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George Wharton James and Frederic Hamer Maude Photographs

 Collection
Identifier: PAAC-0062

Scope and Content

The primary set of material in this collection includes the cover, an introductory page, and 32 photographs from the book The Mokis and their Snake Dance by George Wharton James. The photographs, probably on collodion printing-out paper, are mounted on thin matte board pages. The book pages, now separated, each have three holes on the left margin.

The book was published by Maude and Company, Photographers, Los Angeles, a company owned by the photographer and photographic collector Frederick H. Maude. The publisher's name appears in the lower right corner of each photograph (e.g. F.H. Maude Photo), although the introduction to the book makes it clear that the photographs were by G. Wharton James, who also wrote the introduction. There is a descriptive title in the left lower corner of each picture.

In the introduction, James takes pride in being the first to present "really successful photographs" of the Snake Dance. The photographs were made over a two year period in the Hopi (then sometimes called Moki) village of Oraibi in present day Arizona, about 100 miles north of Gallup and Winslow. In his introduction, James describes the dancers and the ritual in great detail.

In addition, there are photographs by James of Native Americans in Hopi, Pima, and Zuni, photographs by Maude of Native Americans in Acoma, Hava Supi and Zuni, and landscape photographs from Arizona, including the Petrified Forest.

Dates

  • 1895 – ca. 1904

Creator

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to researchers on a request basis only, pending approval of request to view original material. The photographs of Native American dances are restricted.

Copy Restrictions

User responsible for all copyright compliance. Permission to publish must be obtained from Photo Archives. Form to request permission available at: https://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/collections/photo-archives/order-photos

Biographical Information

George Wharton James (1858-1923), originally from Lincolnshire, England, was trained as a Methodist minister. After immigrating to the United States as a young man, he was a minister in parishes in California and Nevada. Although best known as the author of forty books on the American Southwest and editor of two magazines, he also photographed extensively, concentrating on the Native American tribes of the Southwest.

Frederick Hamer Maude (1858-1959) was born in Little Covington, England. He studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen, but had a short medical career. After studying photography at Royal Photography Society in London, he moved from England to Canada and then to Southern California, first to Ventura and then to Los Angeles. He bought the commercial photographic business of C.B. Waite, including Waite’s photographs, changing the company name to F.H. Maude and Co. Maude sold prints of Waite’s s and those of other Southern California photographers under his imprint, including the book The Mokis and their Snake Dance by George Wharton James which is part of this collection. He photographed extensively, concentrating on the desert and mountains of the American Southwest and Native American Pueblos, but is primarily known for his acquisition of the collections of other Southern California photographers.

Extent

1.25 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Related Material

Many of the photographs from the book The Mokis and their Snake Dance are in the Frederic Hamer Maude collection in the Seaver Center of the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles, and one is held by the Denver Public Library.
Title
George Wharton James and Frederic Hamer Maude Photographs, 1895 – 1904
Status
Under Revision
Author
ALP
Date
© 2019
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the NMHM Palace of the Governors Photo Archives Repository

Contact:
113 Lincoln Ave.
Santa Fe NM 87501 USA