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 backward into the 1880s and forward in the late 1950s.

Includes notes and manuscripts of Franz Boas; materials solicited by and sent to Boas from field workers and native informants; manuscripts submitted for publication in the International Journal of American Linguistics (1917-1939); manuscripts resulting from research supported by the Committee on American Native Languages of the American Council of Learned Societies (1927-1937); papers of anthropologists and linguists associated with Boas and Edward Sapir; reports and other materials resulting from Phillips Fund grants made by the APS.

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 online Daythal Kendall Guide to Native American Collections at the American Philosophical Society, 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.

Native American Images Note : Nearly 1,700 images of Northwest Coast Native Americans in linguistic notebooks collected from 1900-1940. Black and white silver gelatin photographs and sketch drawings by native consultants given to ethnologists Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, and Jaime de Angulo. Pencil sketches of clothing, utensils, musical instruments, decorative patterns, weapons, and totem figures of primarily Salish, Nootka, and Quileute tribes. Of particular interest, color pencil sketches of Bella Bella (Heiltsuk) masks. Numerous Nootka face paintings are also of note. In oversize, a linguistic map of the southern part of Hecate Strait, British Columbia, Canada. Most of the images are original with some photographs from the Anthropology Division of the Geological Survey of Canada. Note: Folders containing images are noted in the inventory.