Matilda Coxe Stevenson photographs
odd: label: Local Call Number(s)
content: NAA Photo Lot 23
name: label: Creator
content: Stevenson, Matilda Coxe, 1850-1915
label: Photographer
content: Wittick & Russell
label: Photographer
content: Cobb, William Henry, 1859-1909
label: Names
content: We'wha, 1849-1896
index: label: Addl. KW Subj
content: Pueblo

San Ildefonso

San Juan (Ohkay Owingeh)

Santa Clara

Santo Domingo (Kewa)
place: label: Place
content: Santa Fe (N.M.)
topic: label: Topic
content: Rites and ceremonies
label: Topic
content: Pueblos
label: Topic
content: Ranches
creator: label: Creator
content: Stevenson, Matilda Coxe, 1850-1915
culture: label: Culture
content: Zuni Indians
label: Culture
content: Taos Indians
label: Culture
content: Zia Indians
label: Culture
content: Cochiti Indians
label: Culture
content: Jemez Indians
label: Culture
content: Navajo Indians
label: Culture
content: Tewa Indians
label: Culture
content: Indians of North America -- Southwest, New
label: Culture
content: Pueblo Indians
bioghist: label: Biographical/Historical note
content: Matilda Coxe Stevenson (1849-1915; though her birth year is often erroneously listed as 1850) was the first woman to study the American Southwest and the first (and for a long time the only) female anthropologist hired by the US government. Born Matilda Coxe Evans in 1849 in San Augustine, Texas, Stevenson was brought to Washington, D.C., as an infant. She was educated at Miss Anable's English, French, and German School in Philadelphia and through private studies with her father and Dr. William M. Mew of the Army Medical Museum. In 1872 she married James Stevenson, a geologist with the US Geological Survey of the Territories. From 1872-1878, Matilda joined James on Ferdinand V. Hayden's geological surveys to Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, and assisted him by compiling geological data. When the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) was created in 1879, Matilda Stevenson was appointed "volunteer coadjutor [sic] in ethnology" and she went with James on his BAE expeditions to the Southwest.

After James Stevenson's death in 1888, BAE Director John Wesley Powell hired Matilda Stevenson to organize her husband's notes. In 1889, Stevenson became regular BAE staff. From 1890 to 1907, Stevenson did substantial individual fieldwork at Zuni and published "The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies" in the Bureau of American Ethnology's Twenty-Third Annual Report (1901-2). Starting in 1904, Stevenson conducted comparative studies at Zia, Jemez, San Juan, Cochiti, Nambe, Picarus, Tesuque, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, and Taos. In 1907 she purchased a ranch (Ton'yo) near San Ildefonso, which became her base for fieldwork. Stevenson died in Maryland on June 24, 1915.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3,352 prints (modern contact prints and reprints, silver gelatin, albumen, and platinum)
label: Extent
content: 2,139 negatives (nitrate)
label: Extent
content: 118 negatives (glass)
label: Extent
content: 657 copy negatives
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1882-1914
label: Date
content: bulk 1904-1912
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.PhotoLot.23
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Prints
label: Type
content: Negatives
label: Type
content: Copy negatives
label: Type
content: Photographs
bibliography: label: Bibliography
content: Photographs published in: Matilda Coxe Stevenson, "Ethnobotony of the Zuni Indians," Thirtieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1881-1882; Stevenson, "Dress and Adornment of the Pueblo Indians," edited by Richard V. N. Ahlstrom and Nancy J. Parezo, Kiva 52, no. 4 (Summer, 1987): 275-312; Stevenson, "The Sia," Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1889-1890; Stevenson, "The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies," Twenty-third Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1901-1902; Stevenson, "Zuni Games," American Anthropologist 5 (July-Sept. 1903): 468-497; "Strange Rites of the Tewa Indians," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 63, no. 8: 73-80; and "Studies of the Tewa Indians of the Rio Grande Valley," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 60, no. 3: 35-41.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
otherfindaid: label: Other Finding Aids note
content: Draft of Matilda Coxe Stevenson "cross collections guide" available in the repository. This guide provides information about Stevenson's collections in the NMNH anthropology collections as well as National Anthropological Archives.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: Photographs made during Matilda Coxe Stevenson's field studies among Southwest Indians, particularly at Zuni.  Images primarily document pueblos, people, ceremonies, and daily activities, as well as some photographs of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and ranches, probably those belonging to Stevenson or her friends.  The collection includes photographs by William Henry Cobb and Wittick & Russell, as well as Stevenson's assistant May S. Clark and "Mr. Gray," a photographer that Stevenson hired as an assistant.
relatedmaterial: label: Location of Other Archival Materials
content: Stevenson photographs previously filed in BAE number 4325, MS 4624, MS 4717, Photo Lot 14, and Photo Lot 33 have been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 23. These photographs were also made by Stevenson and form part of this collection.
label: Location of Other Archival Materials
content: Additional glass negatives made by Stevenson are held in the National Anthropological Archives in the BAE historical negatives.
label: Location of Other Archival Materials
content: The National Anthropological Archives holds Matilda Coxe Stevenson's papers in MS 4689.
label: Location of Other Archival Materials
content: Photographic images and portraits of Stevenson are in the National Anthropological Archives in the following collections: Photo Lot 33, Photo Lot 70, Photo Lot 89-19, and Photo Lot 90-1.
label: Location of Other Archival Materials
content: Additional photographs of We'wha, probably commissioned by Stevenson at a studio in Washington, D.C., are in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 2004-03.