What your job is. Thank you, my job is assistant director for a culture at the Smithsonian National museum of the American Indian. I lead the scholars, historians, curators at the museum who are in charge of producing the 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, we also have over 500,000 photographs in the National Museums of american Archive Center. So i have been working very hard, i in the year ive been at the museum. Ive a 30 year career at the smithsonian, but i only joined this museum last year. And these photographs of the archives. The. 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 of the collections of photography that are online, about 25,000 photographs of the 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 to was just fantastic. That is what i love. I love to do research. And for me to understand the depth of collections from the beginning of photography in the 1840s in america to presentday contemporary in digital. So i was asked to do a virtual, an article about a virtual tour of photography online. And it really got me up to date with everything we have. While i cannot physically get into the archive, which i so want to do, so what i can do was bring to our readers a glimpse of what they can see online. Why dont we take a look, and jump into the photographs in the first one that you referenced in the article is why dont you tell us about that . When i did do it in to join a museum and got a tour of the Archive Center i asked about the earliest images because i wanted to know how far the collection went back. I know daguerrotypes one of 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 cases with these 180yearold images opened up, it is always exciting to me. First of all, if you do not look at them right, they are a mirror image. Scanning them, reproducing them is difficult. This is an excellent image by our staff photographers. But capturing the image of this American Indian man who went on to become 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 through university and become a doctor. But it shows you really a window back into a different time. And you want to learn more about who dr. Wilson was. And why he was dressed as he is dressed in western attire. And why he looks the way he does. And possibly who did he give this image to . Whether something he cap. Was it something that was shared with family. Or was it something that was meant for Something Else . We spent a lot of time on promenades research, which is learning about the creation of the photograph, in this case who made it, who is the sitter . And trying to find out just why it was made. So i want us to go back to the beginning and know that American Indians and our native populations in the u. S. And in the western hemisphere, they were being photographed. And what story does that tell . So, it was a pleasure to find this image right away when i was searching online. The back. Sideways. Thats unlocking history. That is a history detective when you open up the case and you see Something Like this with peter wilsons, 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 in justice. And there it says, gifted to his friend p e. E. Thomas. It is through thomas that this image was donated to the National Museum of American Indian collection. You have to remember, our collection is a centuryold but the museum was only founded in 1989. So, all of the early Collection Items that come in, come in to the museum of American Indian 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 has taken us decades and we continue to try in research and get the origins of the objects in the images we half. Next you have ambro type. Ambro type comes being in the 1850s pretty can see they are fragile. Part of what i want to show to viewers is that we do try to take the best care we can of our objects. We have a Conservation Department it 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 in suitland, maryland when we are open. Not in these covid times. And all of the images are stored at the Archive Center. Over time, the image from the midto late 1850s goes through some wear and tear. So, the image is cracked. But we try to keep it in the best shape possible. So you see a man in this image who is about 100 years old. And, again, zooming in, and you can get such details from these early images. You see there could be a staying at the top of securing some of the image. But for what it has gone through in this century and a half, more than that, we are lucky to have it in the condition that it is. And this is an individual who fought in wars. Probably in the war of 1812. And has, you know, has lived a tough life potentially. But he was also part of some major decisions and treaties that were signed with the native americans. One in michigan. One treaty seeding millions of acres of land to the u. S. Government. He was part of that. Having this window into history to be able to recognize and identify some of the individuals in these early photographs up to today really brings history full circle. And you can understand that these are individuals who have exceptional live sometimes. Or we learn a lot about daytoday life on some of the photographs we have things with this photograph. What is that . Sometimes we will see small clippings from news, newspaper articles. About the individuals, talking about the chief. And the long life outlining his battles as he was involved in some of the wars. His life near lansing michigan. I was amazed by the photograph. This was photographed by henry smith in 1858. There were not all that many photographers working that early. So, to have it identified, both the sitter and the photographer is extraordinary. The next thing you reference in your article chronologically is alexander gardner. And there is a lot of photographs here, but what are we looking at here . We are looking at a group of crow indians who purchase a paid it the signing of the treaty of fort laramie in 1868. They were hoping for reservation and land and ways to live in the black hills. Again, so many treaties have not come to fruition. But there was hope on this day. In this collection is just expansive, 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, the soldiers that died during the battle are gardners work. And little was known about these photographs for many years. I mentioned earlier, i have spent 30 years studying photography at the smithsonian, first at the National Museum of American History and now at the National Museum of American Indian. And this small collection, but significant collection, was unknown to many of us at the institution until the sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the civil war, just in the last decade. And as we were researching collections and i was chairing an Editorial Committee for a book on civil war collections at the, 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 and it up that there was a retrospective of alexander gardners work at our National Portrait gallery. And for the first time the American Indian museum loaned 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, 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 point . 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 within 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. Gardners purpose was . 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. You can find those in museums at the Smithsonian Library of congress and a couple of museums also still have that twovolume sketchbook that 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 you have in your article is this so 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 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. That i started out with. The American Indian images represented in the runner collection, have some behind the scenes photos, i like to see those. I like to see, what were performers doing, when they were not in the arena . A different element of what was happening. Instant of the performers in the arena, reenacting things like, you know, the battle of little big horn, or horse races, for other types of programs that would happen during a visit to the wild west, here is cody sitting with a couple of the performers. I think its possibly chief iron tail, on codys left, who performed for more than 20 years on the show circuit with kobe, traveling nationally and internationally with the show. Many of the performers were sue indians from pine ridge reservation. I had the opportunity, with some other thousand colleagues to visit pine ridge just two years ago. And to learn more about the families and 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 i want to show these images that highlight that there was a relationship between cody and the indians, he was hoping that 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 that 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 werent always allowed to do that on the reservations in the u. S. So, i wanted to highlight that one collection and also show that intimate moment behind the scenes, and the friendship that transpired between a lot of the indian performers and cody. This category of photographs i think you call silver gelatin, what is . That silver gelatin photographs have become popular especially through the Eastman Kodak company for the late 18 eighties all the way up to digital, what we know of until the 19 nineties. You dont even see too much photographic film available for sale these days, but the silver gelatin the sauce that coats the photographic paper, make those beautiful black and white images that we have known through time. And much of the history of the wild west show, were documented in the silver gelatin photographed from the 18 nineties until 1916 at least, when cody was traveling with the show. Until color becomes popular in the thirties, 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 here at the American Indian museum, there are many distinctive silver gelatin collections. In your article, the next category of going into the history of photography is stereo. What are we seeing here . Another popular type of image for many decades from the 18 fifties all the way to the 1940s to the World War Two era. What we see in this image is on and noggin parade. A president ial inaugural parade from the time of theodore roosevelt. From 1905, in the parade, we have at least six American Indian chiefs coming down pennsylvania avenue. Again, we are very familiar today with potentially seeing this on television, or here in d. C. , many folks make it a tradition to go and watch that parade after the inauguration. And again, just seeing everpresent 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, preu. S. , all the way through u. S. History, and into today, being part of president ial inaugurations is about as american as it gets i think. Is there a way for people to see these in stereo, or is that something that is just hard to do . You know, some stereo insouciance do have that, you know, opportunity through alltime viewers, handheld viewers. I think that there are some programs online. I am sure you could search stereo photography, and learn how you could do it with your laptop at home, or your ipad. Do a little search and see how you can really see the three then internal reality of what those images side by side can bring. And it is really fun to see them as the photographer hoped you would see them. This is another category that you address in your article. Tell us about this. You know, so there are some subjects that i think we need to investigate and research more and bring on to an exhibition for, and online exhibitions, that is the history of American Indian boarding schools in the u. S. And this postcard photograph is from, i believe, 1914. And it is showing nurses at the carlile school in carlile, 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. But there is a long history from the late 18 seventies to the 19 sixties, and even some Indian Schools persist today outside the reservation system for educating American Indians. And there is a tough history there, a complicated history and these postcards, again, a test to that history in the groups of Young Children here showing at this Indian Training School photo, beautiful color images, again these are real postcards. You can see in the upper left of the screenshot, on the reverse you could share a memory, talk about the schools, send this image to a friend or family member. And reading, you know, what folks are writing on the back of these postcards is also fascinating. Here is a training room, a sewing room at the Indian School for girls. There are also images ive seen on some of these postcards of kitchens, and cooking that happens at the school, lots of athletics and teams also were part of school life. The un 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 it is a tough history, 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, and military skills were also gained at the schools. And these historic images are away for us to research that, and for us to include in exhibitions that we consider around the schools as well. So while we are on 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, it is one of the sites online that recommend, you will find thousands of interesting photographs, you will see the fields that our archivists complete as they enter information. We tried entering as much information as we possibly can into these online collections. You will see the series title with indian boarding schools. The collection title. So you can know who donated the image, this is a jenkins postcard and photograph collection, there are many postcards like this. You will see the image name and date. The image name will clue you in, as is the number at the bottom, to how our archivists can all those features, if you want to use it in a book, or a website you want to use it on, published in an article, you are going to need to have that detailed image number information. All the stuff you see online, the images are not usually, usually not restricted by copyright. Most of the time they are so old, they are historic. There is no copyright restrictions still on them. But all of that information that goes into documenting for our catalog, also then appears when you pull it up online, in sova the smithsonian online virtual archives. There is a pdf button you can click on, and then you can download all of this information, and save it if you like, print it out, use it for future research. Thank you. So, the next category of photographs this and bramble photograph collection . Again, Anne Bromberg is a working photojournalist and working in documented photography. She is using black and white silver gelatin in 1996 to photograph this sheep herder, in navajo country. This is the word for navajo, that American Indians use. So, she is a sheep herder. You can see, there are multiple images that Anne Bromberg donated to the museum, and captures different aspects of her day as a sheep herder. And 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, that native knowledge that is shared from generation to generation, of how life on the reservation goes, how farming goes, and the sheep herding is captured a beautifully in the photographs by Anne Bromberg. In the final category of photographs in your article, was the National Congress of American Indians. Tell us about that. Well, this really represents a lot of 20th century history. I am becoming more and more interested to bring that history forward. 18 nineties forward, when the indian wars ended in 18 nineties, and we push into the 20th century, there is such 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 Indian least thousands of photographs that are in the archives of the National Museum of the American Indian, represents a whos who of American Indians, of events, of moments that are happening, and much of it is in the 1960s and 1970s. There we are, seeing a pageant winner from one of the events at the congress. You will see men, women and students who are very active in American Indian life on the reservation, coming to washington, really moving forward. Where some of the treaties had not accomplished earlier, which was sovereignty of 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, communities, to share the history of the objects we have, the photographs that we have, and having Something Like this collection, where we see the evolution of native American Life and the influence on america, it is just again, exceptional, a word i used often but the gems of his collections and the archives, and again the whos who, the meeting with president kenny this is president kennedy president nixon. And i am learning so much about the nixon administration, and how that Self Determination act came into law in 1975. So here we have again, the hyannis port, in meeting happening with the kennedys, governors from around the country. This is the governor of michigan, and leaders, frank from the National Congress of the American Indians. And, we have a lot of research to do. And you know the 1970s, they are 50 years ago now. And i think i am very interested to see that the museums utilized these photos, to make them available online, to bring them into stories that we do digitally online, and that is certainly a big push right now, so when people are at home who cant get into museums, cant the surge with us in person, they want to make sure that these collections are available. And the National Congress of American Indian, thousands of photographs to learn about history, in the latter part of the 20th century. So, if someone is watching this and they 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, its always a grab back. You want to get where you want to be, but sometimes, searching at smithsonians collections, going on to the, sometimes you hit the mother lode. You hit thousands of images and you click through and you find some things that you did not expect, like i did when i was able to get on to sova, and search the 220 collections that the American IndianMuseum Archives has up and is available right now. I was fascinated. I took hours just scrolling through it. And you can do that online with the smithsonian. You can go online to collections at collections. Si. Edu, and you can see on the left side you cankkyi an advanced search. And you can type in words that are meaningful to you, to your family, to research, and begin to scroll and see thousands of options. You know, if you want to look at the Anne Bromberg collection, then type that in. If you want to learn about wild west shows, about president nixon and American Indians, you can do all of that, and find searches that hopefully satisfy your need. 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 these images that come up, as you modify your search online, you will learn about American Indian life, historic and contemporary, and you are going to see these incredible stories of the men and women and the children who have survived, who have persevered. During these times of covid19, you can reonline, and you can search for the tough times that are being had on reservations across the country. And you know, when we study the western hemisphere, we also study canadian first americans. Indigenous populations in latin america, south america as well as the u. S. Right now we are thinking, how do Research Online . How do we find the stories that will become our archives in the future . So we are very active right now, and we continue to reach out to the 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, these 2020 pandemic, we have been close, as the smithsonian, the institution closed on march 16th. We are only just now about to open a couple of the sites, the nationals you and the national air and space museum. The center anciently, virginia will open on july 24th. We have been closed for a long time, i know our secretary is very disappointed to have to have shuttered our doors and not been able to serve the public as we had for 174 years in washington and around the world. Especially, we have a museum of American Indian in new york as well, and that has been closed, specifically during the critical times in new york. But, we have been working from home. We are teleworking for the foreseeable future, i dont think many of us will be back in our offices right away. We have been taking inquiries, trying to share information. I think that is why the information that is online, the collections on the island specifically these photographs, are so important for folks to know that they can learn while we are closed, and we can expand the digital offerings. Also, at the museum, we have online native knowledge 360 which is teacher curriculum but focuses on American History throughout American History. So, we can write some of the wrongs, some history has not made it into textbooks overtime, and looking at native knowledge 360 is another way to look online, collections. Si. Edu and you can search for many images, let me talk about today, they are embedded in the curriculum that we find online. So, we have been trying to become the Digital Museum that we always wanted to be. And now, we have that with these uncertain, unfortunate times in covid. And we have also been wanting to be very respectful of what is happening in American Indian country right now, so we are also collecting digitally, thinking about what objects to collect in the future, if it is different from our museum, we have not collected current history before, although other smithsonian museums have, American History during the september 11th tragedy and black lives matter collecting, with the National Museum of african American History and culture, American History in our anacostia museum. So there is active work happening, even though most of us our sitting in our living rooms doing our work at our dining room, or in our 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 is the february 25th smithsonian opened up texas, 3 million images that our public domain, tell us about that. Open access has been something that smithsonian had wanted to do for many years. Many museums around the country and the world are offering free and open access for use of images. We also do a lot of 3d imaging at the smithsonian. So, you can also have rights to all of the files for those if you have a 3d printer. Even better