Object Details
- Local Numbers
- Accession #1976-95
- Creator
- Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
- Correspondent
- Jenness, Diamond, 1886-1969
- Creator
- Jochelson, Waldemar, 1855-1937
- Names
- Boas, Franz, 1858-1942
- Collins, Henry Bascom, 1899-1987
- Michelson, Truman, 1879-1938
- Stirling, Matthew Williams, 1896-1975
- Collection Creator
- Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
- Place
- Bering Strait
- Siberia (Russia)
- Topic
- Indians -- origin
- Language and languages -- Documentation
- Creator
- Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
- Correspondent
- Jenness, Diamond, 1886-1969
- Creator
- Jochelson, Waldemar, 1855-1937
- Culture
- Indians of North America
- Arctic peoples
- Chukchee
- See more items in
- John Peabody Harrington papers
- John Peabody Harrington papers / Series 8: Notes and Writings on Special Linguistic Studies
- Extent
- 2 Boxes
- Date
- 1909-1957
- Archival Repository
- National Anthropological Archives
- Identifier
- NAA.1976-95, Subseries 8.15
- Type
- Archival materials
- Notes
- Manuscripts
- Maps
- Vocabulary
- Collection Citation
- John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
- The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
- Rights
- Contact the repository for terms of use.
- Existence and Location of Copies
- Microfilm and digital surrogates of microfilm are available. See Volume 8, reel 21. Only original documents created by Harrington, his collaborators and field assistants, or notes given to him were microfilmed.
- Genre/Form
- Notes
- Manuscripts
- Maps
- Vocabulary
- Scope and Contents
- This subseries of the Notes and writings on special linguistic studies series contains material reflecting John P. Harrington's long-time interest in theories of the Siberian origin of American Indians. Materials consist of notes and drafts for his paper "Siberian Origin of the American Indian. His early notes include handwritten and typed versions of the outline "Antiquity of Man . . . " from 1915 (dated by handwriting as well as by type of pencil and paper); copies of short early vocabularies recorded by La Perouse (Tchoka) and Father Jette (Ten'a), probably prepared by Harrington around 1922 to 1923; a mimeographed statement by the Science News Service, dated 1923; newspaper clippings on Harrington's theories from 1924; and two pages of notes which Harrington recorded during a discussion with colleague Truman Michelson in November 1926. There is also an undated typed proposal titled "Investigation of the Origin of the Native American Race." This three page document does not appear to have been written by Harrington, but the source is not indicated. Materials accumulated during the period 1937 to 1938 are the most numerous. They include notes from interviews; copies of correspondence; records regarding the computation of tribal areas; notes on maps and photographs; and reading notes, extracts, and bibliographic references to secondary sources. The transcripts of interviews, dated February 1937 through November 1938, include information from Riley Moore, Carl Bishop, John G. Carter, and B.A.E. colleagues Truman Michelson and Matthew W. Stirling. The lengthiest set of notes is from a discussion with Smithsonian archeologist Henry B. Collins, who described fieldwork he had conducted from May to November 1936. The brief file of correspondence contains letters from Diamond Jenness and H. E. Rollins and a note from John G. Carter. The file on illustrative materials includes maps and charts showing the computation of land areas occupied by the Chukchee, Aleut, Eskimo, and Athapascan tribes. Supplementing these are notes from meetings with staff members of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in March and April 1937. There are also notes on maps, motion picture films, and photographs, as well as illustrations by Clark M. Garber and Joelle Danner. The notes from secondary sources include the title page and table of contents for a manuscript by Ivan A. Lopatin titled "The Cult of the Dead Among the Natives of the Amur Valley." There are also a few pages on file for another paper by Lopatin, "Material on the Language of the Natives of the Amur Region." There is also a sizable set of notes relating to the translation of various terms--mostly tribal names--into Russian. These include cut-and-pasted portions of letters which Waldemar Jochelson sent Harrington. The material compiled after 1937 is highly miscellaneous. Items from the 1940s include a sixteen-page untitled rough draft on the migration of Siberian man; a three-page typed carbon copy of the article "Stepping Stones Between Eurasia and America" which was used in a release by the Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, on August 4, 1940; a partial draft of an article on boats; a sectional map of the Bering Strait which was mailed to Harrington by C. M. Garber on January 18, 1947; and notes from interviews with Mr. [Tappan?] Adney on March 28, 1941, with William Heslop and King Mooers later in that year, and with Henry B. Collins on December 8, 1947. There is also an Eskimo vocabulary which Harrington copied from William Thalbitzer and three pages of miscellaneous notes dating from the late 1950s. A separate file of notes on Chukchee spans the entire period of Harrington's work on Siberia. There are a number of pages on Chukchee, Yukagir, and Eskimo mythology which he extracted from his notes for lectures at the University of Washington in 1910; brief notes from discussions with Truman Michelson, Waldemar Jochelson, and Franz Boas around 1926 to 1928; and copies made on February 23, 1937, of "Chukchee polysynthesis words" which had been compiled in an unspecified article by colleague Robert W. Young. The source of data for the latter was Waldemar Bogoras's paper "Chukchee" in the Handbook of American Indian Languages edited by Franz Boas. Later material includes a copy of a letter from Ivan Lopatin (November 23, 1947) with an enclosure titled "Discovery of the Chukchee and Derivation of the Name"; a copy by Harrington of the enclosure; and the rough beginning of a paper by Harrington titled "Short Sketch of the Grammar of the Chukchee Language," also evidently written in 1947.
- Restrictions
- No restrictions on access.
- Record ID
- ebl-1626971434170-1626971435121-4
Related Content
Records Relating to the Siberian Origin of the American Indian
