In this photo Reverend James O. Arthur poses on a sand dune at White Sands, New Mexico. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Catalog number: N53381.
This is the first entry in a series celebrating National Native American Heritage Month. In this series we will be highlighting photos from the National Museum of the American Indian’s (NMAI) Photo Archives that were recently contributed to NMAI’s Collections Search and the Smithsonian Flickr Commons photostream. NMAI holds a diverse photograph collection of over 90,000 ethnohistoric images, which range from daguerreotypes to digital images, and is considered one of the most significant collections of American Indian images.
One of our more recent acquisitions highlights reservation life in the early 1900s. In 2006, NMAI received a donation of 700 nitrate negatives taken by the Reverend James O. Arthur (1887-1971). An amateur photographer and a missionary for the Reformed Church of America, Arthur and his family lived and worked on the Winnebago Reservation in 1913 and the Mescalero Apache Reservation from 1914-1919. Using his 3A Folding Kodak Pocket camera, Arthur captured the people and daily life activities on these reservations. These images are prime examples of amateur photography, which became very popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s due to the small hand-held cameras and roll film that could be sent in to commercial labs for development. Thus, encouraging people to pick up a camera and document their surroundings as Reverend Arthur did.
Here Reverend Arthur travels on horseback with three of his children, (L to R) Margaret Jean, John Paul, and James, Jr. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Catalog number: N53341.
Reverend Arthur documented his official duties on the reservations, such as building a church and parsonage, as well as unofficial activities like hunting and vacations. Arthur also documented his own growing family. Reverend Arthur and his wife Katherine Arthur had five children—Margaret Jean, James Jr., John Paul, Robert Lee, and Kathryn—all of which can be seen coming of age on the reservations in this photo collection.
In this photo women from the sewing society work on a quilt together. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Catalog number: N53228.
Chiricahua Apache men load an oat separator in this photo. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Catalog number: N53198.
The bulk of the photograph collection focuses on life on the Whitetail portion of the Mescalero Apache Reservation. This is where Goyathlay’s (Geronimo) band of Chiricahua Apaches relocated from Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1913 after being held prisoners by the United States Military since 1886. Arthur’s photographs capture this transitional period for the Chiricahuas as they adjusted to life on the reservation and to the mission of the church. He photographed the Chiricahuas’ domestic activities such as farming and raising livestock, as well leisure activities like basketball games, picnics, and sewing circles. He also photographed many Chiricahua Apache family outdoor portraits.
Here Chiricahua Apache men run a 100 yard race at a picnic event. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Catalog number: N53318.
Photographs in the collection also feature well-known Chiricahua Apache Indians, including an elderly Chief Naiche (Natchez, 1857-1921) in his Indian police uniform. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Catalog number: N53149.
This collection can be considered first and foremost very personal as Arthur utilized a non-commercial approach to his photography. Unlike images that were distributed commercially and can be found in many archives and repositories with Native American photograph collections, Reverend Arthur’s photographs were for his personal use and were not reproduced outside the family. Consequently, the photos are a rare glimpse into the lives of those living on the Mescalero Apache Reservation at the time.
Additionally, Arthur was an amateur archivist of sorts; he meticulously organized his photographs and recorded dates, captions, and names of individuals appearing in the photos. All too often photographs arrive at archive repositories without any data and therefore context can be lost. Arthur’s photo documentation has proved invaluable. A couple of months ago we had a visitor from New Mexico who came to the NMAI Archives to look at the Chiricahua Apache images. When he viewed this collection of photographs along with our catalog information, he found images of his great grandfather that he had never seen before.
Had Arthur not taken the time to record the names of people appearing in his photos, then this image would be just one of thousands with nameless faces in the archives. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Catalog number: N53582.
Attempting to interpret these photographs, of course, you can’t ignore the social and political contexts in which these images were created. Arthur was after all a missionary working to Christianize Indians. His photographs, however, offer a glimpse of different aspects of this often ambiguous relationship. Arthur’s photographs do not play into the stereotypes of American Indians that you often see in images from this time period. For example, many photographs of American Indians reflect the ideologies of the photographer (or the sponsoring agency that commissioned the photographs) and most commonly depict American Indians in either the romanticized (e.g. Edward Curtis’ photos) or the “savage Indian” fashion. Arthur’s photos, however, are the type of snapshots that you might find in a family album from this time period. Both Natives and non-Natives are depicted in the same way, with the majority of the images being either candid action shots or posed outdoor portraits.
In this photos Viola Chihuahua poses with her baby, Agnes. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Catalog number: N53284.
It could be argued that Arthur intentionally photographed American Indians on the reservation in non-traditional clothing and participating in such activities as basketball games, to show that he successfully “civilized and educated the Indians.” However, the fact that Arthur took these photos for personal use and that they were kept in the family, inherited by his granddaughter and then later donated to NMAI by her and her son, suggests that Arthur’s photographs did not overtly serve such a political purpose but that he created them to record his own life and memories of the people and activities he encountered on the reservation.
See a portion of the Reverend James O. Arthur Collection on NMAI’s Collections Search and through the Smithsonian Collections Search Center. For more information on this collection or others contact us at NMAIphoto@si.edu.
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Wonderful pictures! Thank you so much for sharing them. I only wish that I had pictures of my great-grandmother who was Cherokee. We have genealogy and oral history, and that we will remember and pass on to our families, but somehow photographs make it all more real. They are a vision of the past we long to know.
wonder rare insight into a rich cultural timeperiod. Thank you for the photo’s and for debunking the theoray that they were meant to showcase the missionary’s success instead of just being a private collection of real life photo’s. I get really tired of the common misconception that native americans look and dress so different from the rest of society.
Glad you both enjoyed looking at the photos. See more from this collection here:
http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/results.aspx?catids=4&partytxt=arthur&src=1-2
We will also be posting another blog article about photos at NMAI, so be sure to check back.
It’s wonderful to see the old pictures. I know the discendants of some of these photos; and as much as I’m interested in them, I can’t help but wonder if their relatives have been notified and like their relatives shown to the world. They actually might like it, but many of these photos of their ancesters they may not know even exist. Just a thought. Their relatives are still alive.
Thank you very much for your insightful comments. Regarding your note about whether people want images of their relatives on the web- this is an issue that NMAI (as well as other museums) continually struggle over. Technology has changed the way museums interact with the public; before the internet, people had to travel to a museum or open a book in order to see the collections, but now they are only a click away. The advantages of putting images on the web are very clear- we can reach a broader audience across the world, which helps disseminate knowledge and understanding of the Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere. It also lets folks know what images we have on their community and possibly family members, without having to travel to DC to view them. One of the disadvantages , as you thoughtfully pointed out, is the lack of privacy for the individuals appearing in the photos and consequently their relatives as well. The process for selecting and reviewing images to share on the NMAI Collections Search, Flickr, and SI Research Information System websites is quite a lengthy one. The following criteria are considered when selecting which images to share on the web: information/education value, aesthetics, subject interest, subject sensitivity, and how confident we are in the accuracy of the data. Once we select potential images we then conduct additional research on each image, enhance the data, and write new catalog descriptions. The images are then reviewed by multiple NMAI staff members and then are finally posted to the websites. We hope by taking these steps we have found a middle ground between sharing the collections with the public and protecting the privacy of individuals. However, if someone has a reasonable objection to an image displayed on the web, we welcome them to contact us to discuss their concern. Our contact information can be found here: http://www.americanindian.si.edu/subpage.cfm?subpage=collections&second=archives
I am a descendant of the Arthur Family. I believe that my grandmother, Jessie M. Arthur (DeLacerda-Albers) who lived from 1899-1991, is a sister or cousin of James O. Arthur.
I would love to have contact with some of my relatives.
Since my last posting…only about an hour ago…I see that Jessie M. Arthus was the sister of James O. Arthur.
Jessie is my Grandmother Albers…1899-1991.
I would love to contact Barbara, the granddaughter of James O. Arthur.
Barbara, if you are out there, blog back and maybe we can connect. I live in Sandusky, Ohio
I am looking for any relatives of Robert DeLacerda OR of my grandmother Jessie Mae Arthur/DeLacerda/Albers 1899–1991.
I am interested in the missionaries in my past…and know that my grandmother (J.M. Arthur) spent some time with James O. Arthur. Some of the pictures include her, and I have identical pictures in my possession. Some are narrated, others are not.
Dear Ms. Williams,
Thanks for your comments. We are happy to hear that you found photos of your relatives in this collection! I will forward your contact information to the donor. Also, if you have any additional information about the photos in this collection, we’d greatly appreciate it if you could email those to us. Please send them to NMAIphotos “at” si “dot” edu.
Thank you; J. Jacobs did email me and I thank you so much for that. I think that his mother Barbara will be calling me sometime soon.
I will peruse the pictures more thoroughly soon. I was just so thrilled to see my grandmother and be able to figure out who some of those strangers were! blessings…