James Constantine Pilling letters

Collection

Identifier: VAULT-Ayer-MS-727

Staff Only

Scope and Content of the Collection

Mainly James Constantine Pilling’s incoming correspondence, 1881-1894, with U.S. and Canadian missionaries, church officials, ethnologists, historians, and others regarding Indian languages, publications in Indian languages, and missionaries to the Indians.

Correspondents include John Campbell, Joseph Mary Cataldo, Charles Ami Cutter, James Owen Dorsey, Paul Durieu, Matilda Ridout Edgar, William Davis Ely, Andre´ Marie Garin, Alfred Campbell Garrioch, Emile Grouard, Charles Harrison, John Horden, Samuel Pearce Merrill, Anthony Morvillo, Alfred Longley Riggs, Ann Eliza Worcester Robertson, John Wentworth Sanborn, Samuel Miller Sener, John Dawson Gilmary Shea, James Gilchrist Swan, Alexandre Antonin Taché, and Eugene Vetromile.

Dates

1881-1894

Creator

Pilling, James Constantine, 1846-1895 (Person)

Language

Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The James Constantine Pilling letters are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

Ownership and Literary Rights

The James Constantine Pilling letters are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections at reference@newberry.org.

Biography of James Constantine Pilling

Ethnologist, linguist, and bibliographer.

From his participation in J.W. Powell’s 1875 Rocky Mountain survey team until 1880, Pilling remained almost continuously in the West, tabulating vocabularies of the Indian tribes. In 1885, the Smithsonian issued his "Proof-sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians," which Pilling considered a preliminary and incomplete work. From 1887 until his death in 1895 Pilling produced a series of bibliographies on the Eskimo, Siouan, Iroquoian, Muskhogean, Algonquian, Chinookan, Salishan, and Wakashan languages.

Extent

0.2 Linear Feet (1 box)

Additional Description

Abstract

Ethnologist, linguist, and bibliographer James Constantine Pilling's incoming correspondence, 1881-1894, with U.S. and Canadian missionaries, church officials, ethnologists, historians, and others regarding Indian languages, publications in Indian languages, and missionaries to the Indians. 56 items total.