Call Number:

C1436

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 40 boxes
• 23.4 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Marc and Marnie Gaede Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1971-1999 (bulk) and 1910-1999 (inclusive)

Creator:

Gaede, Marc and Sundance, Robert, 1927-1993

Form:

Audiocassettes -- 20th century., Correspondence -- 20th century, Born digital., Drafts (documents) -- 20th century., Legal correspondence, American -- 20th century., and photographs -- 20th century

Abstract:

Marc Gaede (1946- ) is an American photographer, environmental activist, and teacher based in California. The collection consists of Gaede's black-and-white photographs of the American West and Southwest, correspondence, contracts, and other working files primarily related to his books on photography, archaeology, and conservation, and a large group of working files, which include audiovisual and digital materials, for a biography project Gaede collaborated on with Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux activist Robert Sundance (1927-1993).

Marc Gaede (1946- ) is an American photographer, environmental activist, and teacher. Born in Tuscon, Arizona, Gaede grew up in Flagstaff, where he immersed himself in the study of field geology, archaeology, and physical anthropology. After returning in 1968 from military service as a U.S. Marine Corps photographer, Gaede became involved in environmental activism. In 1970, he co-founded the early direct action environmental group Black Mesa Defense Fund. In collaboration with members of the American Indian Movement and Edward Abbey (1927-1989), the group organized a direct action campaign against strip mining on shared Navajo and Hopi land on Black Mesa in April 1971. The group's actions inspired Abbey's 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, along with the next generation of radical environmental advocacy groups, such as Earth First!, who practiced a form of ecological sabotage against environmentally damaging companies and individuals that came to be known as "monkeywrenching." Gaede received his Bachelor of Science degree in anthropology from Northern Arizona University in 1972, and he worked at the at the Museum of Northern Arizona from 1968 to 1977, first as a staff photographer and later as curator of photography. For five months in 1977, he worked for photographer Ansel Adams as a temporary darkroom assistant in Adams's darkroom and studio in Carmel, California. Later he was the Photographer-in-Residence at the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography in 1978-1979.

In 1973, Marc Gaede married Marnie Walker Gaede, a writer, editor, publisher, and environmentalist who collaborated with him to edit and publish photography books centering on indigenous cultures and landscapes of the American West and Southwest, many under their own publishing imprint Chaco Press. The Gaedes moved to the Los Angeles area in 1982, where they worked in the television and film industry, including as script analysts for the Walt Disney Company. Gaede received a Master of Fine Arts in photography from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1988, where he has since worked as an instructor in subjects including photography, environmental issues, and physical anthropology. Since 1989, the Gaedes have also been actively involved with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Marc Gaede joined Sea Shepherd on a 1989 dolphin campaign in Costa Rica as a photographer for Outside magazine and has since photographed numerous high seas campaigns. From 1990 to 1993, the Gaedes worked closely with Robert Sundance, a Lakota Sioux activist from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, to collaboratively write Sundance's biography.

The collection consists of black-and-white photographic prints, working files, and correspondence of Marc Gaede, including materials created in collaboration with Marnie Walker Gaede and Robert Sundance, largely related to book projects between the mid 1970s and the late 1990s. Photographic materials include over 250 mounted prints of landscapes and portraits that appeared in photography books published under the Gaedes' Chaco Press, which include Images from the Southwest (1986), Bordertowns (1988), and Images from the Great West (1990), as well as several portraits of friends and family and other images. Working files exist for the same books as well as for Camera, Spade and Pen (1980), The Hopi Photographs (1988), and other published works on archaeology and conservation. These files are comprised of correspondence, publishing contracts and agreements, drafts, image lists, publicity materials, legal and financial documents, sound recordings, and other related materials.

A large portion of the collection consists of working files for Sundance: The Robert Sundance Story (1994), a biography of Lakota Sioux activist Robert Sundance written collaboratively by Sundance and Marc Gaede and edited by Marnie Gaede. The book tells the story of Sundance's struggle with and recovery from alcoholism, his famous court battle against the city and county of Los Angeles to improve the treatment of alcoholics on Skid Row, and his later work as an American Indian rights activist. Working files for this project include sound recordings and transcriptions of Sundance's oral narration, drafts of chapters and the full book in both paper and digital form, as well as publishing correspondence, agreements, and related documents. Also present are extensive research, legal, and publicity files Sundance kept regarding his legal case and other cases involving tribal sovereignty and American Indian rights, as well as personal writings, family documents, photographs, and correspondence of Sundance provided to Gaede as source material.

A small amount of additional correspondence pertains to publishing, as well as to courses Gaede taught on environmentalism, participation in the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and other professional activities.

Organized into the following four primary file groups: Photographic Prints; Photography, Archaeology, and Conservation Working Files; Robert Sundance Working Files; and General Correspondence.