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Navajo Mission Collection
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
In 1891 the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church sent to the Navajo reservation (in northern Arizona / New Mexico border area) two women — Mrs. Mary L. Eldridge and Miss M. E. Raymond — to start a mission on the north side, near the San Juan River, the most fertile and best watered portion of the entire Navajo lands. The mission site is located fifty miles south of Durango, Colo., and not far from Jewett, New Mexico, the former post office address. For several years these women had been successful employees, one as matron and the other as teacher, in government Indian schools in Kansas and Dakota. The mission became the Navajo Methodist Mission School of Farmington, New Mexico.
The collection consists of miscellaneous manuscripts and 143 photographs documenting the Navajo mission in San Juan County, New Mexico, that was started by Mrs. Eldridge and Miss Raymond.
75 of the photographs are in a disbound scrapbook with 16 leaves of black-and-white gelatin silver snapshots (ranging from 8x8 cm. to 11x8 cm.), many of which have hand-written captions. Subjects include 34 images of mission life and environment (including many pictures of schoolchildren), 26 images of the native Navajo lifestyles on the reservation (including dwellings and farming), and 15 snapshots of the local environs (including the town of Farmington and the mission at Two Gray Hills).
68 additional photographs are loose and sleeved individually, consisting of cyanotype and gelatin silver snapshots. Many images have hand-written captions on the verso. Subjects are similar, with 47 prints of mission life and environment, 12 prints of the native Navajo lifestyles on the reservation, and 9 images of the local environs (including adobe formations).
Purchased from Margolis and Moss in 1998 (WA1998-422).
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
Folder inventory added by Regine Heberlein in 2011.
No appraisal information is available.
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Date
- 2008
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
Collection Inventory
Talk probably given before a church group, starting from founding of the mission in 1891 by Mrs. Eldridge and Miss Raymond, anonymous AMs, undated, 26 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
Talk probably given before a congreation, anonymous AMs, undated, 16 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
ALS to Joseph J. Janney about Mrs. Eldridge's work with the Navajo, [1904?], 5 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
Disbound Scrapbook, 16 leaves of 75 captioned photographs, some dated 1902-1904, showing Navajo students, buildings, activities.
Physical Description1 folder
68 photographs, many captioned, some dated 1899-1908, showing Navajo students, staff, buildings, landscape scenes.
Physical Description1 folder