Archives Directory for the History of Collecting

Heye, George G.(George Gustav), 1874-1957

type

Collector Dealer/Gallery Scholar/Critic/Expert

dates

1874-1957

city

New York City

state

NY

other cities

Hudson, NY; Kingman, AZ;

sex

M

history

George Gustav Heye was an engineer, investment banker (established banking firm in 1901) and collector of Native American artifacts, fine and decorative arts. Heye’s collecting funds were supplemented by money from family and friends.

Heye bought collections and documentary photographs, sponsored expeditions, and traveled and collected items himself, purchasing from tribes, villages and dealers.

His collection included North American, South American, Northwest Coast ethnology and archaeology objects as wall as archaeological collections from the Southeastern, Californian and Central American regions.

Objects in Heye’s collection included but not limited to wood and stone carvings, masks, bannerstones, birdstones, ornaments, ceramic vessels and figures (Colima, Nayarit, Jalisco, and Casas Grandes) and everyday items; such as, hunting and fishing tools, baskets, woodworking tools, ornaments, clothing, shields, paddles, drums, and wooden seats.

Heye created the Museum of the American Indian and his Heye Foundation in 1916 in New York City and was its director until 1956. The museum opened to the public in 1922 and became part of the Smithsonian in June 1990.

His collection forms the core of the National Museum of the Native American Indian in New York and Washington DC.

decades

1900-1910
1910-1920
1920-1930
1930-1940
1940-1950
1950-1960

website

http://americanindian.si.edu/subpage.cfm?subpage=collections&second=collections&third=history

updated

10/31/2024 13:33:22

research links

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Repository	Description	Links
Heard Museum Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives	Handwritten note on Fred Harvey General Office Indian Department letterhead relating to Hopi Collection for Mr. Heye	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Joseph Keppler Jr. Iroquois papers, 1882-1944.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Notes made or collected by Lieutenant Allyn Capron, 1884-1896.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	At a council held at Edward [unreadable] 1712 May 19.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Conferences held with Indians at Easton, 1756.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	George G. Heye autograph collection, 1886-1928.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Journal of a trip from New Haven to the Missouri River area, ca. 1833.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Letters of Captain Alexander B. MacGowan, 1862-1887.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Letters to George and Thea Heye from Lorenzo Chavez and other Zuni Pueblo Indians, 1916-1930.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Reginald Pelham Bolton collection: notes regarding Indians near Inwood Hill Park, New York City, 1900-1935.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Testimonial for giving Indians medals, engraved by Henry Dawkins, 1946.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Treaty of peace with the Delaware Nation, also documentation and supplemental treaty, 1765.	see details...
National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center MRC-541, Cultural Resources Center	Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Photographic Archives.	see details...
American Philosophical Society Library	Manuscripts on Native Americans, 1913-1946.	see details...
University of California, Berkeley The Bancroft Library	Samuel Alfred Barrett papers, 1893-1977.	see details...
The Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives 200 Eastern Parkway	Culin Archival Collection Series 1: General Correspondence 1886-1929 1919-1929 (bulk).	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Edward H. Davis papers, 1910-1929.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Stockbridge Indian papers, 1739-1915.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Catalogue of valuable printed books, illuminated and other manuscripts, autograph letters, topographical drawings of American Interest, 1936.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Catalogs and advertisements for Indian traders [ca.1900].	see details...
University of Pennsylvania Rare Book & Manuscript Library Collections	University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Correspondence with Henry Charles Lea, 1892-1909.	see details...
Cornell University Libraries Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections	Minutes of conferences held at Fort Pitt, 1760.	see details...
American Philosophical Society Library	Franz Boas Papers, 1862-1942.	see details...
National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center MRC-541, Cultural Resources Center	Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Library. Miscellaneous manuscripts about North American Indians, 1695-[ca.1929]	see details...
Raymond H. Fogler Library Special Collections Dept. University of Maine	Frank G. Speck Penobscot Indian Photographs	see details...
National Anthropological Archives Smithsonian Institution Museum Support Center	Jesse Logan Nusbaum Papers ca. 1900-1980	see details...
National Anthropological Archives Smithsonian Institution Museum Support Center	Bureau of American Ethnology General Correspondence 1909-1949	see details...
National Anthropological Archives Smithsonian Institution Museum Support Center	Ales Hrdlicka Papers ca. 1887-1943	see details...
National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center MRC-541, Cultural Resources Center	Mark Raymond Harrington Photograph Collection, 1899-1947.	see details...
National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center MRC-541, Cultural Resources Center	Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation records, 1890-1998.	see details...
National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center MRC-541, Cultural Resources Center	Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku Expedition Photograph Collection 1917-1923	see details...