Call Number:

0047

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives

Extent:

1.0 linear foot

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Item name]. Box [Box number]. Louis Shotridge collection. Penn Museum Archives. Accessed [Date accessed].

Date:

1905-1937 (inclusive)

Creator:

Shotridge, Louis

Form:

Correspondence, Manuscripts for publication, Maps, Negatives (photographic), Photographic prints, and Photographs

Abstract:

The papers of Louis Shotridge are one of the most extensive groups in the Arctic research collections of the University of Pennsylvania Museum Archives. Shotridge, a Tlingit Indian, was intermittently employed by the museum to make ethnographic collections of Northwest Coast materials between 1903 and 1912. The archives has papers concerning his original research, arranged topically, manuscripts for articles published in The Museum Journal, oral histories, Tlingit language notes, and general ethnographic notes on the Tlingit and other Northwest Coast groups.

Louis Situwuka Shotridge, a Tlingit indian of noble birth, was born in Klukwan, near Haines, Alaska in 1882. He is known for being an American art collector and ethnological assistant, an expert on the traditions of his people, the Tlingit nation of southeastern Alaska. His Tlingit name was Stoowukháa, which means "Astute One."

Louis atended the Mission School in Haines where he met is future wife, Florence Dennis. Florence was an accomplished weaver of baskets and displayed her technique at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon in 1905. Louis accompanied his wife to sell artifacts from Klukwan. He sold forty-nine items to George Byron Gordon of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and was hired by Gordon to collect more objects for the museum.

In 1912, Shotridge visited Philadelphia and met Frank Speck who introduced Shotridge to Canadian anthropologist Edward Sapir. Soon, Shotridge was providing essays, information and objects to Sapir also. A meeting with Franz Boas in 1914 in New York resulted in Shotridge's providing him with recordings of the Tlingit language and musicology. This led to Shotridge holding weekly round-table discussions with Boas and other anthropologists at Columbia University.

Shotridge was employed by the Penn Museum for seventeen years as an assistant curator. He was dismissed in 1932 at the height of the Museum's financial crisis.

Louis Shotridge participated in four expeditions, being co-director of the first with his wife, Florence: John Wanamaker Expedition I 1915-1919 John wanamaker Expedition II 1922-1927 Expedition August 1928-May 1929 Expedition 1930-1932

While each expedition included the collection of artifacts the first wanamaker expedition included trips to Northern Chilkoot and Chilkot regions to record Tlingit songs. during the second Wanamaker trip, Shotridge travelled to photograph abandoned and living Tlingit communities. During the third season Louis was an active member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and helped organize the Grand Camp in Sitka in 1929. The trip was shortened due to the death of his wife and financial concerns at the musuem. He purchased only two objects on this trip, a Kaagwaantaan shark helmet and a wooden tray. Louis returned to install the Museum’s new American Wing in May of 1929. The fourth expedition was shortened due to the Depression and the termination of most museum employees including Shotridge.

Following his return to Sitka Shotridge made his living from fishing, doing odd jobs and selling the occasional artifact. In 1935, he took a job as a government stream guard. His responsibility was to prevent fishing in closed areas, and it was an unpopular duty among Native fishermen.

In 1937, Shotridge was found on the ground near his cabinet in Redoubt Bay, about 16 miles south of Sitka. He had a broken neck and had apparently lain there for several days before a local schoolteacher found him. He was taken to a hospital in Sitka where he died 10 days later. The coroner's jury concluded that Shotridge had fallen from the roof and ruled it an accident. while this is a generally accepted fact, there were rumors that his death was not accidental in the community

The papers of Louis Shotridge are one of the most extensive groups in the Arctic research collections of the University of Pennsylvania Museum Archives. The Archives has papers concerning his original research, arranged topically, manuscripts for articles published in The Museum Journal, oral histories, Tlingit language notes, and general ethnographic notes on the Tlingit and other Northwest Coast groups. Several items in this section are of special interest. A 1919 published map is annotated with Shotridge’s itinerary during one of his travels seeking collections and information. Also a folder of original drawings, attributed to Shotridge, that illustrate house plans and artistic motifs. Finally, an indexed ethnographic card file fills one box. This file contains information on many aspects of native life in southeast Alaska, much of it unpublished. Certain titled sections of the file have no cards; otherwise, the file appears to be relatively complete, with only a few cards obviously missing. The only other noticeable gaps in the research material are a few incomplete article manuscripts.