Wanamaker Collection of Photographs of American Indians

The Wanamaker Collection can serve a variety of research interests. The primary ethnographic and historical value of the collection is as a record and reflection of American Indian life in the first decades of the 20th century. By the sheer quantity of photographs, the collection presents a wide view of Indian life, including several dimensions of culture change (documenting clothing decoration, dance styles, etc.), economic situation (relative wealth/poverty), and acculturation/participation in the non-Indian world, including the military.

Beginning in 1908, Rodman Wanamaker, son of the store owner, sponsored a series of "Expeditions to the American Indian" headed by Dixon. That year, the Expedition journeyed to Crow Agency, Montana, to produce a motion picture of the epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha. In addition, Dixon made photographs in and around their camp on the Little Big Horn, including shots of the second annual Crow Fair, and of Crow Agency.

In 1909, Dixon and his staff returned to Crow Agency where they gathered a number of chiefs and important men to participate in a Last Great Indian Council. Again, additional photographs were made in and around Crow Agency, including portraits of Indian survivors of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Beginning that same year, 1909, Dixon and the Wanamakers became actively involved in the American Indian policy reform movement. They worked towards the building of a National Indian Memorial, which was dedicated in February 1913. Later that summer, Dixon and his staff travelled to over 150 reservations cross the country carrying a "Declaration of Allegiance" seeking citizenship for the unenfranchised American Indians.

Following World War I, Dixon began documenting American Indian participation in the United States military forces. He sent questionnaires not only to Army Divisional historians, but also individual Indian veterans. Much of that documentation is in the Mathers Museum Collections.

Additional information concerning the Wanamaker Collection is available on-line in Reading Photographs, from the Mathers Museum's Occasional Papers and Monographs Series.