Object Details
- Local Numbers
- NAA MS 4948
- Variant Title
- Game equipment
- Publication Note
- Ten (10) drawings were reproduced as Figures 13-22 in: Stevenson, Matilda Coxe. "Zuñi Games." American Anthropologist 5, no. 3 (1903): 468–97. Nine (9) drawings were reproduced as Figures 294, 295, 499, 508, 509, 693, 911, 916, and 1083 in: Culin, Stewart. "Games of the North American Indians." In Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1902-1903 (1907): 3-809.
- Creator
- Stevenson, Matilda Coxe, 1850-1915
- Place
- North America
- Topic
- Toys
- Games
- Creator
- Stevenson, Matilda Coxe, 1850-1915
- Culture
- A:shiwi (Zuni)
- Biographical Note
- 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.
- Extent
- 28 Drawings (visual works) (ink and pencil; and related page proofs)
- Date
- circa 1903
- Container
- Box 4946/4948/4949/4950, Folder 2-5
- Archival Repository
- National Anthropological Archives
- Identifier
- NAA.MS4948
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Graphic Materials
- Drawings (visual works)
- Works of art
- Drawings
- Citation
- MS 4948 Matilda Coxe Stevenson drawings of Zuni game equipment, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
- Rights
- Contact the repository for terms of use.
- Genre/Form
- Works of art
- Drawings
- Scope and Contents
- The collection consists of drawings created by or for Matilda Coxe Stevenson depicting Zuni games and game equipment. There are twelve (12) ink drawings and two (2) pencil drawings, in addition to fourteen (14) related page proofs of some of the drawings. The ink drawings were made for publication and are based on photographs. The significance of the numbers stamped on some of the drawings is unknown; they do not refer to negative numbers or to USNM Catalog Numbers. Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
- Restrictions
- The collection is open for research. Access to the collection requires an appointment.
- Record ID
- ebl-1538144435437-1538144435438-0
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