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Carl Moon Photographs of Indians of the Southwest and Oklahoma
photCL 313  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Overview of the Collection
  • Access
  • Administrative Information
  • Biographical Note
  • Scope and Content
  • Bibliography
  • Related Collections:
  • Indexing Terms
  • Additional item: Carl Moon's Introduction and Index

    • Overview of the Collection

    Title: Carl Moon Photographs next hit of Indians of the Southwest and Oklahoma, 1904-1917
    Dates: 1904-1917
    Collection Number: photCL 313
    Creator: Moon, Carl, 1878-1948.
    Extent: 293 previous hit photographs next hit in 17 oversize portfolio boxes: prints (approx. 13 x 16 inches) on oversize mounts (approx. 22 x 26 inches). Also includes a typescript index by Carl Moon and 1 box of ephemera and newspaper clippings.
    Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photo Archives
    1151 Oxford Road
    San Marino, California 91108
    Phone: (626) 405-2191
    Email: reference@huntington.org
    URL: http://www.huntington.org
    Abstract: This collection of previous hit photographs next hit by photographer Carl Moon documents Native Americans living in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma between 1904 and 1917. The primary tribes represented are Hopi, Navajo and Taos Pueblo Indians, but there are also Osage, Apache and several other Southwestern tribes. There are many portraits, as well as posed, romantic scenes depicting storytelling, hunting, weaving, or playing instruments. Additional candid views show people in their daily activities, pueblos, and dance ceremonies.
    Language of Material: The records are in English.

    Access

    Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

    Administrative Information

    Publication Rights

    The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Carl Moon previous hit Photographs next hit of Indians of the Southwest and Oklahoma. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

    Provenance

    Purchased by Henry E. Huntington from Carl Moon, 1923.

    Biographical Note

    Carl E. Moon (originally spelled Karl) was born in Wilmington, Ohio in 1878. After graduation from high school, he served two years with the Ohio National Guard before apprenticing with various photographers in Ohio, West Virginia and Texas. He moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1903, where he set up a photography studio and began making "art studies" of the Native Americans of the Southwest, both in previous hit photographs next hit and in oil paintings, sometimes living for weeks at a time in Navajo villages. From 1905-1906, Moon had a short-lived partnership in Albuquerque with businessman Thomas F. Keleher, called the Moon-Keleher Studio. After the partnership dissolved, Moon continued working, photographing carefully selected Indian "subjects" in a romantic, posed style. His previous hit photographs next hit began appearing in magazines and he exhibited at the Museum of Natural History in New York. President Theodore Roosevelt invited Moon to exhibit his Native American previous hit photographs next hit at the White House.
    In 1907, Moon signed a contract with the Fred Harvey Company to produce previous hit photographs next hit for what would be the Fred Harvey Collection of Southwest Indian Pictures. Beginning in 1911, he operated out of El Tovar Studio in the Grand Canyon. While employed by the Fred Harvey Co., he also worked as a photographer for the Santa Fe Railroad. For seven years, from 1907 to 1914, Moon photographed the native people of the Southwest, in his studio and in their villages. His images appeared (often uncredited) in brochures and publications for both companies.
    Moon resigned from Fred Harvey Co. in 1914, and he and his second wife, Grace Purdie Moon, moved to Pasadena, California, where he continued to work as a photographer and painter. In 1923, Henry E. Huntington purchased from Moon 293 large, mounted photographic prints and 12 oil paintings (12 more paintings were purchased in 1925). This remains the largest and most complete collection of Carl Moon's work extant.
    In 1924, Moon began work on "Indians of the Southwest," a set of 100 of his finest prints. Published in 1936, only ten copies were ever produced. With his wife Grace, he also wrote and illustrated many children's books about the Indians of the Southwest. Moon died in 1948, in San Francisco, at the home of his daughter.

    Scope and Content

    This collection of previous hit photographs next hit by photographer Carl Moon documents Native Americans living in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma between 1904 and 1917. In a letter to Henry Huntington, Feb. 12, 1923, Moon describes these previous hit photographs next hit as "a complete collection of my Indian pictures made from the beginning of my work in 1904 to 1917. It includes … the pick of the Fred Harvey collection that I made for them during the period of my contract with them, 1907 to 1914, and my own collection made since the latter date."
    Moon mostly traveled by himself, and spent time getting to know his subjects before photographing them. He seems to have made a series of shots of his subjects, sometimes with different attire or props, and sometimes assigning different titles to the previous hit photographs next hit (see images 214, 225, 235, for example).
    Besides the portraits, there are scenes of Indians in their daily activities, including baking bread in outdoor ovens, gathering water in pots, riding horses and tending livestock. There are also views of the Hopi Snake Dance, and the Corn Dance at Santo Domingo.
    Almost all of the previous hit photographs next hit are signed "Karl Moon" – his name until 1918, when he changed the spelling to Carl. Many of the prints are also stamped "copyright Fred Harvey" which indicates they were made while Moon was under contract there, 1907-1914. Moon also copyrighted many of his own works, and a dated copyright stamp is embossed in the prints. The copyright date does not always indicate the year the previous hit photograph next hit was made – it could be several years later (see image 214, for example).
    Other items in collection
    Box 18:
    - Typescript introduction and index to the previous hit photographs next hit , titled "A Brief Account of the Making of this Collection of Indian Pictures," by Carl Moon, 1924, 54 pp.
    - Newspaper clippings related to Moon, 1904-1936 (bulk 1911-1923).
    - Exhibition brochure for artist Thomas Moran, mentioning "Karl Moon," 1916.

    Bibliography

    Sources consulted:
    Driebe, Tom. In Search of the Wild Indian: previous hit Photographs next hit and Life Works by Carl and Grace Moon. Moscow, Pa.: Maurose Publishing Co., 1997.
    Faris, James C. Navajo and photography: a critical history of the representation of an American people.Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996.
    Moon, Carl. "A Brief Account of the Making of this Collection of Indian Pictures," 1924. (Part of this collection), Huntington Library.

    Alternative Form of Materials Available

    Visit the Huntington Digital Library to view additional digitized images from the Native American previous hit Photographs next hit Project.  

    Related Collections:

    - Copy previous hit Photographs next hit from Carl Moon Negatives of Indians of the Southwest and Oklahoma, approximately 1903-1917 (photCL 195). This is a set of contact prints only; there are no negatives.
    - Carl Moon Family previous hit photograph next hit collection (photCL 484).
    - Carl Moon's paintings. The Huntington Library has oil paintings by Carl Moon based on his previous hit photographs next hit . Moon intended his paintings "to give the student of the future the true coloring of the Indian and his surroundings." Please contact Art Collections for additional information.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.  

    Persons

    Moon, Carl, 1878-1948.
    Nampeyo, approximately 1856-1942.

    Subjects

    Acoma Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Apache Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Arapaho Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Cheyenne Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Cliff-dwellings--Arizona -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Havasupai Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Hopi Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Hopi Indians--Rites and ceremonies -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Indian baskets--Southwest, New -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Indians of North America--Southwest, New -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Indians of North America--Great Plains -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Isleta Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Kivas -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Laguna Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Looms -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Mission churches--New Mexico -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Navajo Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Osage Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Pueblo dance -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Pueblo pottery -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Pueblo Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Pueblos--Arizona -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Pueblos—New Mexico -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Ruins -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Taos Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Weaving -- previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Zuni Indians -- previous hit Photographs next hit .

    Places

    Arizona -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    New Mexico -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Oklahoma -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Acoma Pueblo (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Chelly, Canyon de (Ariz.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Cochiti (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    First Mesa (Ariz. : Mesa) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Isleta Pueblo (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Nambe Pueblo (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Oraibi (Ariz.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Pueblo of San Ildefonso, New Mexico -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    San Felipe Pueblo (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    San Juan Pueblo (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Santo Domingo Pueblo (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Second Mesa (Ariz. : Mesa) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Taos Pueblo (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Tesuque Pueblo (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Walpi (Ariz.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit
    Zuni (N.M.) -- previous hit Photographs next hit

    Document types

    previous hit Photographs next hit .
    Portraits.
    Landscape previous hit photographs next hit .
    Ephemera.

    Additional item: Carl Moon's Introduction and Index

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