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. Image inventory is not complete, only scanned images noted.
Other finding aids
Most of the materials in the ACLS collection, along with other materials on Native American languages, are indexed in the online Daythal Kendall Guide to Native American Collections at the American Philosophical Society.
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 online Daythal Kendall Guide to Native American Collections at the American Philosophical Society.
African American History Note
There are at least two items in this collection which may be of interest to scholars of African American history:
Hurston, Zora Neale. " The Florida Expedition (#46)." n.d. 3 pages. Brief report by a student of Franz Boas on fieldwork in Florida studying African American folklore, story-telling, religion, and common-held beliefs. Hurston notes that "the bulk of the population now spends its leisure in motion picture theatres or with the phonograph and its blues."
King, Louis E. " Negro life in a rural community (#49)." Circa 1931. 166 pages. Anthropological dissertation study of African American life in a rural community during the years 1927-1931. The work is divided into several sections: Background, Family Life, Breadwinning and Shelter, Education, Activities of the Group, Leaving Home, and Comparing Life in Different Rural Communities.