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Two Dodge Sisters, Ganado, Navajo Reservation, Arizona (1913)
If a photograph is worth 1,000 words, then “Images of Native Americans: The Wanamaker Collection” is priceless. Comprising over 8,000 images, the Wanamaker Collection is a photographic record of Native American life in the early 1900s. Beginning April 28, IU’s Mathers Museum of World Cultures will exhibit a selection of images from the collection.
The Wanamaker Collection is the creation of John and Rodman Wanamaker of the famed Philadelphia and New York department stores. In 1908, they enlisted photographer Joseph K. Dixon to travel across the United States to photograph Native Americans.
Through his artistry, Dixon produced a body of photographs that extolled the beauty of the people, cultures, and landscapes he encountered. After experiencing the realities of Native American life and seeing the photography it engendered, Dixon and the Wanamakers turned their energies toward the American Indian policy reform movement. Over time, their work helped many Native Americans to win the right to vote. His compelling work had become the ground for political activism.
Thanks to a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., Hoosiers across Indiana will have an opportunity to view this important exhibition in their own communities. Over the next year, 30 representative photographs from the collection will travel to towns, such as Sullivan, Hartford City, and Batesville. Free educational materials about the photographs will be provided to students who attend the exhibitions.
The traveling exhibit is part of IU’s Moveable Feast of the Arts Initiative, which brings art, music, and culture from the Bloomington campus to communities across Indiana. The Initiative, begun in 2004, was funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. Its mission: to share IU’s vast cultural resources. In the words of IU President Adam Herbert, IU has a “clear obligation and opportunity to share its resources with the state, and in so doing, build its cultural capital.”
View images from the collection
Visit the Mathers Museum website