Dane Coolidge photographs from Mexico

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sova.nmai.ac.202

Provenance: This collection was purchased from Mary Roberts Coolidge in 1940.

Summary: This collection contains 3 photographic prints (and 3 copy negatives) depicting a Seri man in Mexico, photographed by Dane Coolidge in 1932.

Biographical / Historical: Naturalist and novelist Dane Coolidge was a born on March 24, 1873 in Natick, Massachusetts and grew up in Riverside, California. He received his education from Standard and Harvard Universities. He later worked as a field collector for the British Museum, Stanford University, and the U.S. National Zoological Park. He wrote both fiction and non-fiction usually set in Western locales such as California and the U.S. Southwest. In 1906, he married sociologist Mary Roberts and the two collaborated on the books The Navajo Indians (1930) and The Last of the Seris (1939). Dane Coolidge died in 1940 and Mary Roberts Coolidge in 1945.

Citation: Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Dane Coolidge photographs from Mexico, catalog #, NMAI.AC.202; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Rights: Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.

Scope and Contents: N37332-N37334, P15199-P15201 This collection contains 3 gelatin silver prints shot by Dane Coolidge in Mexico in 1932 and 3 copy prints created from those prints by the Museum of the American Indian. Coolidge and his wife Mary Roberts Coolidge studied the Seri in the 1930s. All three photographs are outdoor portraits of Seri medicine man Santo Blanco. In one photo he is shaking rattles, in a another photo he is depicting playing a musical bow, and in the third photo he is wearing a medicine man's crown. Some of these photos were used to illustrate Dane and Mary Coolidge's book The Last of the Seris (1939).

Restrictions: Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).

Related Materials: The University of California's The Bancroft Library holds Dan Coolidge Papers (Collection Number: BANC MSS C-H 82). The Smithsonian Institution Libraries holds a copy of The Last of the Seris (Call no. F1221.S43C7).

Separated Materials: Mary Roberts Coolidge also donated Seri objects to NMAI (catalog numbers 203200 - 203414).

NMAI.AC.202

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NMAI.AC.202

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