American Council of Learned Societies. Committee on Native American Languages., American Philosophical Society

The Collection of the American Council of Learned Socities Committee of Native American Languages is one of the largest and most significant primary resources for study of the indigenous languages of North America. Beginning with the creation of the Committee in 1927, and periodically added to since by the APS, the collection has grown to over 80 linear feet of material representing at least 166 languages and dialects from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The formats range from field notes and ethnographic texts to slip files, vocabularies, lexica, and grammars, and dozens of linguists and Native consultants are represented. Although most of the material was collected in the 1920s and 1930s, a signficant number of items have been added that extends the range of dates represented both backward and forward.

Background note

Formed in 1927 under the initiative of Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, and other academic linguists, the Committee on Native American Languages of the American Council of Learned Societies was charged with documenting the endangered languages of indigenous Americans. Wielding grants to encourage research, the Committee was chaired by Boas and staffed by Manuel J. Andrade, Jaime de Angulo, Roland B. Dixon, Pliny E. Goddard, Bernard Haile, John P. Harrington, Harry Hoijer, Melville Jacobs, Diamond Jenness, Alfred V. Kidder, Alfred L. Kroeber, Truman Michelson, Frans M. Olbrechts, Gladys A. Reichard, Frank G. Speck, Edgar H. Sturtevant, Morris Swadesh, and John R. Swanton, among others.

Scope and content

During the 1940s, the ACLS collection was arranged by language (and language family) by C. F. Voegelin and Zellig S. Harris, who also listed a significant quantity of miscellaneous non-linguistic material. Their index was published in a supplement to Language 21, 3 (1945). Among the non-linguistic material not indexed by Voegelin and Harris are data on folklore, mythology, and general ethnology, with some emphasis on African Americans, Africans, and the work of Boas's colleagues in Russia.

Since its arrival in Philadelphia, the APS has periodically added additional material to the collection. Among the more notable additions are some highly important field notes and other material donated by Alfred Kroeber in 1946 relating to early research (1902-1910) on California Athabascan languages (Chilula, Hupa, Kato, Mattole, Nongatl, Pomo, Sinkyoke, Tolowa, Wailaki, and Whilkut), and a suite of manuscripts by Edward Sapir presented by his family and colleagues in 1972. A number of individual linguists have also contributed individually to the collection, including Edward Ahenakew, Morris Swadesh, Kenneth Croft, Norman A. McQuown, Gordon Marsh, and C. F. Voegelin.

This finding aid is intended to parallel the APS On-line Guide to Material Relating to American Indians, with most entries culled verbatim. The materials in this finding aid are arranged according to language, dialect, cultural group, or region, and then by call number. When applicable, references to microfilm versions are included at the end of the entry.

Administrative information

Restrictions

None.

Provenance

Gift of American Council of Learned Societies, 1945.

Preferred citation

Cite as: American Council of Learned Societies Committee on Native American Languages, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Recatalogued by rsc, 2002.

Other finding aids

Most of the materials in the ACLS collection, along with other materials on Native American languages, are indexed in On-line Guide to Material Relating to American Indians.

Additional information

Separated material

American Council of Learned Societies. Correspondence, 1926-1927. (506.73 Am72co)

This small but important collection of correspondence relates to the formation of the Committee on Research in the Native American Languages, its grants, and its publications. Correspondents include: Edward C. Armstrong, Leonard Bloomfield, Franz Boas, R. W. Bryan, James McKeen Cattell, Pliny Earle Goddard, Charles H. Haskins, J. W. Hewitt, Melville Jacobs, Roland G. Keat, Alfred L. Kroeber, Waldo G. Leland, Robert M. Lester, Fang-Kuei Li, Adrien G. Morice, William A. Oldfather, Gladys A. Reichard, Edward Sapir, E. H. Sturtevant, John R. Swanton, Walter F. Willcox. The collection is not calendared.

Related material

The APS contains dozens of collections with material on Native American Languages, the majority of which are indexed in the On-line Guide to Material Relating to American Indians.