Weinland (William H.) Photograph Collection, approximately 1885-1920s

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Summary

Title:
William H. Weinland Photograph Collection
Dates:
approximately 1885-1920s
Creators:
Weinland, William H., 1861-1930
Abstract:
This collection contains 525 loose photographs and 3 photograph albums that depict the people, experiences, and places witnessed by Moravian missionary William H. Weinland (1861-1930) and his family during their years of missionary service between the mid 1880s and the 1920s, first in Alaska and, more extensively, among Native Americans of Southern California. Though the vast majority of the photographs depict life on the Morongo Reservation, near Banning, California, there are also images from a number of the reservations that surrounded Morongo.
Extent:
525 photographs and 3 photograph albums in 7 boxes
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], William H. Weinland Collection. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The William H. Weinland Photograph Collection contains 525 loose photographs and 3 photograph albums that depict the people, experiences, and places witnessed by Moravian missionary William H. Weinland (1861-1930) and his family during their years of missionary service between the mid 1880s and the 1920s, first in Alaska and, more extensively, among Native Americans of Southern California. Though the vast majority of the photographs depict life on the Morongo Reservation, near Banning, California, Weinland was an itinerant of sorts, an activist who sought a foothold for Protestantism wherever he could. Consequently, there are images from a number of the reservations that surrounded Morongo.

The Alaska images were photographed by Weinland and fellow missionary Henry Hartmann, as many of the mounts attest, and by the commercial photographer M. Lorenz. The Morongo views are harder to attribute, though many were definitely taken by Weinland himself. Some commercial photographers are also represented throughout this portion of the collection. Volumes 2 and 3 were albums compiled by Sarah Morris, one of the first schoolteachers at Morongo and a personal friend of the Weinlands. Her albums focus, naturally enough, on the schoolhouses where she taught as well as her charges.

Biographical / historical:

William Henry Weinland (1861-1930) was born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He attended Moravian schools and graduated from Moravian College and Theological Seminary in preparation for a life of professional ministry. In 1884 Weinland volunteered for an exploratory expedition into Alaska with Henry Hartmann, a Moravian missionary based in Canada, to determine an appropriate site for a mission. A settlement along the Kuskokwim River was deemed suitable, and, in 1885, now ordained and newly married to Caroline Yost, Weinland returned to Bethel, Alaska, with his bride and three other missionaries, thus signaling the advent of a career devoted to missionary work. The Weinland's term of duty in Alaska was to be curtailed, however, by the ill health of Mrs. Weinland and one of her daughters.* The family returned to the United States where Rev. Weinland assumed the pastorate of the Moravian Church in Grace Hill, Iowa.

In 1889, after nearly two years at their mid-Western post, the Weinlands received a formal call to take part in more pioneering work. This time they would establish a new mission among the Native Americans of Southern California. After surveying the general surroundings, the Weinlands decided on the Morongo Reservation (then known familiarly as "The Potrero") where they would represent the Moravian Church for some forty years. The Weinlands raised seven children on the reservation and spent the final years of their lives in nearby Banning, California.

*For more information on Weinland's activities in Alaska see: Oswalt, Wendell H.Mission of Change in Alaska: Eskimos and Moravians on the Kuskowim(San Marino, Calif.: The Huntington Library, 1963).

Acquisition information:
Gift of Clarence E. Weinland, youngest son of the Weinlands, in 1944 and 1970.
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged according to subject in the following series and subseries:

  • Loose Photographs
    • Alaska, approximately 1884-1885
    • Morongo Reservation, approximately 1890-1920
    • Miscellaneous
    • Scenes from Riverside and San Diego Counties, approximately 1915
    • Weinland Family photographs
  • Photograph Albums
    • Weinland Family Photograph Album, approximately 1910s and 1920s
    • Morongo Reservation, "The Potrero," Albums, approximately 1880s-1901

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Processed by Jennifer A. Watts.
Date Prepared:
© October 1994 February 1998
Date Encoded:
Machine-readable finding aid derived from MS Word and encoded by Gabriela A. Montoya. Date of source: October 1994 February 1998. Updated by Diann Benti in May 2015 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

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

Terms of access:

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], William H. Weinland Collection. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
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