Collection Summary
Information for Researchers
Administrative Information
Preface
Biographical Sketch
Description of Collection
Collection Summary
Collection Title: C. Hart Merriam Papers, Volume 1: Papers Relating to Work with California Indians,
Date (inclusive): 1850-1974
Date (bulk): (bulk 1898-1938)
Collection Number: Microfilm: BANC FILM 1022
Originals: BANC MSS 80/18 c
Creator:
Merriam, C. Hart, (Clinton Hart), 1855-1942
Extent:
Number of microfilm reels: 142
Originals: Number of containers: 21 cartons, 22 boxes, 10 volumes, 1 oversize folder
Linear feet: 42.37
Repository: The
Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Field notes, vocabulary schedules, manuscripts, typescripts, notebooks, clippings, and printed matter relating to Merriam's
work with California and other Indian tribes (1898-1938). Primary material includes lists of tribes, bands and villages of
California Indian tribes; ethnogeographic and ethnographic information; and lists of Indian words and their meanings. Secondary
material includes Merriam's research files containing clippings and other printed matter on Indian tribes and Indian welfare
in California and the West. Also included are manuscripts and typescripts of Merriam's published work on California Indians
and typescripts of Robert Heizer's compilations of Merriam's work, published posthumously.
Languages Represented:
English
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is available on microfilm only. Originals not available for use.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of the History of Science and Technology Program. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of
the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], C. Hart Merriam Papers, BANC FILM 1022, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Related Collections
Title: C. Hart Merriam Papers, Volume 2
Identifier/Call Number: Microfilm copies: BANC FILM 1958
Identifier/Call Number: Originals: BANC MSS 83/129 c
Physical Description:
Microfilm copy: 216 reels
Originals: Number of containers: 52 boxes, 24 cartons, 33 volumes, 1 oversize folder
Linear feet: 65
Title: C. Hart Merriam Pictorial Collection
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 1980.023
Title: Florence Merriam Bailey Papers
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 79/139 c
and
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 82/46 z
Library of Congress has additional holdings of C. Hart Merriam's papers.
Materials Cataloged Separately
- Photographs have been transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library.
- Maps have been transferred to the Map Collections of The Bancroft Library.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The C. Hart Merriam Papers were transferred from the Department of Anthropology in 1977 and 1979.
Funding
The processing and microfilming of the C. Hart Merriam Papers have been made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department
of Education, Title II-C, Strengthening Research Library Resources Program.
Preface
Clinton Hart Merriam (1855-1942) was one of the great naturalists of his generation. He was the founder of the United States
Biological Survey and a co-founder of the National Geographic Society. He accompanied many of the early surveying expeditions
to the Western United States and for more than twenty-five years documented the natural history of the rural West. In 1910,
with the support of the Harriman Trust, Merriam was able to leave the Survey and pursue his own research. While he did continue
his studies on North American mammals, the primary focus of his research became the Indian cultures of California. He was
especially interested in documenting and preserving the languages of California Indian tribes, which were being lost through
the death of older tribe members and the assimilation of surviving members into Anglo-American culture. Merriam did extensive
field work, interviewing surviving tribe members and recording their language in printed vocabulary schedules. Merriam's papers
and photographs of California Indian tribes represent significant primary source materials for much cultural information,
and often provide the last remaining links for many Native Americans to their ancestors.
For an assessment of how Merriam's training as a naturalist and zoologist influenced his collecting techniques for the Indian
data described in this finding aid, see
Robert Heizer
's introduction to
Ethnographic Notes on California Indian Tribes
(Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey, no. 68, pt. 1, p. 1-8.)
The Papers of Dr. Merriam were received over a period of several years from different donors. One of these collections (BANC
MSS 80/18 c), documenting Merriam's work on California Indians has a finding aid produced in 1969 by Robert Heizer of the
Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, with assistance from several of his graduate students. Because this finding aid
described most of the contents of the collection quite well and because the finding aid had been distributed to many institutions
and individuals, it was decided to leave it largely intact. However, several cartons of material in this collection were unarranged
and not listed in Heizer's guide, although he referred to the general nature of the material in his introductory remarks.
This material has been arranged and listed in its entirety for this finding aid. The listing for this collection constitutes
Volume One of the present finding aid.
Volume Two consists of a consolidation of the remaining collections of the papers of Merriam. This collection (BANC MSS 83/129
c) primarily documents Merriam's career as the founder and head of the United States Biological Survey. It includes Merriam's
personal and professional correspondence (including correspondence about his Indian work) and his papers from work undertaken
by the Survey. For a fuller description of its contents, see the introduction to Volume Two.
In 1993, the Library Conservation Department of The Library at UC Berkeley was awarded a Title II-C grant by the Department
of Education to preserve and improve bibliographic access to the papers of C. Hart Merriam. The Merriam project represents
a very successful coordination of preservation and archival processing on a collection-wide basis. The success of this model
of project development and execution has depended upon close cooperation between the staffs of the Conservation Department
and The Bancroft Library. A great many Library staff were responsible for obtaining and conducting this grant project. The
grant was prepared under the direction of Barclay W. Ogden, Head of the Conservation Department, by Lynn Jones, Nancy Harris,
Ann Swartzell, and Sheila O'Neill. Arrangement and description were completed by a processing team including Terry Boom, Alyson
Belcher, Xiuzhi Zhou, and Jane Bassett, under the direction of Jack von Euw, with consultation of William Roberts. Preservation
and conservation treatment of manuscripts and pictorial material were done by Nancy Harris, Wendy Partridge, and Belay Workneh
of the Conservation Department and Daniel Johnston of Library Photographic Service. Preservation microfilming of the collection
was done by Charles Stewart and Alexandra Eisler of Library Photographic Service. Administrative support for the project provided
by Cameron F. Olen and Louise Bradford.
The Merriam project was truly a collaborative effort for The Bancroft Library. In addition to working closely with the Conservation
Department, the processing team called upon the expertise of several other individuals and departments in the Library. Special
consultation and assistance with arrangement and description were provided by Mary Morganti of The Bancroft Library's Manuscripts
Division. Phil Hoehn and Fleur Helsingor of the Map Room were consulted about maps in the collection and Ms. Helsingor provided
cataloging for more than fifty maps removed from the collection. As part of the Berkeley Finding Aids Project, Marilyn Sbardellati-Bolak
scanned the original typewritten copy of the finding aid for collection no. 80/18 c into WordPerfect, saving hours of typing
time for this complex document.
Biographical Sketch
1855 |
Born in New York, December 5 to Clinton Levi Merriam, a merchant, banker, and member of Congress and Caroline Hart Merriam.
Siblings include an older brother, Charles Collins Merriam, and younger sister, Florence Merriam. Florence married an associate
of C. Hart's, Vernon Bailey.
|
1872 |
Naturalist, Hayden Survey of the territories. |
1877 |
A Review of the Birds of Connecticut published. |
1879-1885 |
Received M.D. degree Columbia University. Practiced medicine for six years. |
1883 |
Surgeon, S.S. Proteus Arctic Seal Fishery from Newfoundland. |
1884 |
Mammals of the Adirondacks published. |
1885-1910 |
Appointed Special Agent in charge of Economic Ornithology under the Division of Entomology of the Department of Agriculture.
This division evolved into the U.S. Biological Survey, of which Merriam was named chief. He held the position for twenty-five
years.
|
1886 |
October 15. Married Virginia Elizabeth Gosnel. |
1889 |
U.S. Biological Survey to the San Francisco Mountains, Arizona. Merriam developed the life zone concepts. |
1890 |
May 21. Daughter Dorothy born. |
1891 |
U.S. Biological Survey of Death Valley, California. Merriam revised and expanded the life zone concepts. |
1891 |
Appointed by President Harrison to a commission to investigate the problems of pelagic sealing in the Bering Sea. |
1891-1892 |
President, Biological Society of Washington. |
1892 |
April 14. Daughter Zenaida born. |
1898 |
U.S. Biological Survey of Mount Shasta, California. |
1899 |
Harriman Alaska Expedition. |
1900-1902 |
President, American Ornithologist's Union. |
1905 |
"Indian Population of California"
published.
|
1907 |
"Distribution and Classification of the Mewan Indians of California"
published.
|
1910 |
Resigned from U.S. Biological Survey. Began biological and ethnological investigations with financial support from the E.
H. Harriman Fund. Ethnological work was primarily with California Indian tribes. Continued until 1936.
|
1910 |
Dawn of the World published. |
1917-1925 |
Chairman, U.S. Board on Geographic Names. |
1919-1921 |
President, American Society of Mammalogists. |
1920-1921 |
President, Anthropological Society of Washington. |
1924-1925 |
President, American Society of Naturalists. |
1928 |
An-nik-a-del, the History of the Universe, as told by the Modes-se Indians of California
published.
|
1931 |
Received Roosevelt Medal "for distinguished work in biology." |
1942 |
Died in Berkeley, California, March 19 at age of eighty-six. |
Posthumous Publications
-
Boundary Descriptions of California Indian Stocks and Tribes.
Co-authored with
Zenaida Merriam Talbot;
edited by
Robert F. Heizer.
Berkeley:
Archaeological Research Facility,
1974.
-
Chumash Place Name Lists.
Compilations by
A. L. Kroeber,
C. Hart Merriam,
and
H. W. Henshaw;
edited by R. F. Heizer.
Berkeley:
Archaeological Research Facility,
1975.
-
Ethnogeographic and Ethnosynonymic Data From Northern California Tribes.
Assembled and edited by Robert F. Heizer.
Berkeley:
Archaeological Research Facility, Department of Anthropology, University of California,
1976.
-
Ethnographic Notes on California Indian Tribes.
Compiled and edited by
Robert F. Heizer.
Berkeley:
University of California Archaeological Research Facility,
1966-67.
-
Indian Names For Plants and Animals Among Californian and Other Western North American Tribes.
Assembled and annotated by
Robert F. Heizer.
Socorro, N.M.:
Ballena Press,
1979.
-
Studies of California Indians.
Edited by the staff of the Department of Anthropology of the University of California.
Berkeley:
University of California Press,
1955.
-
Village Names in Twelve California Mission Records.
Assembled and edited by Robert F. Heizer. Berkeley:
Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey,
no. 74
(1968).
Selected Bibliography
-
Grinnell, Hilda Wood
Bibliography of Clinton Hart Merriam.
[S.l.: s.n.,
1943?]
-
Osgood, Wilfred Hudson.
Biographical Memoir of Clinton Hart Merriam, 1855-1942.
Washington:
National Academy of Sciences,
1945.
Biographical memoirs (National Academy of Sciences U.S.); v. 24, 1st memoir.
-
Phillips, Arthur Morton
[et. al.].
Expedition to the San Francisco Peaks: C. Hart Merriam and the Life Zone Concept.
Flagstaff, Ariz.:
Museum of Northern Arizona,
1988.
Plateau; v. 60, no. 2.
-
Sterling, Keir B.
Last of the Naturalists: the Career of C. Hart Merriam.
New York:
Arno Press,
1974
(revised 1977)
-
Talbot, Zenaida Merriam.
"Obituary."
Science,
vol. 95, no. 2474
(May 29, 1942),
pp. 545-546.
Description of Collection
Catalogue of The C. Hart Merriam Collection of Data Concerning California Tribes and Other American Indians
Prepared by Robert F. Heizer with the assistance of Dennis Bailey, Marke Estis and Karen Nissen
- Department of Anthropology
- Archaeological Research Facility
- Berkeley 1969
- Revised 1994
Introduction
Between 1902 and 1935 Dr. Clinton Hart Merriam was engaged in the ethnological study of American Indians, mainly those in
the western United States, and especially the tribes of California. After Dr. Merriam's death in 1942 his heirs, Mrs. Zenaida
Merriam Talbot of Berkeley and Mrs. Henry D. Abbott of Washington, D.C., deposited their father's collection of data in the
Department of Anthropology at Berkeley. The transfer was made through the Smithsonian Institution, of which Dr. Merriam was
a Research Associate, and which administered the E. H. Harriman Fund established for the purpose of supporting Dr. Merriam's
anthropological research.
Dr. Merriam published only a fraction of the information which he had secured. For a list of his publications which appeared
during his life see
C. Hart Merriam, Studies of California Indians.
University of California Press,
1955
(reprinted 1962),
pp. 227-229.
Since 1950 when the Merriam Collection arrived in Berkeley additional material has been published under Merriam's name. The
following list specifies these:
-
Studies of California Indians.
University of California Press,
Berkeley and Los Angeles,
1955
(reprinted 1962).
233 pp.
-
"The Hang-e or Ceremonial House of the Northern Miwok of Hachana Village Near Railroad Flat, Calaveras County, California."
University of California Archaeological Survey,
Report No. 38, Paper No. 60, pp. 34-35,
1957.
-
"Wintoon Indians".
University of California Archaeological Survey,
Report No. 38, Paper No. 62, pp. 40-43,
1957.
-
"Data Pertaining to Various Indian Ceremonial Houses in Northern California."
University of California Archaeological Survey,
Report No. 50, Paper No. 86, pp. 37-40,
1960.
-
"Ethnographic Notes on California Tribes."
University of California Archaeological Survey,
Report No. 68, Part I, pp. 1-166, Part II, pp. 167-256, Part III, pp. 257-488,
1966.
-
"Village Names in Twelve California Mission Records."
University of California Archaeological Survey,
Report No. 74,
1968.
175 pp.
Several other publications have utilized Merriam's photographs or ethnographic information. These include:
-
M. A. Baumhoff,
"California Athabascan Groups."
University of California Anthropological Records,
Vol. 16, No. 5,
1958.
-
R. F. Heizer,
Languages, Territories and Names of California Indian Tribes.
University of California Press,
1966.
-
T. Kroeber
and
R. F. Heizer.
Almost Ancestors.
Sierra Club,
San Francisco
1968.
As of 1968 it appeared that the bulk of the information of broad and general interest had been extracted from the Collection,
prepared for publication, and printed. At the same time, there still remain large bodies of data of great interest and value
which have not been published. A thorough assessment of the kinds and quantity of information in the Collection seemed desirable
at this point, and Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution agreed and made funds available from the
E. H. Harriman Fund for preparation of the present catalogue. The present catalogue, prepared during the summer of 1969 with
the assistance of Miss Karen Nissen, Mr. Dennis Bailey and Mr. Marke Estis, is not intended to provide a detailed listing
of the contents of the Merriam Collection, but rather a general guide to the kinds and amount of information in the file.
The Collection is now kept in a storage room in the basement of the Hearst Gymnasium in eight four-drawer filing cases. Inquiries
concerning the Merriam Collection should be addressed to the author of this catalogue, Department of Anthropology, University
of California, Berkeley, CA., 94720. None of the Merriam Collection materials will be duplicated by xerox or microfilm for
reference by persons wishing to consult specific lots of data, but access to the Collection will be provided to qualified
students by prior arrangement. Certain conditions (not specified here) attach to the publication of materials in the Merriam
Collection.
Rationale of the Catalogue System
In 1966 there was published
Heizer, Robert F.
Languages, Territories and Names of California Indians.
University of California Press,
1966
(vii, 1-62, 5 maps).
a list and map of California tribal groups organized by linguistic stock as identified by Dr. Merriam. This classification
has been used as the basis for the present catalogue, and the list is reproduced below for easy reference. Each linguistic
stock has been assigned a letter of the alphabet in the order in which it appears in the list; thus, A is for Athabascan,
B is for Polikla (Yurok), C is for Soolahteluk (Wiyot) and so on. Tribal groups are numbered in the appended list which is
both a classification and a map key. The various categories of data in the Collection have been assigned a code reference
as follows:
- N:
- lists of names of bands, tribes or villages.
- G:
- ethnogeography (information referring mainly to tribal boundaries)
- E:
- ethnographic information (this does not include data already published and listed on pp. 1-2 above).
- V:
- vocabularies (field recordings of Indian words written by Merriam in printed schedules).
- BL:
- brief linguistic recordings (a not very extensive file of miscellaneous data, mainly recorded by Merriam).
- NH:
- natural history word lists (field recordings of Indian words for plants and animals written by hand in printed schedules.
Perhaps the most important single lot of unpublished Merriam data).
- D:
- dictionaries (Indian-English or English-Indian).
- CL:
- comparative word lists (usually of languages within single stocks. These are taken from the V file and therefore represent
Merriam's preliminary efforts at analyzing language and dialect variation within stocks).
The catalogue numbers take the following form:
- Example 1.
- A/1a/G2 (to be read: Athabascan stock/Tolowa tribe/Ethnogeogeography manuscript or notes No. 2).
- Example 2.
- U/20m/V84 (to be read: Midoo stock/Nisenan tribe/Vocabulary No. 84).
Some of the Collection has not been catalogued in detail but has simply been segregated and placed as individual lots in single
filing drawers. These uncatalogued materials are in part of secondary interest and importance relative to information secured
by Merriam himself from living Indian informants or are special in some respect. These lots of material are:
Nos. 1-4 have been revised and listed in greater detail in the revision. Nos. 5-11 are described in the Addendum, except no.
7 (maps) which were removed and cataloged separately. Newspaper clippings (no. 2) were discarded after microfilming.
- Copies of historical documents (for further information see p. 84 of this catalogue).
- Newspaper clippings (for topics see p. 85-86 of this catalogue).
- Data on Indian welfare, abuses against Indians, Federal policies, legislation in behalf of Indians, Senate Hearings, etc.
(for further information see pp.87-90 of this catalogue).
- Miscellaneous data, nearly all of it secondary, arranged by topic (for listing see pp. 91-97 of this catalogue).
- Typescript manuscripts of Merriam's publications. Includes items published by Merriam while he was alive and works published
posthumously (for which see pp. 1-2 of this catalogue).
- Filing case of 4" X 6" cards. Fourteen trays filed alphabetically of Indian village and tribal names. Mainly concerns California,
but includes other areas of the far West (e.g. Nevada, Arizona, Baja, California). Contains about 16,000 cards.
- Large lot of maps showing tribal and village locations prepared by Merriam. Includes the 1:1,000,000 base maps of California
tribes from which the Merriam map was published in Heizer (1966) and accompanying "Boundary Description of California Indian
Stocks and Tribes" by Zenaida Merriam Talbot (typewritten ms, 42 pp.) which has not been published. This miscellaneous file
comprises a number of regional California maps and topographic sheets showing boundaries of one or more tribes; 60 U.S.G.S.
topographic maps showing location of Indian villages in the Sacramento Valley.
- File of about 150 4" X 6" cards "indexed by stock and tribe, of the Indian vocabularies obtained by C. Hart Merriam. Each
card contains dates, stock and tribe name, names of informants, when known, and the number of copies of both vocabularies
and field lists per tribe."
- A "manuscript" (actually handwritten notes) on several hundred 3" X5" cards on California Indians. Accompanied by a typewritten
"subject index". It appears that this was intended upon completion to be a general work on California Indians.
- Partial manuscript with large number of illustrations on "Acorn Food."
- Several versions of a manuscript "A Monache-Yokut Puzzle -A Noteworthy Case of Word Borrowing". Includes working notes, comparative
word lists, lists of names of mammals. In effect this is an ethnozoological paper.
C. Hart Merriam's Classification of California Indian Tribes
List taken from
Robert F. Heizer,
Languages, Territories and Names of California Indians.
University of California Press,
1966,
(pp. 37-47).