Photographic portraits of performers in indigenous American dress
Overview
Photographic portraits of mostly unidentified performers in indigenous American dress.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1860-1879
Condition Description
Ambrotypes have been rebacked and one has had its outer frame removed (Holmes, Booth & Hayden copyright).
Conditions Governing Access
Restricted: fragile; consult curatorial staff (ambrotypes).
Extent
.3 linear feet (1 box)Contains three ambrotypes and five cartes-de-visites of performers in indigenous American dress. Multiple images are of Neoskleata (also spelled Neoskaleeta and in one image, Naascaleta), a performer with the traveling show Washburn’s Last Sensation.
Biographical / Historical
Washburn's Last Sensation was a travelling Western show that toured in New England and further around the northeastern United States in the early 1870s which involved indigenous American performers. The cast of performers included members of Washburn family, who claimed to be of Mohawk descent, as well as multiple American Indian performers, who were often referred to as "Awhanetunk's Troupe" and may have had connections to the Chippewa or Modoc tribe. The origin of the performers involved is unknown. Promotions advertised "Warm Spring Indians" and featured the "Prairie Rose" or "Mohawk Princess," who went by the name Neoskleata. The dealer notes explain that Neoskleata (also spelled Neoskaleeta) might have been married to Willie Washburn and may have had a daughter named Lillie Leona Washburn, based on other promotional cartes-des-visites from the period, but her identity is not certain. Neoskleata performed into the late 1880s, often appearing alongside Leona (also described as Leoni), and was referred to as a "Serio-Comic Singer." [source: MS Thr 2041]
Arrangement
Arranged in order as received.
Custodial History
Ownership prior to this acquisition is unknown.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Swann Auction Galleries via W.C. Baker Rare Books with the Horblit Fund for Photography and the Beatrice, Benjamin and Richard Bader Fund for the Visual Arts of the Theatre, 2020 September 24.
Processing Information
Processed minimally by Melanie Wisner, 2021 September. Processed fully by Lilli Keaney, 2022 August.
Genre / Form
Topical
Subject
- Neoskleata (Person)
- Hopkins, George P. (Photographer, Person)
- Jones, J. L. (Photographer, Person)
- Title
- Photographic portraits of performers in indigenous American dress, circa 1860-1879 (MS Thr 2078): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2021 September 16
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou04025
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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