajo country. The word for navajo that American Indians use. She is a sheep herder, you can see there are multiple images that barham bergh donated to the museum and captures the different aspects of her day as a sheep herder. And also every day life. The opportunity for our museum to bring to the forefront that a contemporary woman like dorothea is living as she is here, the native knowledge that is then shared from generation to generation of how life on the reservation goes, how farming goes, and the sheep herding is captured very beautifully in trombergs photographs. So than the final category of photographs in your article is the National Congress of American Indians. Tell us about. Well, this really represents a lot of 20th century history. And im becoming more and more interested to bring that history forward. 1890s forward. When the eight indian wars and in 1890 we pushed into the 20th century, there is such a leadership to bring indian citizenship to the forefront in 1924 all the way to 1975 with the movement for Self Determination and sovereignty for tribal leadership. The National Congress of American History as thousands of photographs in the archives of the National Museum of the American Indian represented whos who of American Indians of events of moments that are happening, and much of it in the 1960s and 1970s. There we are seeing pageant winner from one of the events at the congress. But you will see men and women and students who are very active in American Indian life on the reservation coming to washington, really moving forward. But some of the treaties had not accomplished earlier, which was sovereignty over land and the leadership of their own tribes and communities. You will see many museums and cultural institutions arise in the latter part of the 20th century. Our museum is working to connect with tribal leaders, tribal communities to share the history of the objects we have, the photographs we have and having Something Like this collection where we see the evolution of native American Life and the influence on america is just exceptional. This is a word i use often with the gems of these gems and collections and again the whos who and meeting with president kennedy and mrs. Kennedy. President nixon. I am learning so much about the Nixon Administration and how that Self Determination act came into law in 1975. And so here we have again, in hyannis port a meeting happening with the kennedys, governors from around the country. This is the governor of michigan, and leaders frank georgia believe from the National Congress of the American Indian. Weve got a lot of research to do. And you know the 1970s, thats almost 50 years ago now. And i think i am very interested to see that the music museum utilizes Photo Archives to make them Available Online to bring them into stories that we do digitally online. That is certainly a big push right now while so many people are at home right now cannot get any museums, and cannot get to research with us in person, we want to make sure that these collections are available. The National Congress of the American Indian thousands of photographs to learn about history in the latter part of the 20th century. So if somebody is watching this new want to explore this collection, it is a little bit overwhelming when you think about the number of pictures. So is this where you begin . You know richard when you search online, you know sometimes its a grab bag and sometimes you get where you want to be. But sometimes searching at smithsonian collections as size dot edu or going on to that virtual archive, sometimes you just hit the mother lode. And you have thousands of images and you click through and you find something you do not want or skews me did not expect to. Like i did realize about able to get on to the sullivan serves the 220 collections that the American Indian Museum Archive had available right now. I was fascinated. I took hours scrolling. Through and you can do that online with smithsonian you can go to collections. That as i dot edu and you can see on the left side you can do an advanced search. You can type in words that are meaningful to you, to your family, to research, and begin to scroll and see thousands of options. If you know you want to look at the and bronze bird collection, go ahead and take that in. If you want to learn about wild west shows, if you want to learn about president nixon and American Indians, you can do all of that and fine searches that hopefully satisfy your need. But you are going to find a lot more to learn from at the same time, because again we know that when you do a really generic search you are going to get some really big surprises. And hopefully, when you are looking at all of these images that come up as you modify your search online, you are going to learn about American Indian life, and contemporary, and you are going to see these incredible stories of the men and women and children who have survived, who have persevered. During these times of covid19, you can read online and you can search for the tough times that are being had on reservations across the country. You know, and we do study the western hemisphere. We also study canadian First Americans indigenous populations in latin america and south america as well as the u. S. Right now we are thinking about how do we find search on line and how do we find the stories that will become part of the archives of the future. We are our very active right now and we continue to reach out to communities and interact with communities to know that this history is important. American history through the lens of American Indian history is American History. Tell us about how the pandemic has affected your work and your job. So this 2020 pandemic. We have been closed as the smithsonian, the institution close march 16th. And we are only just now about to open a couple of the sites, the national zoo and the National Aerospace museum, the center chancellor virginia will open july 20. Fourth weve been closed for. Long time in or secretaries very disappointed to have been shot of shot our doors not been able to serve the public as we have 474 years in washington and around the world especially. We have a museum of American Indians in new york as well and that is being closed. Specifically during critical times in new york and now we we are working from home. Weve been teleworking for the s purse evil perceive level feature is even when those museums open. I do not think many of us will be back in our offices right away. Weve been trying taking inquiries, trying to share information. I think that is why the information that is online. Our Collections Online and these photographs weve been talking about today is so important folks to know that we can they can learn while we are closed and we can expand the digital offerings. Also at the museum, we have online native knowledge three 60. Which is teacher curriculum. That focuses on American History throughout American History throughout american. History so we can write some of the wrongs some history, that is not made in the textbooks and looking at native knowledge three 60 is another way to search and our website American Indian as side dot edu or search for native knowledge three 60 and many of the images were talking about today are embedded in the curriculum online so weve been trying. To become that Digital Museum that weve always wanted to be and now we have that with these uncertain, unfortunate times in covid. And weve also been wanting to be very respectful of whats happening in American Indian country right now. So we are also collecting digitally and thinking about what objects to collect in the future. If that is different for a museum museum. Weve not collected this way in our history before. Other museums have, during the september 11th tragedy and black lives matter collecting with the American History of african American History in anacostia. There is active work happening, even though most of ours are sitting on our living rooms. Doing our work in our dining room and her offices at home and we will continue to do that and try to bring new projects to life, even as we stay safe. One last thing the february 25th smithsonian launch open access, and containing images that our public domain. Tell us a little bit about that. Open access ive been something that smithsonian has wanted to do for many years. Many museums around the world and the country are offering free and open access for use of images. We also do a lot of 3d imaging at the smithsonian. And so, you can also have rights to all the files for those if you have a 3d printer. Even better. So, open access is something that every unit is committed to. There are many sacred and ceremonial images and objects in our museums. So we are more limited in interested in what we can put up online right now, but we keep searching researching for how we can satisfy these open access highlights and requirements so that we can become more visible through open access. But you can search to open access all the collections at the smithsonian and find images that you can use for personal use, for publication, if there are any copyright issues, they are outlined as well. But open access is meant for free use with no fees and is part of them being american these are your collections. That is why it is so important for us to keep on becoming more accessible. Well michelle delaney, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for having me its been a pleasure. Weeknights this month on cspan 3. The vietnam war stat offensive started on january 30th 1968 with the eight kong north Vietnamese Forces talking more than 100 cities, towns and outposts across a barred swath of south vietnam. We visited the museum in washington d. C. To tour an exhibit on the tech offensive and a battle of hue where some of the most of offensive vitamin took place. We speak with former stars and stripes photographer john olson but his experiences during the. Battle watched tuesday beginning at eight eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan 3. Up next on American History tv from the western history associations outgoing president given illustrated talk about how historians using photographs in the stories behind the photographs to study and understand the american. West she has been studying and writing about photographs for 40 years and argues that more historians should use photographic all his archives in your work. One minute past 1230
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