The Photographic Record of the Jesup Expedition Era

"The Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1897-1902) was a major anthropological expedition to Siberia, Alaska, and the northwest coast of Canada." Franz Boas, "one of the pioneers of modern anthropology, was the scientific director of the expedition."

The expedition produced "valuable collections of artifacts and photographs" along with "numerous important ethnographies" published from 1905 into the 1930s. Its British Columbia fieldwork examined the Tsilhqot'in, Haida, Heiltsuk, Kwakwaka'wakw, St'at'imc (Lillooet), Nlaka'pamux (Thompson) and Syilx (Okanagan), and its publication series carried James Teit's monographs on the Thompson, the Lillooet and the Shuswap.

Photography was integral to the project: Dina Brodsky "took the majority of the expedition's 1,200 pictures," though her contributions went unpaid. The expedition also produced photographs of rock art and archaeological materials.

Teit's The Shuswap (1909), published as Volume II, Part VII of the Jesup publications and as a Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, is "the most authoritative treatise ever written about the Shuswap people": a 346-page work of 15 chapters covering "nearly all aspects of their lives, including social structure, clothing, subsistence, warfare and religion," with illustrations and photographs of the objects and designs it describes.

These photographs and plates are historical documents made under colonial-era conditions. They preserve irreplaceable detail about basketry, clothing and design, but the authority to interpret and re-present the people and belongings they show rests with Secwepemc communities.