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The James G. Swan Collection, 1876-1900

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Swan, James G., 1818-1900
Title
The James G. Swan Collection
Dates
1876-1900 (inclusive)
Quantity
1 box, (.3 cubic feet)
Collection Number
OLPb153SWA
Summary
A selection of letters sent to James G. Swan, Indian agent and ethnologist, when he was living on the Olympic peninsula.
Repository
Lewis & Clark College, Special Collections and Archives

Aubrey R. Watzek Library
615 S. Palatine Hill Rd.
Portland, OR
97219
Telephone: 5037687758
Fax: 5037687282
archives@lclark.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection has no restrictions and is open for research.

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

The following biographical note was taken from the finding aid for the James Gilchrist Swan papers at the University of Washington, http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv77646.

James Gilchrist Swan -- anthropologist, judge, political advisor, artist, schoolteacher, and promoter of Port Townsend (to mention just a few of his occupations) -- was one of the most colorful personalities of Washington State's territorial period (1853-1889). Swan was born in Massachusetts in 1818 and married Mathilda Loning in 1841. He left his wife and two children in 1850, heading to gold rush San Francisco. In 1852 Swan departed for Shoalwater Bay (now called Grays Harbor). He learned the Chinook jargon, and this knowledge led Washington Governor Isaac Stevens to pick Swan as one of several translators for treaty negotiations with the Indians of Western Washington during 1854 and 1855. Swan then returned east and wrote a book, The Northwest Coast; or, Three Years' Residence in Washington Territory. He later worked as Isaac Stevens's personal secretary when Stevens served his first term as the Washington Territory's delegate to the U.S. Congress in 1857 and 1858.

When Congress adjourned, Swan returned to Washington. He spent the next three years shuttling back and forth between Port Townsend and the Makah Indian Reservation at Neah Bay, supporting himself by writing for a variety of newspapers. In 1862 the local U.S. Indian agent appointed Swan the first schoolteacher at the Makah Reservation. Swan supervised construction of the school while convincing Makah parents to send their children there. Believing in acculturation yet still valuing native ways, Swan taught English, farming, and sewing in his school. He was well liked and respected by the Makah. Swan, who was probably the first white person to learn the Makah language, spent his spare time writing an ethnography of the Makah, later published by the Smithsonian Institution. Under criticism for failing to teach Christianity to the Makah, Swan resigned in 1866 and moved to Port Townsend.

Swan was admitted to the bar in 1867 and began practicing admiralty law. The following year he was appointed to the Pilotage Commission of Puget Sound, the agency which examined sea pilots and issued licenses. In 1882 he became a U.S. commissioner (district court judge). He also took the postition of Hawaiian consul to the United States at Port Townsend in 1882. Swan held these jobs for the rest of his life, but he was not particularly fond of them. They paid poorly, and Swan frequently took leaves of absence to go in search of adventure. He worked as a special agent for the Northern Pacific Railway from 1867 to 1871, surveying potential terminuses. (Not surprisingly, he recommended Port Townsend). The Smithsonian Institution hired Swan to collect Indian artifacts for the 1876 world's fair in Philadelphia, the 1884 fair in London, and the 1893 exposition in Chicago. The Smithsonian thus funded Swan's collecting trips to British Columbia and Southeast Alaska in 1875 and 1883. Swan published two articles on the Haida Indians from the notes he took on these trips. An appointment as deputy customs collector for Neah Bay allowed Swan to live at the Makah reservation from 1878 to 1881. The U.S. Fish Commission asked Swan to write a series of reports on the fish and fisheries of the northern Pacific, permitting him to visit Neah Bay intermittently between 1882 and 1891. Swan spent the rest of his life in Port Townsend, dying there in 1900.

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Content Description

Includes letters sent to James Swan.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Permission to publish, exhibit, broadcast, or quote from materials in the Watzek Library Archives & Special Collections requires written permission of the Head of Archives & Special Collections.

Preferred Citation

The James G. Swan Collection (OLPb153SWA), Lewis & Clark College Aubrey Watzek Library Archives & Special Collections, Portland, Oregon.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in a single series of items alphabetized by correspondent last name.

Location of Collection

Special Collections

Acquisition Information

Purchased by Lewis & Clark College.

Processing Note

Processed in 2013.

Related Materials

See also, the James G. Swan / Samuel Parker Correspondence March 24, 1887-June 15, 1887 http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv66027

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

  • Description: Transcriptions of James Swan letters
    Container: Item 1a
  • Description: From: J. S. Sewman

    Re: Indian basketry and clam bake

    Dates: January 28, 1900
    Container: Item 1b
  • Description: From: J. L. McMurray

    Re: "Bill for Red Men's History"

    Dates: March 15, 1900
    Container: Item 2
  • Description: From: Allen Weir

    Re: trip to Boston and Swan's son

    Dates: May 25, 1891
    Container: Item 3
  • Description: From: P. R. Whittou

    Re: Smithsonian Institution

    Dates: June 2, 1891
    Container: Item 4
  • Description: From: W. R. Shultz

    Re: invoices

    Dates: November 20, 1899
    Container: Item 5
  • Description: From: Franklin Tucker

    Re: receipt for dues paid to Indians

    Dates: July 20, 1891
    Container: Item 6
  • Description: From: J.F. Kendall

    Re: Jefferson Co.

    Dates: October 10, 1898
    Container: Item 7
  • Description: From: John W. Snay?

    Re: proof of article

    Dates: November 2, 1891
    Container: Item 8
  • Description: From: W. F. Fogier?

    Re: request for information

    Dates: October 25, 1899
    Container: Item 9
  • Description: From: G. E. Fuller

    re: personal meetings

    Dates: November 6, 1891
    Container: Item 10
  • Description: From: J. J. Winant

    re: personal meetings

    Dates: August 23, 1891
    Container: Item 11
  • Description: From: Etie Tolucie?

    re: personal visit

    Dates: August 31, 1891
    Container: Item 12
  • Description: From: Mrs. F. Hensley

    re: Mrs. Hensley's son

    Dates: October 31, 1899
    Container: Item 13
  • Description: From: J. J. Winant

    re: article, freight, Indians

    Dates: August 16, 1891
    Container: Item 14
  • Description: From: J. Brown

    re: Thomas Gold Co.

    Dates: August 23, 1900
    Container: Item 15
  • Description: From: E. K. Worthinglore

    re: invitation for 4th of July

    Dates: June 9, 1891
    Container: Item 16
  • Description: From: W. H. Benedict

    re: private postage stamp collection

    Dates: July 16, 1891
    Container: Item 17
  • Description: From: Chad J. Brown

    re: Stewart lot at Port Townsend

    Dates: July 30, 1891
    Container: Item 18
  • Description: From: Thomas R. Brown

    re: paying witness

    Dates: July 6, 1891
    Container: Item 19
  • Description: From: Allen Weir

    re: Puget Sound News Bureau

    Dates: May 7, 1891
    Container: Item 20
  • Description: From: Emma M. Williams

    re: daughter Amy's death

    Dates: March 11, 1891
    Container: Item 21
  • Description: From: Richardson?

    re: Bulletin no. 1, Geographic Names

    Dates: December 27, 1890
    Container: Item 22
  • Description: From: D. W. Wicklean

    re: personal visit

    Dates: July 20, 1985
    Container: Item 23
  • Description: From: Watson C. Squire

    re: article on a fish

    Dates: October 4, 1884
    Container: Item 24
  • Description: From: Watson C. Squire

    re: Puget Sound fish

    Dates: September 30, 1884
    Container: Item 25
  • Description: From: Allen ?

    re: payment and shipment

    Dates: June 17, 1884
    Container: Item 26
  • Description: From: Treasury Dept.

    re: account audit

    Dates: September 17, 1882
    Container: Item 27
  • Description: From: Rob D. Attridge

    re: Thomas J. Johns bond

    Dates: January 5, 1884
    Container: Item 28
  • Description: From: Buskirk Smith

    re: William Warren, Jefferson County

    Dates: April 7, 1884
    Container: Item 29
  • Description: From: ? Swan's nephew

    re: Fort Townsend School bonds

    Dates: January 2, 1900
    Container: Item 30
  • Description: From: M. S. Carringon

    re: Helen F. Chase

    Dates: April 4, 1900
    Container: Item 31
  • Description: From: D. W. Wicklean

    re: property prices

    Dates: August 21, 1895
    Container: Item 32
  • Description: From: various

    re: signed testimony

    Dates: March 24, 1880
    Container: Item 33
  • Description: From: various

    legal document

    Dates: August 19, 1876
    Container: Item 34
  • Description: From: unsigned

    monthly report for Neah Bay INdian School

    Dates: March 31, 1876
    Container: Item 35

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Frontier and pioneer life--Washington (State)
  • Indians of North America--Northwest, Pacific
  • Makah Indians

Personal Names

  • Swan, James G., 1818-1900--Archives

Geographical Names

  • Neah Bay (Wash.)

Jeremy Skinner
2013

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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