Smillie Hired as SI Photographer

Summary

Thomas William Smillie is hired on contract as a Smithsonian Institution photographer. A photographic apartment is fitted up in 1870, under the charge of Smillie, to take photographs of specimens of archaeology and of natural history to illustrate the publications of the Institution and for distribution to other museums.

Subject

• Cohner, Samuel
• Gardner, Alexander 1821-1882
• Hayden, F. V (Ferdinand Vandeveer) 1829-1887
• Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942
• Ottinger, George M
• Savage, Charles
• Shindler, A. Zeno (Antonio Zeno) 1823-1899
• Smillie, T. W (Thomas William) 1843-1917
• Vannerson, J
• Whitney, Joel E

Category

Chronology of Smithsonian History

Notes

• A collection of photographs of American Indians taken by Samuel Chner, Alexander Gardner, Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, William Henry Jackson, George M. Ottinger, Charles Savage, Antonio Zino Shindler, Julian Vannerson, and Joel E. Whitney, to ensure preservation of their images, was published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, volume 14. After the Charles Bird King and John Mix Stanley paintings were destroyed in the Castle fire, Secretary Joseph Henry argued that photography was a safer medium for preserving these images.
• Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1873. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1874, p. 56.
• David E. Haberstich, Photographs at the Smithsonian Institution, A History. Picturescope 32 (1): 4-20 (Summer 1985), p. 5-6.

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

1869

Topic

• Photography
• Labor unions
• Ethnology
• Museums
• Labor
• Museum publications

Place

North America

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