Photographs of baskets in the Charles P. Wilcomb collection
odd: label: Local Call Number(s)
content: NAA Photo Lot 73-26F
name: label: Names
content: M.H. de Young Memorial Museum
label: Names
content: Wilcomb, Charles P., 1865-1915
topic: label: Topic
content: Baskets
culture: label: Culture
content: Indians of North America -- California
bioghist: label: Biographical/Historical note
content: Charles Presby Wilcomb (1865-1915) was an amateur anthropologist and store owner in New Hampshire and California.  Born in The Weirs, New Hampshire, he opened a store in nearby Laconia in 1884, selling both general merchandise and antiques and curios.  Four years later, Wilcomb opened two stores in Visalia, California, the latter of which was named Visalia Museum of Curiosities and Nanscawen & C., props.  Wilcomb's routine was to summer in New Hampshire, where he collected Colonial artifacts, and winter in California, where he collected artifacts from the California tribes.  During this time, he also interviewed Indigenous California people about their traditions and collected representational examples, particularly baskets.  Wilcomb became the first curator of the Golden Gate Park Memorial Museum (later the M.H. de Young Museum) when it opened in 1895.  He loaned many of his baskets to the museum for its collections, where they remained until the Park commissioners requested their removal in 1904.  Unable to convince the commissioners to purchase his "Indian collection," Wilcomb was forced to sell it to Robert Calvin Hall in 1905.  No longer with the de Young Museum, Wilcomb curated Hall's entire collection until his death in 1915.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 18 Negatives (glass)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1900
custodhist: label: Custodial History note
content: Transferred from the Smithsonian's central photographic laboratory in 1973.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.PhotoLot.73-26F
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Negatives
label: Type
content: Photographs
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies note
content: Modern reference prints from the negatives are available in the collection.
bibliography: label: Bibliography
content: Photographs published in Otis Tufton Mason, "Aboriginal American Basketry," Report of the United States National Museum, 1902.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: Photographs of baskets in the collection of Charles P. Wilcomb. They include Pomo baskets and baskets of the people of Tulare County. The photographs may have been made by a Smithsonian photographer.
relatedmaterial: label: Location of Other Archival Materials
content: Additional photographs of Wilcomb's collection of baskets are held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 24.
label: Location of Other Archival Materials
content: The National Anthropological Archives also holds letters from Wilcomb to Otis Tufton Mason regarding baskets (Department of Anthropology records, Manuscript and Pamphlet File) and Mason's papers.