Edition of Emmon's the Tlingit Indians

FAIN: RE-10464-77

Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2859)
Frederica De Laguna (Project Director: October 1977 to present)

Preparation for publication of George Thornton Emmons’ (1852-1945) authoritative study on the Tlingit Indians of Alaska, with the addition of more recent materials, a biography and bibliography, and maps, illustrations, and tables, of value to historians, anthropologists, the Tlingit people, and the general public.

Lieutenant George Thornton Emmons of the U.S. Navy was stationed in Alaska during the 1880s and 1890s. There, he became a friend of the Tlingit people, amassed an extensive collection of Tlingit artifacts and art, and began recording all aspects of the Tlingit culture, beliefs, and values, together with their Tlingit terms. At the urging of Franz Boas, Emmons published some materials, but the larger work remained unfinished at the time of his death. The American Museum of Natural History has asked the project director, an ethnologist and archaeologist who knows the Tlingit well, to see the work through completion. The updated study will include passages selected from the original text (drafted from 1928 to 1930); several sections on topics originally omitted by Emmons; modern transliterations of native words; photographs, drawings, and maps; and a topical index to literature on the Tlingit.

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