This collection is located on-site.
Thirty-three notebooks containing transcriptions of Native American texts by Pliny Earle Goddard, and some English translations. While some of the material is of a primarily linguistic nature, much is folkloric in nature. The collection contains eleven notebooks of Mescalero Apache texts; three notebooks of Pomo, Maple Creek, and Mad River tribes and four of the Coquille, Chasta Costa, and Tututni languages (Native American tribes from the Pacific Coast); five notebooks of Navajo texts; and ten notebooks of Sarsi texts. It also includes 23 pages of notes on Chasta Costa attributed to Edward Sapir.
Arranged.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located on-site.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Pliny Earle Goddard American Indian notebooks; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Additional field notebooks from Goddard are found in the Melville Jacobs papers at the University of Washington (https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv95437#dscID), specifically three Galice Athabaskan notebooks and four Lassik Athabaskan notebooks.
Additional field notebooks from Goddard are found in the American Council of Learned Societies Committee on Native American Languages at the American Philosophical Society: https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.497.3.B63c-ead.xml
Materials have been digitized. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Accession number--M-59.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Cataloged Christina Hilton Fenn 06/--/89.
Notebooks were individually housed in four-flap enclosures by conservation. The collection was rehoused into four half-manuscript boxes. kws 2022-08-12
Numbers and series were assigned based on information written on the notebook covers by Kevin Schlottmann in August 2022. This information may be subject to change based on future expert review of the notebooks.
2013-01-08 xml document instance created by Carrie Hintz
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Anthropologist. Goddard held several curatorial positions with the American Museum of Natural History from 1909 to 1928. In 1914 he became Curator of Ethnology and from 1915 to 1928 he was a Lecturer in Anthropology at Columbia University. A remembrance in the American Anthropologist (https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1929.31.1.02a00020, Vol. 31, No. 1, January-March 1929) includes a bibliography.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
All links open new windows.
Box 1 Item 1
Digital identifier: cul:fqz612jnwm
Box 1 Item 2
Digital identifier: cul:pc866t1hm4
Box 1 Item 3
Digital identifier: cul:xwdbrv1732
Box 1 Item 4
Digital identifier: cul:79cnp5hrwv
Box 1 Item 5
Digital identifier: cul:83bk3j9n18
Box 1 Item 6
Digital identifier: cul:4xgxd255vc
Box 1 Item 7
Digital identifier: cul:00000001mp
Box 1 Item 8
Digital identifier: cul:73n5tb2sx9
Box 1 Item 9
Digital identifier: cul:2jm63xskqc
Box 2 Item 10
Digital identifier: cul:qz612jm7rg
Box 2 Item 11
Digital identifier: cul:pk0p2nggn3
Box 2 Item 12
Digital identifier: cul:0zpc866vp2
Box 2 Item 13
Digital identifier: cul:dr7sqv9ts0
Box 2 Item 14
Based on evidence internal to the item (handwriting, attribution on cover), this notebook is most likely by Alfred L. Kroeber.
Digital identifier: cul:gxd2547fvp
Box 2 Item 15
Digital identifier: cul:wstqjq2f3v
Box 2 Item 16
Digital identifier: cul:7pvmcvdqkr
Box 2 Item 17
Digital identifier: cul:j3tx95x8jz
Box 2 Item 34
In September 2022, 23 pages of notes attributed to Edward Sapir were discovered tucked into the back of Goddard's Chasta Costa notebook. These were removed, placed in a separate folder, and assigned item number 34 in the collection
Digital identifier: cul:x95x69pbq6
Box 2 Item 18
Digital identifier: cul:9zw3r22b8r
Published in Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 34, pt. 1, pp. 1-179, 1933. Digital version of published text: https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/231. Per the introduction of the published text, "The Navajo texts were collected in 1923 and 1924 by Doctor Pliny Earle Goddard [...] Doctor Goddard had recorded the texts at the dictation of Sandoval, a Navajo, learned in his lore, but not a medicineman."
The page order for these notebooks is not always clear, as they are not paginated. If upon consulting a digital copy the page order seems unclear or incorrect, please contact rbml@columbia.edu to request a review of the physical item.
Box 2 Item 19
Digital identifier: cul:08kprr50sr
Box 3 Item 20
Digital identifier: cul:9zw3r22bcg
Box 3 Item 21
Digital identifier: cul:8kprr4xk8n
Box 3 Item 22
Digital identifier: cul:3bk3j9kgj4
Box 3 Item 23
Digital identifier: cul:s1rn8pk2zd
Published in University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 11, pp. 189-277, 1915. Digital version of published text: https://archive.org/details/universityof11univ/page/188/mode/2up. Per the introduction of the published text, "The texts here presented were collected during the summer of 1905. [...] The larger number of these texts were revised in 1911 with the aid of Charlie Crowchief, who was the interpreter used in obtaining them originally. [...] The main informant was Eagle-ribs, a man then about 65 years old. As he says in one of his narratives, he ranked as a chief according to the old order."
Box 3 Item 24
Digital identifier: cul:9w0vt4bb9g
Box 3 Item 25
Digital identifier: cul:zgmsbcc48x
Box 4 Item 26
Digital identifier: cul:9kd51c5cs4
Box 4 Item 27
Digital identifier: cul:zpc866t39f
Box 4 Item 28
Digital identifier: cul:p5hqbzkjxz
Box 4 Item 29
Digital identifier: cul:79cnp5hs5h
Box 4 Item 30
Digital identifier: cul:7h44j0zr77
Box 4 Item 31
Digital identifier: cul:8w9ghx3hct
Box 4 Item 32
Digital identifier: cul:m0cfxpnxs5
Box 4 Item 33
Digital identifier: cul:zw3r2282cg