Abstract

Field letters and notes, photo scrapbooks, publications, and artifact collections of Harlan I. Smith from the American Museum of Natural History document the earliest archaeological expeditions to British Columbia. From a study of these records, the motivations, research questions, accomplishments, and relations with aboriginal peoples are revealed. Franz Boas largely dictated a biological approach to Smith's fieldwork, one that involved the collection of photographic portraitures and human skeletal remains; however Smith's published monographs from his expeditions focus on an analysis of the material culture of the Interior Salish peoples.