A Guide to the Photograph of Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia, 1898-1899 Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia, Photograph of 11435

A Guide to the Photograph of Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia, 1898-1899

A Collection in
The Special Collections Department
Accession Number 11435

Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
USA
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Reference Request Form: https://small.lib.virginia.edu/reference-request/
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Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed by: Special Collections Department

Repository

Special Collections, University of Virginia Library

Accession number

11435

Title

Photograph of Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia 1898-1899

Physical Characteristics

This collection consists of one 7.5 x 9.5 inch black and white photograph.

Language

English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Pamunkey Indian Tribe Photograph, ca. 1898-1899, Accession #11435, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Library purchased this collection from Beltrone and Co. of Keswick, VA on September 23, 1998.

Scope and Content Information

This item is a 7.5 x 9.5 inch black and white photograph, ca. 1891-1893 or ca. 1898-1899, of the Pamunkey Indian tribe of Virginia at their King William County. The photographer was "Orebough/Shelbyville, Maryland." 1 Sixty-one individuals are in the photograph. At least of two of the male Pamunkeys (right to left, sixth person standing and left to right, eighth person standing) apparently appear in "Indians in dance costume on the Pamunkey Reservation, King William County, Virginia/Photograph by D. L. Gill, 1899" in Frances Mossiker, Pocahontas: The Life and Legend (New York: Knopf, 1976), page 145.

Also present in the photograph, in the right foreground and seated beside a large dog, is John Garland Pollard (1871-1937), future governor of Virginia (1930-1934). [For a comparison photograph of Pollard four years later, see accession number 7373, Virginia Constitutional Convention 1901-1902 Photograph Album, page 84, in the Special Collections Department.] Pollard, at the time a Richmond lawyer, was sent by the Smithsonian Institution during 1891-93 as its attache to study the Pamunkey Indians, prepare a census of the tribe (110 members in 1893), and collect examples of its arts and crafts. He published his findings in 1894 as The Pamunkey Indians of Virginia. 2

1 See Ruritan Club, King William County, Virginia, King William Invites You (Richmond: Dietz Printing Company, 1950), 56-58.
2 Philip Alexander Bruce, History of Virginia: Volume VI Virginia Biography (Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, 1924), 438; John Garland Pollard, The Pamunkey Indians of Virginia , Smithsonian Institution Bureau of [American] Ethnology, Bulletin No. 17 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894), 6, 7, 10, 17-18.