Seneca texts relating to the Green Corn Ceremony and Chant of Handsome Lake, given by Sherman Redeye, and an origin of the False Faces, given by Clara Redeye. Recorded in September 1948 at Coldspring Longhouse, Allegany Reservation, New York. These tapes are identified by William Fenton as "originals or copies of recordings made for the Library of Congress: Nos. 21322, 21324."

Field recordings of Seneca ceremonies recorded by William Fenton. Chant of the Big Heads, Morning Song of Handsome Lake, and Women's Dance recorded at Newtown Longhouse, Cattaraugus Reservation, New York, 27 August 1949. Green Corn Dance Tobacco Invocation and Mid-Winter Festival Tobacco Invocation recorded at Coldspring Longhouse, 4 September 1949.

These songs were transcribed by Jesse Cornplanter from manuscripts of his father, Edward Cornplanter, and of George Pierce, and also from memory. There are occasional notes in English that give tempi, behavior of dances, sources, etc. Included are 4 letters between Jesse Cornplanter and William N. Fenton.

Fenton compiled this reel from several collections for his research on American Indians. From the George Chalmers Collection (1750-1775) are correspondence, intelligence reports, and records of treaties concerning the Indians of the Ohio Valley. The writers include Thomas Cresap, Thomas Hutchins, and Sir William Johnson. There are also papers from the Philip John Schuyler papers (1710-1797) and one item from the Withrop, Wait, and Leverett Memorial (1709).

A reading and translation of the Onondaga text of The Great Law as given in 1912 by Chief John A. Gibson and transcribed by Alexander Goldenweiser. The tapes alternate between two types: the re-reading of short segments of the text by William Fenton, which are then repeated in correct pronunciation by the native consultants; the replaying in short sections of these first tapes with translations and English glosses provided by the consultants. Howard Sky is the consultant on tapes 1-23, with his nephew James Sky taking over on tapes 24-31. Includes occasional additional commentary in English.

A recording of ?ohkiiweeh, Chanters of the Dead, recorded at Newtown Longhouse, Cattaraugus Reservation, New York, by Cornelius Seneca, with notes by W.C. Sturtevant. Lead singer with drum: Rupert Scrogg (Tonawanda); Assistant singers: Everett Parker (Tonawanda), Harold Kittle (Cattaraugus); Head women; Louise Green, Louis (Eliz.) Young; Head men: Spencer Bennett, John Cook; Speaker: Gus Williams (Six Nations, resident at Newtown)

These items include notes on "primitive economics" (Incan) for A. Irving Hallowell and from seminars with Linton Satterthwaite (on Mayan architecture), E. B. Howard (on problems of the Clovis site in New Mexico), and others at the University of Pennsylvania. There are also notes taken at the 1936 meeting of the American Anthropological Association of papers by various anthropologists in attendance, including Ruth Benedict, Frederica de Laguna, Waiter Dyk, William N. Fenton, Alfred V. Kidder, David G. Mandelbaum, George P. Murdock, Arthur C. Parker, Elsie Clews Parsons, Gladys A. Reichard, William A. Ritchie, Linton Satterthwaite, Gene Weltfish, and others regarding Cree, Flathead, Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), Kaingang (Southern Brazil), Kiowa, Mayan, Natchez, Navajo, Ojibwa, Pawnee, Pueblos, Sahaptin, Saulteaux, Siouan, Tarascan, Tonawanda (Seneca), Zuni, etc.

Interviews and discussions with the Seneca artist Ernest Smith on his paintings of Seneca customs, stories, ceremonies, crafts, food preparation, and other traditional ways. Smith was a Seneca from the Tonawanda Reservation in New York state. The paintings were done in the 1930s and are presently in the Rochester Museum and Science Center in Rochester, New York. The recordings were made by William N. Fenton and his student, Jeanette Collamer, in 1973 at the museum in Rochester. The paintings are referred to on the recordings by the museum's catalog numbers for the paintings. Some of the paintings do not have assigned titles. Sound quality is fair overall, with severe distortion and prominent background noise on the final tape.

Edward Adamson Hoebel (1906-1993) was an anthropologist and educator best known for his studies of the legal systems of pre-literate societies. Graduating from Columbia, where he had studied with Ralph Linton, Franz Boas, and Ruth Benedict, Hoebel early became a scholar on the legal cultures of the Plains Indians, including the Comanches and Cheyennes. After appointments at New York University and the University of Utah, he spent the majority of his academic career at the University of Minnesota, from which he became emeritus professor in 1972. The E. Adamson Hoebel Papers (1925-1993) contain correspondence, subject files, manuscripts of published and unpublished works by Hoebel, papers by colleagues and students, Hoebel's research notes, course materials, and photographs.

The Paul A. W. Wallace Papers include correspondence to and from 20th century anthropologists, ethnologists, historians, linguists, and psychiatrists and provides a wealth of resources for the study of technological and social change, American Indians, culture and personality, revitalization movements, the anthropological study of religion, and the cultural and biological bases of behavior. The collection includes extensive correspondence with fellow scholars and Indian consultants, interviews with Indians of the Six Nations Reserve in Canada, and notes and photographs collected during his fieldwork among the Indians of New York State, Pennsylvania, and Canada.

A Yale-educated ethnographer, William Fenton devoted most of his career to study of the Haudenosaunee. Receiving his doctorate in 1937, Fenton worked with the Bureau of American Ethnology for a number of years before becoming Director of the New York State Museum and professor at SUNY Albany. The Fenton Papers covers all aspects of William Fenton's professional life, documenting his varied positions as community worker for the New York Agency of the U.S. Indian Service, 1935-1937 (accounts, reports, correspondence); associate anthropologist and senior ethnologist in the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1939-1951 (includes notebooks, letters from the field); Executive Secretary of Anthropology and Psychology, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 1952-1954; and Assistant Commissioner, New York State Museum and Science Service, 1954-1968.

Alfred Irving ("Pete") Hallowell was an anthropologist best known for his studies of Ojibwa culture and world-view, and the innovative use of the Rorschach Test in his studies of the psychological interrelations of individuals and their culture. Early in his career, Hallowell worked as a social case worker for Family Service, and even after moving on to study anthropology in 1920 (M.A.), he carried with him an interest in ethnic and racial culture, developing additional interests in psychological testing. Except for the years 1944-1947, when he taught at Northwestern University, Hallowell spent his entire career at the University of Pennsylvania where he was professor of anthropology, professor of anthropological psychiatry in the Medical School, and curator of social anthropology at the University Museum. A cultural anthropologist, Hallowell's use of clinical psychological methods, especially Rorschach tests, was both innovative and controversial in his discipline. In his research, he concentrated on the Algonkian Indians, especially the Abenaki and Ojibwa Indians of Canada and Wisconsin (Berens River, Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin areas), and the Saulteaux of Berens River. The Alfred Irving Hallowell Papers (1892-1981) contain correspondence, subject files, manuscripts of published and unpublished works by Hallowell, papers by colleagues and students, research notes kept by Hallowell, with a special emphasis on social organization, personality, behavior, psychology, religion, and folklore. The collection of several hundred photographs provides rich graphic documentation of Hallowell's work among the Ojibwa and Abnaki Indians during the 1930s.

The Anthony F. C. Wallace Papers include correspondence to and from 20th century anthropologists, ethnologists, historians, linguists, and psychiatrists and provides a wealth of resources for the study of technological and social change, American Indians, culture and personality, revitalization movements, the anthropological study of religion, and the cultural and biological bases of behavior. In addition to Wallace's correspondence, research notes, and drafts, the collection includes Wallace family correspondence and photographs, as well as Wallace's writings from childhood through recent years.

Audio recordings recorded by William N. Fenton.

The papers contain correspondence, research and teaching notes, data (card and slip) files, published and unpublished manuscripts by Lounsbury and others, books and reprints, sound recordings, and computer programs and files. Correspondents include: William N. Fenton, Mary R. Haas, William C. Sturtevant, Morris Swadesh, and Carl F. Voegelin. Roughly one-quarter of the collection relates to Iroquoian languages and includes much WPA Oneida Project material. Research into the Cherokee language, South American languages, and kinship structures is also well represented. Floyd Lounsbury's wife, Masako Yokoyama Lounsbury, is represented by a smaller amount of material relating to linguistic research in Shanghai and research on Quechua.