Kendall, Laurel, Barbara Mathe, and Thomas R. Miller
1997 Drawing Shadows to Stone: The Photography of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, 1897-1902. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Notes: 112 p.: ill., map; 27 cm. ISBN 0295976470.Reviewed 29 Jun 1999 by:
Raymond A. Bucko <bucko@maple.lemoyne.edu>
Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York, USAMedium: Written Literature Subject
Keywords:Photography in ethnology - Canada - History
Photography in ethnology - Russia (Federation) - Siberia - History
Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1897-1903)
American Museum of Natural History - Photograph collections
ABSTRACT: This book provides a detailed account and analysis of the Jesup Expedition's anthropological investigation of Northern Siberia and the Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States in text and photographic images. It provides insights into anthropological theory, museum methods and ethics, the personalities involved in the expedition, and the challenges of indigenous cultural continuity.
This work's title comes from the Yukaghir, a people of Northern Siberia, who described the photographic process in their own language as drawing a person's shadow to stone. This intriguing phrase introduces an equally intriguing composition of photography and text which critically chronicles the Jesup expedition, a scientific research journey to the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada as well as to Northern Siberia to study the historical connections between the populations in these two regions. The 1897-1902 expedition produced over 3,000 photographs, a large series of publications, a significant expansion of the ethnographic holdings and museum displays at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and the chronicling of a variety of what was then believed to be quickly disappearing cultures. In association with an exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History, this volume carefully demonstrates that not only can welearn about the peoples whom the explorers sought to study but we can also learn valuable lessons about the explorers and their own worldviews, some of which we share today.The book is divided into three parts: an initial textual orientation to the expedition's history and purposes intertwined with 28 photographic images and one map; a photographic album, with comments, comprised 62 images, drawn almost entirely from the expedition but some illustrating subsequent museum displays; and concluding remarks about the impact of this collection on the contemporary world. The essays orient the reader to the history of the expedition itself, the cultural, historical and biological theories which were challenged and developed as a consequence of the study, and the biographies of the fascinating personalities who conceptualized, funded, and staffed the trip. The texts also delve into a broad range of practical and philosophical issues involved in the Western penchant to "study others", ostensibly preserving cultures which other elements of Western culture were instrumental in transforming and, at times, destroying. Avoiding what Marshall Sahlins terms the epistemological hypochondria of post-modernism, the work does critically examine the premises and objectivity of the expedition while at the same time showing an appreciation for its accomplishments. The data collected does indeed constitute an important resource both for the contemporary descendants of the Native peoples studied and for students of non-western culture.
The essays are insightful, erudite (if at times a bit obscure), and -- appropriate for a book focused on anthropological photography -- enlightening. The images are magnificently reproduced and are presented in interesting juxtapositions which, along with the text and useful bibliography, challenge the reader to think beyond na¸ve reproduction to the complicated issues of representation. This is an deal book not only for those interested in the Jesup expedition itself but also for those interested in the history of anthropology and anthropological theory, and the ethical as well as practical issues involved in field work, the essence of which, at that time, involved the massive collecting and preserving of material specimens, photographic images and textual descriptions.
Surprisingly for a volume which invites the reader to focus on ethnographic self-consciousness, nothing is said about the philosophies, social theories, ethical and political issues, and actual choices of artifacts, images and original correspondence from the collection, all of which were essential to the mounting of the contemporary commemorative exhibition held at the American Museum of Natural History (a web based exhibition was still available as of June 15, 1999 at http://www.amnh.org/Exhibition/Jesup/). Perhaps these omissions say something about anthropological self-consciousness itself. Nevertheless, this book presents a brilliantly reflective representation of the Jesup expedition at a cost far more reasonable than the original trips.
To cite this review, the American Anthropological Association recommends the following style:
Bucko, Raymond A.
1999 Review of Drawing Shadows to Stone: The Photography of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, 1897-1902. Anthropology Review Database. June 29. Electronic document, http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=286, accessed February 9, 2010.© Anthropology Review Database
(available online: http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/)