Frederick John Pratson photographs for "Land of the Four Directions"

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Summary: This collection contains 23 photographic prints and one contact sheet (36 images) made by Frederick John Pratson for his book Land of the Four Directions, published in 1970. Photographs include images of Passamaquoddy community members in Indian Township, Maine as well as Maliseet community members of the Tobique First Nation and Mi'kmaq community members of Big Cove and Indian Island in New Brunswick, Canada.

Biographical / Historical: Born October 4, 1935 in Hartford Connecticut to John and Catherine Pratson, Frederick John Pratson was a historian and travel guide writer. After graduating from Boston College in 1957, he wrote for the travel section of the Boston Globe in addition to publishing a number of guidebooks which covered Canada and parts of the United States. In 1970, Pratson published Land of the Four Directions based on travels, photography and interviews among Passamaquoddy community members in Indian Township, Maine as well as Maliseet community members of the Tobique First Nation and Mi'kmaq community members of Big Cove and Indian Island in New Brunswick, Canada. Pratson later returned to Indian Island Reservation in New Brunswick to interview Mi'kmaq (Micmac) Chief Peter Barlow in 1972. He also conducted interviews with William Jalbert, a lumberjack in Round Pond, Maine and with a group of Fisherman in East Dover, Nova Scotia. These interviews, done under the sponsorship of the New England-Atlantic Provinces-Quebec Center at the University of Maine (Orono) are now held in the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History at the University of Maine. Pratson died in December 1989, leaving a wife, four sons and two daughters.

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Photographic prints; Contact sheets

Citation: Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frederick John Pratson photographs from Land of the Four Directions, image #, NMAI.AC.341; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Processing Information: Processed by Rachel Menyuk, Processing Archivist, 2022.

Rights: Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives 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: This collection includes one contact sheet with 36 images and 23 photographic prints of varying sizes made for Frederick John Pratson's 1970 publication Land of the Four Directions. The images on the contact sheet were most likely shot on the Mi'kmaq First Nation on Indian Island in Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada. These include portraits of Mi'kmaq Chief Peter Barrow, along with several other unidentified men. A handful of these images include Pratson himself. A large number of the photographic prints (silver gelatin) were shot in the late 1960s among the Passamaquoddy community in Maine and were identified in 2010 by Donald G. Soctomah, Historic Preservation Officer of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. Many of the photographs include images of children, many from the Dana family, going about their daily lives. The rest of the prints are listed as being photographed among Maliseet community members of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada and also include a large number of portraits of children, many of them still unidentified.; Contact sheet catalog numbers: P25886-P25922; Photographic Print catalog numbers: P25923-P25945, P37586-P37588

Restrictions: Access to NMAI Archives 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: MF 042 Frederick Pratson Collection located at the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History, University of Maine.

NMAI.AC.341

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NMAI.AC.341

NMAIA