This collection is located on-site.
Thirty-three notebooks containing transcriptions of Native American texts by Pliny Earle Goddard, and some English translations. While some of the material is of a primarily linguistic nature, much is folkloric in nature. The collection contains eleven notebooks of Mescalero Apache texts; three notebooks of Pomo, Maple Creek, and Mad River tribes and four of the Coquille, Chasta Costa, and Tututni languages (Native American tribes from the Pacific Coast); five notebooks of Navajo texts; and ten notebooks of Sarsi texts. It also includes 23 pages of notes on Chasta Costa attributed to Edward Sapir.
Published in Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 34, pt. 1, pp. 1-179, 1933. Digital version of published text: https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/231. Per the introduction of the published text, "The Navajo texts were collected in 1923 and 1924 by Doctor Pliny Earle Goddard [...] Doctor Goddard had recorded the texts at the dictation of Sandoval, a Navajo, learned in his lore, but not a medicineman."
The page order for these notebooks is not always clear, as they are not paginated. If upon consulting a digital copy the page order seems unclear or incorrect, please contact rbml@columbia.edu to request a review of the physical item.
Published in University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 11, pp. 189-277, 1915. Digital version of published text: https://archive.org/details/universityof11univ/page/188/mode/2up. Per the introduction of the published text, "The texts here presented were collected during the summer of 1905. [...] The larger number of these texts were revised in 1911 with the aid of Charlie Crowchief, who was the interpreter used in obtaining them originally. [...] The main informant was Eagle-ribs, a man then about 65 years old. As he says in one of his narratives, he ranked as a chief according to the old order."
Arranged.
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This collection is located on-site.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Pliny Earle Goddard American Indian notebooks; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Additional field notebooks from Goddard are found in the Melville Jacobs papers at the University of Washington (https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv95437#dscID), specifically three Galice Athabaskan notebooks and four Lassik Athabaskan notebooks.
Additional field notebooks from Goddard are found in the American Council of Learned Societies Committee on Native American Languages at the American Philosophical Society: https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.497.3.B63c-ead.xml
Materials have been digitized. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Accession number--M-59.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Cataloged Christina Hilton Fenn 06/--/89.
Notebooks were individually housed in four-flap enclosures by conservation. The collection was rehoused into four half-manuscript boxes. kws 2022-08-12
Numbers and series were assigned based on information written on the notebook covers by Kevin Schlottmann in August 2022. This information may be subject to change based on future expert review of the notebooks.
2013-01-08 xml document instance created by Carrie Hintz
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Anthropologist. Goddard held several curatorial positions with the American Museum of Natural History from 1909 to 1928. In 1914 he became Curator of Ethnology and from 1915 to 1928 he was a Lecturer in Anthropology at Columbia University. A remembrance in the American Anthropologist (https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1929.31.1.02a00020, Vol. 31, No. 1, January-March 1929) includes a bibliography.