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Smiley family papers

 Collection
Identifier: HC.MC-1113

Scope and Contents note

This collection is arranged under three headings: Lake Mohonk Conferences, Papers of Daniel Smiley, and Miscellaneous. Under each of these headings, the arrangement is chronological, by year, and alphabetical under each year. The table of contents of the Lake Mohonk Conferences has been made more than usually detailed, in an effort to help the researcher screen the material. In general, where anything of importance is said on a special topic, a parenthetical note is given. If an entry has no note, or is simply marked. [To and from], this indicates that the writer was probably invited to attend and perhaps represents a certain category of people (as, for instance, the Government superintendents of Native American reservations, many of whom were invited each year, but comparatively few of whom were able to attend.)

Papers consist of correspondence, printed documents, clippings, maps, and photographs and include the archives of the Lake Mohonk Indian Conferences for the "uplifting" of Native American, African-American, Hawaiian, Filipino, and Puerto Rican peoples, sponsored by Albert Keith Smiley and Daniel Smiley from 1883 to 1929. In 1983, the centennial of the first Indian Conference was celebrated at Lake Mohonk and memorabilia from that event is included in the collection; also, private archives of Daniel Smiley, as a member of the U.S. Board of Indian Commissioners, 1912-1930; also, a small group of miscellaneous family items. In addition to extensive material in both sets of archives on Indians all over the United States, Daniel Smiley's papers contain a special file (ca. 142 items) on indigenous nations in New York State. Correspondents include representative Native Americans, Filipinos, Hawaiians, and Puerto Ricans and leading American clergymen, missionaries, ethnologists, educators, editors, doctors, military men, and Government officials of the period. A few of the outstanding ones are the following:

Native Americans: Reverend Henry Roe Cloud (Ho-Chunk), Dr. Charles Eastman (also known as Ohiyesa; Santee Sioux), Dr. Carlos Montezuma (also known as Wassaja; Yavapai-Apache), Francis La Flesche (Omaha): Filipinos: Manuel Quezon, Benito Legarda; Hawaiians: Prince Jonah Kalanianaole, Gov. Sanford B. Dole: Puerto Ricans: Martin Travieso, Tulio Larrinaga; American clergymen: Dr. Samuel A. Eliot, Rev. S. Parkes Cadman; American missionaries: Reverend Walter C. Roe and Mrs. Mary W. Roe, Rt. Rev. Charles Henry Brent; Ethnologists: James M. Mooney, Alice C. Fletcher, of the Smithsonian Institution; Educators: Dr. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, Dr. Charles W. Eliot: Editors: Reverend Lyman Abbott, Hamilton Wright Mabie: Doctors: Bailey K. Ashford, Victor G. Heiser, Luther H. Gulick: Military: Gens. Hugh Lenox Scott, Arthur MacArthur, George W. Davis, John J. Pershing: Admiral George Dewey: Government Officials: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft. Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alfred E. Smith.

Dates

  • Creation: 1885-1983
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1885 - 1930

Creator

Conditions Governing Access note

This collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use note

Copyright restrictions may apply. Please contact the Archives with requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote or reproduce the material.

Biographical/Historical note

Albert Keith Smiley (1828-1912) was born in Vassalboro, Maine, the son of Quakers Daniel Smiley and Phebe Howland Smiley. He graduated from Haverford College in 1848 and was an instructor at the college for 5 years. In 1857, Smiley married Eliza Cornell. From 1853 to 1860 he served as the principal at Oak Grove Seminary [Vassalboro, Maine]; from 1860-1879, he was teacher, later principal at Friends School in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1879, Smiley was appointed to the Board of Indian Commissioners by President Hayes. Smiley was one of the organizers of a series of conferences at Lake Mohonk in New York to discuss Native Americans, African Americans, and peace issues which were held from 1885 to 1930.

Biographical information from the Dictionary of Quaker Biography, biographical sketches in typescript, Special Collections, Haverford College Library.

Extent

55 Linear Feet (106 boxes, 7 packages)

Language

English

Abstract

In 1883, Quakers Albert Keith Smiley and his brother Daniel Smiley organized the first annual conference to discuss assistance to Native Americans at their estate at Lake Mohonk in New York state. These conferences were widely attended by specialists in various fields, as well as important officials. Only later were Native Americans represented. The concern to "uplift" was also directed at Filipino, Hawaiian, African American and Puerto Rican peoples, though attention at the conferences was primarily focused on Native Americans.

Separated Materials note

Albert K. Smiley's Haverford College senior thesis written in 1906 entitled "The Value of Color in Animals" is available in the Haverford College archives.

Processing Information note

The creation of the electronic guide for this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources’ “Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives” Project.

Finding aid entered into the Archivists' Toolkit by Garrett Boos.

Title
Smiley Family papers, 1885-1983
Author
Haverford College Special Collections
Date
2010.10.13
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English
Sponsor
The creation of the electronic guide for this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources’ “Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives” Project. Finding aid entered into the Archivists' Toolkit by Garrett Boos.

Find It at the Library

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