- unitid
-
{"value"=>"531904", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Sc Photo Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits Collection", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"circa 1860s-1960s", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1860/1969", "certainty"=>"approximate"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits photographs"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"15 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"6.5 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division</span>"}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895-1963", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Melville J. Herskovits, anthropologist and Africanist, was the founder of the first African Studies Program in the United States established at Northwestern University in 1948. Frances S. Herskovits, who taught African Literature, was also a close collaborator of her husband's. She accompanied Melville on many of his field trips and obtained data on the women, art, and religion of various cultures.</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits Photograph Collection consists of some personal photographs and documentation of Melville's professional activities. Documentation of Frances' anthropological career is combined with Melville's research.</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits photographs are arranged in three series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scp/531904#c1723523'>Series I: Personal</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Personal Series includes studio and candid portraits and snapshots of family, friends and acquaintances. Images of Melville and Francis Herskovits document their personal lives from childhood to later life (1890s-1963); photographs of their daughter Jean document her youth and young adulthood (1935-1950s). Images of family, friends and acquaintances document family gatherings and social activities. Depictions of colleagues include Elizabeth Dearmin Furbay and L.S.B. (Louis) Leakey. A carte de visite album that belonged to Herman Herskovits, Melville's father, contains images of possible family members and friends from various Eastern European countries (1860s-1910s). Also included in the personal series are views of the Mexican Revolution (1911) and views of New Mexico and Arizona (n.d.). Images relating to the Mexican Revolution were taken by Melville Herskovits and contained in a scrapbook, kept by Herskovits, which documents insurrection activities around Ciudad Juarez, Mexico (April-May 1911), depicting Mexican President Francisco I. Madero and his followers, the Insurrectos, and their encampments, as well as barricades, battlefields, and the insurrecto hospital. Images also include Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, General Navarro, views of the Battle of Bauche (March 1911), and several group shots of war correspondents from a number of major U.S. newspapers. Some postcard views of the Insurrectos are included. The views of New Mexico and Arizona, which are undated, include landscapes, ruins of Native American cliff-dwellings, a Native American blanket weaver and her children, a young Native American shepherdess with her herd, interior and exterior views of the Thunderbird Ranch in Chin Lee, Arizona, and portraits of Melville and Frances with an unidentified third person.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scp/531904#c1723542'>Series II: Research and Academic Activities</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Research and Academic Activities Series documents Melville's anthropological field trips, his research and fact finding trips, some of his Northwestern University activities, and his attendance at professional conferences. Images record village life and customs, such as agricultural activities, religious ceremonies and rituals, housing (dwellings), dress, village markets, etc., and documents his field research in Suriname (Dutch Guiana) (1928); Dahomey (Benin), Ghana (Gold Coast) and Nigeria (1931); Haiti (1934); Trinidad (1939); and Brazil, mainly Bahia (1941-1942). Other research photographs document trips to Africa, including a fact finding journey in 1957, the results of which were presented in testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Research photos are similar to field trip images and record the daily life and customs of various African peoples. Images include Zaire (Belgian Congo) (1951, 1953); Kenya and Uganda (1952-1953); Liberia (1953, 1957); Lesotho (Basutoland) and Ghana (1957); Nigeria (1957, 1960); Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia (Northern Rhodesia), and Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) (n.d.).</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scp/531904#c1723583'>Series III: General</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The General Series consists of views of art and architecture, field trips conducted by other anthropologists, and postcard collections. Art and architecture images depict antiquities, artifacts, and structures from different countries, primarily African. Included are photos of masks, busts, statues, and drawings, possibly from West Africa; views of modern buildings constructed in Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1954; views of rock antiquities in Nigeria; and photos of miscellaneous European art work. Some art objects depicted may belong to the Herskovits Collection. Images gathered from other anthropologists include some single portraits, group portraits, and views of activities that were photographed by Katherine Dunham in Guadaloupe, Martinique, Trinidad, Jamaica, and the Virgin Islands. Also included are some views of Cuban ethnologist Fernando Ortiz, in Havana, giving a lecture on the subject of Afro-Cuban music (1938).</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Herskovits photograph collection was separated from the Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits Papers, in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division of the Schomburg Center. The Herskovits collection of artifacts and art objects is housed in the Schomburg Center's Art and Artifacts Division.</p>"}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Finding aid updated by Jack Patterson. ", "date"=>"November 2023"}
- date_start
-
1860
- keydate
-
1860
- date_end
-
1969
- date_inclusive_start
-
1860
- date_inclusive_end
-
1969
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits photographs, Photographs and Prints Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Melville J. Herskovits, anthropologist and Africanist, was the founder of the first African Studies Program in the United States established at Northwestern University in 1948. Frances S. Herskovits, who taught African Literature, was also a close collaborator of her husband's. She accompanied Melville on many of his field trips and obtained data on the women, art, and religion of various cultures. The Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits Photograph Collection consists of some personal photographs and documentation of Melville's professional activities. Documentation of Frances' anthropological career is combined with Melville's research.", "generated"=>true}