Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time. Glass plate negatives and lantern slides are restricted due to the fragility of the format. All decisions regarding use will be at the discretion of the curator for visual materials.
Paper finding aid with additional information is available in Special Collections and University Archives.
Edwin Willard Deming (1860-1942) was born August 26, 1860 in Ashland, Ohio. At a young age he went to live in Genesco, Illinois, an area which had formerly been a part of the Fox and Sac reservation. As a child Deming knew Indians of the Winnebago tribe and this early exposure shaped his later career. In 1883 Deming went to New York for a year of study at the Art Students League. In 1884, he went to Paris and studied at Julien's Academy under Boulenger and Le Febvre and took a course of lectures at the Beaux Arts.
After returning to America, Deming spent nearly two years painting cycloramas (curved theater backdrops). In 1887 Deming went to the Southwest and studied Yuma Apache and the Pueblos, and to Oregon where he concentrated on the Umatilla. Deming spent the summer of 1889 at Little Big Horn among the Crow. He then spent the autumn of 1889 and part of 1890 among the Sioux. He was present at Standing Rock when Sitting Bull was killed during the "Ghost Dance Outbreak."
Deming married in 1892. He and his wife spent a year of study in the southwest with the Zuni, Hopi, Apache and Navajo. In 1893 Deming went to Mexico and studied the native tribes there.
Deming spent the summer of 1898 among the Piegan and Blackfoot. In 1914, Deming returned to the same area with his family and they were all adopted into the Blackfoot tribe. In 1918 at the age of fifty-eight, Deming was commissioned as a Captain in the Army and served at Camp Benning, Georgia and the Springfield Armory. He was responsible for a major change in the Springfield '03 Army Rifle - adding a pistol grip to the stock. In 1920, Deming was a member of an expedition to Colombia, where he studied with Matolone Indians. Deming died in 1942.
The collection consists of his correspondence, drawings, sketches, paintings, as well as anthropological and linguistic material, notes and other documentation of tribes he visited or lived with.
The correspondence series is comprised of incoming letters which are organized alphabetically by last name, and outgoing letters that are organized by date, 1884-1933. Deming corresponded with noted Western painters such as Charles Schreyvogel, William Henry Jackson and Frederic Remington. Other correspondents include Irvin S, Cobb, Gifford Pinchot and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. This series also contains Deming's Army correspondence, orders, and miscellaneous Army papers, 1916-1935.
Manuscripts, anthropological, and linguistic material are organized by title of item.
The biographical material includes family history and a biography.
The memorabilia series includes awards and certificates, such as an Order of the Indian Wars certificate, memberships, citations and medals.
Deming's trip to Columbia where he studied the Matolone Indians is documented in diaries, letters with sketches, and linguistic notes. There are numerous sketches, sketchbooks, drawings and paintings which depict the Native American tribes Deming visited. There are also published versions of Native American stories, novels and children's books by Deming.
Other visual materials include a framed painting, photograph/sketch albums, print and autographic photographs.