Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Navajo sheep herding and dipping; hogan exteriors
- Description
- A collection of photographs and postcards focusing on Navajo and Hopi Indians and various Indian schools and schoolchildren throughout Arizona, mostly in ca. 1927. There are views of Peach Springs Trading Post, the Cameron Suspension Bridge trading post, missions at Chinle and Lukachukai (Arizona), Navajo family groups, Navajo schools at Tuba City and Oraibi (Arizona), and Navajo school crafts fairs and exhibits. Acoma, Apache, Tohono O'Odham (Papago), and Hualapai Indians are also represented. The photographs were taken from 1890 to 1927, but the bulk of the collection was created during the 1920s. Includes some photographs by George Wharton James, E.E. Hall, and Burton Frasher (Frasher Fotos). These images of Indians were taken as both posed and candid field photographs, in particular of young Navajo schoolchildren during class time and outside of school. Other subjects pictured are L.H. McSparron, owner of Thunderbird Ranch and acting custodian of Canyon de Chelly; Father Leopold Ostermann, the founder of the mission at Chinle; possibly John Lorenzo Hubbell Jr., of the Hubbell trading family; an Indian all-boys track-and-field team at an unidentified school; Indian schoolchildren; and nature views throughout Arizona. The photographs have been arranged by Indian tribe, starting with the tribe with the most photographs and/or postcards. Navajo Indians appear first in the arrangement, followed by Hopi, Apache, and other Southwestern tribes with fewer photographs. Within each tribe, photographs and postcards have been further organized by individual tribe members, activities, crafts, associated communities, and schools. Images of Caucasian people involved in Indian trade, trading posts, and unidentified Indian schools and students are placed at the end of this collection. Russell also collected postcards with images of Southwest Indians, with some cards having correspondence from Russell, addressed to Beatrice Madelleine, Mrs. George R. Simmons, and Madeleine Touchaux (Russell's wife), describing how travel conditions were as well as opinions on the Indians that were encountered.
