Harold J. Hibben collection photographs

View Finding Aid

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .

sova.nmai.ac.348

Provenance: Gift of Mr. Richard M. Fairbanks in memory of Harold J. Hibben, 1958.

Summary: This collection includes one scrapbook and 26 photographs of tomahawks from the Northeast, Wampanoag, Potawatomi, and Woodlands communities and military posts in the Northeastern United States and Canada.

Biographical / Historical: Harold James Hibben was born in May 1881 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was the third generation of his family to work with Hibben, Hollweg, and Co, a dry goods store with a long history in the community. He started in sales and eventually became Vice President. Hibben was very active in the Chamber of Commerce, Wholesale Trade Division. In 1910, he was asked by the Republican party to run for the state legislature, but didn't receive the nomination. He developed an interest in Indigenous belongings, particularly tomahawks, and was an extensive collector. Hibben passed in 1956.

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Scrapbooks; Photographic prints

Citation: Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Harold J. Hibben collection photographs, image #, NMAI.AC.348; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Arrangement: Collection is arranged in two series. Series 1: Scrapbook- Left in the order Harold Hibben originally chose when assembling the scrapbook. Catalog numbers were assigned starting at the beginning of the book. Series 2: Object photographs- arranged numerically by the label numbers used by Harold Hibben. These photographs do not have NMAI catalog numbers.

Processing Information: Collection processed by Mattie Lewis, Archives Technician in 2025.

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 contains one black 12x7x2 in. scrapbook containing 173 photographs, postcards, and newspaper clippings from Canada and the Northeastern USA assembled by Harold James Hibben. It also contains 26 8x10 in. black and white photographs of Hibben's tomahawk collection and display cases. The collection was donated to the Museum of the American Indian by Hibben's nephew.

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).

Separated Materials: Also donated were 211 items, mostly tomahawks, catalog numbers 22/7198-22/7408. Documents relating to the items and photographs can be found in Series 6, Collectors of the Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation records, NMAI.AC.001: Tomahawk Collection Correspondence

NMAI.AC.348

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv4dec6700d-9ecb-41e7-8e0d-4f8b80bb3971

NMAI.AC.348

NMAIA