Pliny Earle Goddard American Indian notebooks, 1901-1929

Summary Information

At a Glance

Call No.:
MS#0492
Bib ID:
4078814 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
Goddard, Pliny Earle, 1869-1928; Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939
Repository:
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Physical Description:
2 linear feet (33 notebooks in 4 half-manuscript boxes)
Language(s):
English , Navajo; Navaho , Athapascan languages .
Access:
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection is located on-site.

Description

Scope and Content

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.

  • Series I: Mescalero

  • Series II: California / Northwest

  • Series III: Navajo, 1923-1925

    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.

  • Series IV: Sarsi, 1905-1911

    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."

Arrangement

Arranged.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection is located on-site.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

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.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Pliny Earle Goddard American Indian notebooks; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Related Materials

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

Existence and Location of Copies

Materials have been digitized. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession number--M-59.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

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.

Revision Description

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.

Biographical / Historical

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.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Name
American Museum of Natural History -- Employees CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Columbia University -- Employees CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Subject
Anthropology CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Ethnology CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Indians of North America -- Folklore CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Indians of North America -- Languages -- Translations into English CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Linguistics -- United States CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Mescalero Indians -- Folklore CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Mescalero language -- Texts CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Navajo Indians -- Folklore CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Navajo language -- Texts CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Sarsi Indians -- Folklore CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Sarsi language -- Texts CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID