Title:

Identifier/Call Number: 1968.051

Contributing Institution: Museum of Us

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.16 Linear feet 2 photo albums

Date (bulk): Bulk, 1896-1907

Date (inclusive): 1896-1935

Abstract: Constance Goddard DuBois (1869-1934) was a historical novelist turned ethnographer. As a young woman she wrote historical fiction and became interested in the plight of the American Indian, especially the Mission Indians of Southern California. She became an activist for reform in the government’s treatment of the American Indians and as a result took on personal fieldwork to determine the conditions on Southern California reservations, especially documenting conditions of the Luiseño and Kumeyaay. She became a member of the American Anthropological Association and the American Folk-Lore Society, and she undertook fieldwork for the American Museum of Natural History and Alfred L. Kroeber at the University of California, Berkeley. Her personal photograph albums, documenting the years 1897 to 1907, were donated to the Museum by Dr. Goddard DuBois in 1968. These albums contain priceless information about the people and their living conditions on San Diego County reservations a century ago. In addition to her own personal photographs, the albums also contain photos by Edward H. Davis (1862-1951) and other friends, with whom Goddard DuBois traveled to different southern California reservations and missions, most notably the Mesa Grande Reservation in San Diego, California.

creator: Goddard DuBois, Constance, Dr.

This collection is comprised of 239 photographs originally arranged in two photo albums by Dr. Constance Goddard DuBois. The finding aid is arranged by the locations of missions in Southern California, reservations in San Diego County, California, villages and pueblos within San Diego, New Mexico, and Arizona, as well as other locations in California, Arizona, New Mexico, the Southwest United States, and Canada.

The photographs include captions that are Constance Goddard DuBois's original observations and notes for each photograph. In addition to photographs taken by Dr. Goddard DuBois, she also has photographs taken by the people she traveled with: Edward H. Davis, S. M. Brosins, Ned Gillette, Francis Parker, Mrs. Mary C. B. Watkins, among others. The photographer is noted with their initials or name in Dr. Goddard Dubois' captions.