Major John Wesley Powell
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Download IIIF ManifestRequest permissionsDownload image PrintMajor John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) seated at his desk in his office in the Adams Building on F Street in Washington, D.C. Following the Civil War, there were four national survey leaders. One was geologist and western explorer Powell, who led expeditions and conducted surveys of the American West. In 1869 he set out by boat to explore the Colorado River from the Green River, Wyoming Territory, to the foot of the Grand Canyon. When Congress created the Bureau of Ethnology in 1879, Powell was named its first director (1879-1902), a post he held until his death. Placed under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, the bureau, whose name was changed to the Bureau of American Ethnology, was to be the repository of the "archives, records, and material relating to the Indians of North America, collected by the geographical and geological survey of the Rocky Mountains".
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Back of photo lists negative number as: BAE Portraits 64-A-13
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7005, Box 187, Folder: 1; Record Unit 95, Box 18, Folder: 57
Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu
c. 1890s
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Photographic print
94-12600
Color: Black and White; Size: 8w x 10h; Type of Image: Portrait; Medium: Photographic print