Group of Eleven Near Meadow, One in Partial Native Dress 1909

Group of Male and Female Students; Brick Dormitories And Bandstand in Background 1879

The National Anthropological Archives is a collection of historical and contemporary documents maintained by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, which document the history of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

and the world's peoples and cultures. It is located in the Smithsonian's Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland, and is part of the Department of Anthropology at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

History

The National Anthropological Archives (NAA) is the successor to the archives of the

Bureau of American Ethnology The Bureau of American Ethnology (or BAE, originally, Bureau of Ethnology) was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the Interior D ...

(BAE), which was founded in 1879 by

John Wesley Powell John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He ...

. In 1968, The NAA was established, incorporating the collections of the BAE, which focused on American Indians, as well as the papers of

curators A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

in the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Anthropology, who conducted research around the world. The establishment of the NAA was supported by grants from the

Wenner-Gren Foundation Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren (5 June 1881 – 24 November 1961) was a Swedish entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest men in the world during the 1930s. Early life He was born on 5 June 1881 in Uddevalla, a town on the west coast of Sweden. He w ...

with the aim of providing a repository of record for personal research materials created by scholars without a home institution (or whose home institution had no archives), in order to promote the preservation of the anthropological record.

Collections

The NAA is the only archival repository in the United States dedicated exclusively to preserving

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

, and

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

fieldnotes, physical anthropological data, photographs, sound recordings and other media created by American anthropologists. The collection includes documents such as fieldnotes, journals, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, maps, sound recordings, all compiled by prominent researchers from the Smithsonian or other research institutions. Spanning over 150 years of

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

and

world history World history may refer to: * Human history, the history of human beings * History of Earth, the history of planet Earth * World history (field), a field of historical study that takes a global perspective * ''World History'' (album), a 1998 albu ...

, materials held in the archives include nearly 635,000 photographs, 20,000 works of indigenous art, and 11,400 sound recordings. In 2010, the NAA received a ''

Save America's Treasures Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Trust fo ...

'' grant to preserve manuscripts relating to

endangered languages An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

. These manuscripts include vocabularies, narratives, and other texts representing approximately 250 American Indian languages. Many photographs and manuscript pages from the NAA collections, including 8,200 pages of

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

language materials, have been scanned and are available online for research through SIRIS, the Smithsonian's online catalog. In 2014, the NAA received a grant for preservation and digitization of sound recordings of endangered languages.

References

External links

National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives on the Anthropology Collections and Archives page at the National Museum of Natural History
* ttps://sova.si.edu/search?q=*%3A*&f=data_source%3ANational+Anthropological+Archives National Anthropological Archives Collections on Smithsonian's Online Virtual Archivesbr>Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
{{authority control Archives in the United States Smithsonian Institution research programs 1965 establishments in the United States Research institutes in Maryland

History

Collections

See also

References

External links