J.W. Thompson photograph collection

Collection

Identifier: 1000-042

Scope and Contents

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The collection includes photographs of Native Americans throughout Washington State and Oregon with many taken on local reservations. They feature images of the Chehalis, Chinook, Colville, Kalispel, Lummi, Makah, Nez Perce, Quileute, Quinault, Swinomish, Tulalip Indians, Umatilla and Yakama tribes. One photo of the Duwamish Tribe is also included. The photographs depict scenes of daily life, festivals and rodeos, arts and crafts traditions including basket weaving and totem pole carving, and fishing scenes at Celilo Falls just prior to the construction of the Dalles Dam in 1957.

Thompson maintained notes for each image identifying the scene and people depicted within it which he used to create an index of the full set of photographs he sold. The collection inventory found later in the finding aid includes a direct transcription of each photograph’s description as included in Thompson’s index. Thompson’s full set of photographs included 382 images of Native Americans. The Seattle Public Library purchased 268 of these so there are some gaps within the collection. The index that accompanies the collection (included in Box 1) includes descriptions of all photos in Thompson’s original set, including the photos not purchased by the Library. The prints included in the library’s collection are: 1-111, 113-114, 116-123, 125-126, 129-133, 135-137, 142-143, 145, 147-148, 150-151, 153-165, 167-168, 170, 173-174, 176, 178-181, 183, 185, 187, 192, 195-196, 198, 201-203, 205, 207-209, 214-217, 221, 223-229, 232-233, 237-239, 247, 250-252, 257, 266, 271-275, 287, 292, 294, 299, 303, 305-310, 313-316, 318, 321-330, 332-337, 339-349, 351, 353-357, 359-364, 367, 369, 371, 374-376, 378, 380.

These images include the following individuals who are listed alphabetically:
Arcasa, Louise
Balch, Mrs.
Barber, Mrs.
Barker, Nora
Beaver, Harry
Bill, Bernice
Bill, Phillip
Billy, Agnes
Billy, Louise
Billy, Oscar
Billy, Oscar, Mrs.
Bruce, Al
Bob, Tommy
Burke, Clarence
Burke, Florine
Burke, William, Mrs.
Catli, Donald, Mrs.
Catli, Marcelina
Charles, Al
Charles, Mary
Colwash, Lavina
Cornoyer, Josephine
Covington, John
Charles, Thomas
Charley, Job
Cox, Etta
Cox, Inez
Cox, Wilhelm
Crow, Louis
Daniels, Paulette
Dick, Ned, Mrs.
Dick, Sally
Dick, Wanda
Dover, Harriet Shelton
George, Aluina
George, Ann
George, Elsie
George, Elvina
George, Harry
George, Isabel
George, Jack
George, Juanita
George, Kelly
George, Richard
Gibson, George
Green, Mary
Harknet, John
Harrison, Dolores
Harry, Annie May
Harry, Rosalie
Heck, Rena
Heck, Tommy
Hillaire, Joseph (Joe)
Hillaire, Lena
Hillaire, Lewis
Hunter, Carol
Ideas, Celia
Howiattle, Mattie
Jimmicum, Emma
Joe, Joseph
Johnson, Annie
Johnson, Tom
Jones, William, Mrs.
Jim, Maggie
Kamiakin, Cleveland
Kamiakin, Harry
Kowoosh, Peter
La Chester, Ralph
Looney, Eagle
Looney, Eva
Looney, Jim
Markishtum family
Martin, Paul
McKay, Diana
Meninick, Calvin
Meninick, Johnson
Meninick, Vivian
Miller, Helen
Millholland, Rita
Minthorn, Sylvester, Mrs.
Mitchel, Alice Marie
Mitchell, Romagene
Moore, Clara
Moses, Harvey
Musmusto, Yvonne
Nanamkin, George
Nenema, Christine
Nenema, Darlene
Nenema, Mary
Nenema, Susan
Onepennee, Ellen
Onepennee, Flora
Onepennee, Gilbert
Onepennee, Joan
Onepennee, Nellie
Onepennee, Nelson
Owhi, Harry
Parr, Melissa
Penn, Agnes
Penn, Steve
Penn, William
Phillips, Pauline
Phillips, Rosalie
Pickernell, Bessie
Pistilhead, Elsie
Quaempts, Loretta
Saluskin, Alex
Sampson, Donnie
Sampson, Jerry
Sampson, Linnea
Sanchez, Annette
Sanchez, Charles
Scott, Doris
Scott, Yvonne
Scneke, Marilyn
Seelatsee, Eagle
Shelton, John, Mrs.
Sivonen, Bobby
Sivonen, Nick, Mrs.
Sloway, Ida
Smartlowet, Issac
Smith, Eileen
Sohappy, George
Solomon, Mrs.
Speedis, Charley
Spencer, Rosa
Stevens, Frank
Stevens, Pat
Strom, Larry
Strom, Leon
Strom, Lillian
Strom, Sheila
Strom, Ted
Strom, Ted, Jr.
Sulatsee, Alex
Sulatsee, Mary Ann
Swan, Charley
Swan, Ruth
Telekist, Charles
Thomas, Sean
Thompson, Cynthia
Thompson, Flora
Thompson, Tommy
Totus, Anita
Totus, Celia
Totus, Watson
Underwood, Bob
Underwood, Dave
Underwood, Hazel
Wachawitt, Lee
Wahsise, Pauline
Watlamet, Antoine
Waters, Mrs.
Waters, Willie
Weaseltaile, Jim
Weaseltaile, Louise
Wesley, Arlene
Wesley, Jeanette
Wesley, Jennie
Wesley, Mrs.
Wesley, Ray
Wilbur, Tandy
Williams, Albert
Williams, Elija
Williams, Mary
Williams, Taft
Woodruff, Sharon
Wynookie, Wysookie
Yellow Wolf, Minnie

Dates

Creation: circa 1953-1955

Creator

Thompson, J. W. (John W.), 1890-1978 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open and available for use.

Conditions Governing Use

The Seattle Public Library does not have conclusive information pertaining to the copyright status of this collection as of May 2022 but has reasonable cause to believe that the collection is not covered by copyright or related rights. Items published between 1926 and 1963 would need to be published with proper copyright notice and have their copyright renewed to still be in copyright today. Special Collections staff found no record of renewal in the US Copyright Office’s registration and renewal records but other restrictions may apply. Users should conduct their own research before using this collection for any purposes not permitted under the Fair Use exception of the United States copyright law. Please contact the Seattle Public Library Special Collections Department at ask@spl.org for questions regarding use.

Biographical / Historical

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John W. Thompson (1890-1978) was born on June 26, 1890 in Dexter, Missouri. As a teenager, he moved to Oregon and married Mabel S. Anderson in Portland in 1910. The 1920 census shows the couple living in Clatskanie, Oregon with their four children. John and Mabel divorced circa 1923 and John married Mabel’s sister, Emily, circa 1925. They had one child together.

The family moved to Seattle circa 1929. Thompson worked in the Seattle Public School system for decades teaching botany and zoology at Ballard, Cleveland, Franklin and Lincoln High Schools. During these years, he was also an active field botanist, with samples he collected still housed at the Smithsonian and Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History.

During the early 1950s, Thompson traveled throughout Washington taking photos that he turned into educational slide and print sets which he sold to schools, libraries and museums. A portion of these photos focused specifically on Pacific Northwest Native American tribes, showing scenes from daily life and festive celebrations. This project was initiated by a trip to Toppenish where Thompson was visiting his sister and discovered that tribal leaders had gathered nearby to commemorate the Treaty of 1855 which led to the creation of the Yakima Reservation. Thompson spoke with the leaders and they allowed him to document the gathering.

By 1955, Thompson was a faculty member with the University of Washington Botany Department and by 1957 was an assistant curator at the University of Washington Herbarium.

Thompson died in Renton, Washington in 1978.

Full Extent

2.42 Linear Feet (6 boxes) : 268 photographs

Language of Materials

English

Metadata Rights Declarations

License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Additional Description

Abstract

Photographs of Native Americans taken during Thompson’s travels through Washington State and Oregon during the early 1950s.

Arrangement

Photographs are arranged in their original order.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Seattle Public Library purchased this set of photographs from J.W. Thompson in the 1950s.

Related Materials

In 1997, John W. Thompson's daughter, Lucile Munz, donated a collection Thompson’s slides to the Maryhill Museum of Art. In 2004, Maryhill transferred the slides relating to tribes west of the Cascades to the Museum of History and Industry and retained the images for tribes on the eastern side of the state. The University of Washington also holds a collection of 1,700 slides, originally held in the school’s Botany Department and now housed in Special Collections.

Processing Information

Acknowledgement of Harmful Content
The Seattle Public Library Special Collections Department is committed to creating an inclusive archive that documents the history of our diverse communities in a respectful manner. Our collections include historic materials that may contain images and outdated language which can be harmful due to issues such as racism, colonialism, sexism and homophobia. This content can provide important insight into the creator and context of the historic materials but can also reveal hurtful biases and prejudices.

We may decide to use or retain harmful language in our description when the terms have been used by the creator(s) of the materials to describe themselves or their community; when we have reused description created by the donor; when we have transcribed information directly from the materials; and when using national standards such as Library of Congress Subject Headings, which allow for standardized searching and retrieval of records. When including language from the original material in our finding aids or descriptions, we will indicate that this material comes directly from the original item by putting the language in quotes or prefacing it with a note that says the description is transcribed from the item or provided by the creator.

We will continually review our finding aids to identify harmful language and encourage you to contact us at specialcollections@spl.org if you find language that causes concern.