Chicago American Indian Photography Project Photographs, approximately 1950s-1987

Transfer from the D’Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, 2009.

The Chicago American Indian Photography Project Photographs are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

The Chicago American Indian Photography Project Photographs 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.

Chicago American Indian Photography Project Photographs, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Gordon Dearborn Wilkins, 2015; Catherine Grandgeorge, 2018.

The Chicago American Indian Photography Project aimed to document the American Indian community in Chicago by creating an archive of photographs taken by interested community members, including Dan Battise, Ben Bearskin, Orlando Cabanban, Joe Kazumura, F. Peter Weil, and Leroy Wesaw. Many of these photographs were displayed in the Hermon Dunlap Smith Gallery at the Newberry Library as part of an exhibition entitled Seeing Indian in Chicago from July 22 to September 21, 1985.

Photographs taken by Dan Battise, Ben Bearskin, Orlando Cabanban, Joe Kazumura, F. Peter Weil, and Leroy Wesaw for the Chicago American Indian Photography Project. The images document the social life and customs of the American Indian community in Chicago during the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. They depict the group life and activities of the American Indian Center (AIC) such as camera club outings, pow wows, the basketball team, and expositions. There are also shots of family members of the American Indian photographers (Battise, Bearskin, and Wesaw). Several of F. Peter Weil’s photographs document the opening of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library.

Photographs with multiple copies (originally in separate sets designated as A, R, and E) have been combined. See also the Seeing Indian in Chicago Exhibition Records (Ayer Modern MS Seeing Indian) for photographs that were displayed during the 1985 exhibition at the Newberry Library and the Orlando Cabanban Photographs (Ayer Modern MS Cabanban) for additional photographs by Cabanban.

Papers are organized in the following series:

Series 1: Dan Battise Photographs, approximately 1950s-1960s Box 1 Series 2: Ben Bearskin Photographs, approximately1960s-1970s Box 2 Series 3: Orlando Cabanban Photographs, approximately 1960s-1970s Box 3 Series 4: Joe Kazumura Photographs, approximately 1970s-1980s Box 4 Series 5: F. Peter Weil Photographs, approximately 1950s-1970s Box 5 Series 6: Leroy Wesaw Photographs, approximately 1960s-1970s Box 5

• Names
  • American Indian Center of Chicago.
  • Battise, Dan
  • Bearskin, Ben
  • Cabanban, Orlando
  • D’Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian
  • Kazumura, Joe
  • Newberry Library.
  • Weil, F. Peter, 1913-1997
  • Wesaw, Leroy
• Subject
  • Chicago
  • Exhibitions -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • Indians and the West
  • Indians of North America -- Culture
  • Indians of North America -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Photographs
  • Manuscripts, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • Photographers -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • Photographs
• Geographic CoverageChicago (Ill.) -- Social life and customs