Thomas Corwin Donaldson Collection

Thomas Corwin Donaldson was born in 1843, in Columbus, Ohio and died in Philadelphia, PA in 1898. Starting in the military, Donaldson served in the 19th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry and after being discharged due to disability, he reenlisted under an alias in the 199th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry for several weeks before being discharged again by special order on November 13, 1864. After the war, Donaldson quickly became interested in politics and law. He was admitted to the Ohio bar on March 26, 1868, after reading law with Gideon F. Castle of Columbus, and worked in various governmental jobs. Eventually settling in Philadelphia, Donalson began to read law with F. Carroll Brewster and was soon admitted to the Pennsylvania bar.

Between 1873 and 1876, Donaldson worked as the mineral commissioner for the United States Centennial Commission to which he became an active general agent from 1874 to 1884 for the Smithsonian Institution in preparing the Smithsonian's mineral exhibit at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Also, during this period, Donaldson located the remains of the collection assembled by George Catlin of Indian costumes, portraits, and equipment, and published the monumental work The George Catlin Indian Gallery (1885) for the US National Museum. Later, Donaldson would become a part of a committee of six appointed by the U.S. Government to codify the land laws of the United States; his contribution was published as The Public Domain (1880-84). In 1890, Donaldson became an expert special Federal agent in charge of conducting the Native American portion of the 1890 US Census (1890-1893), the first census to count Native Americans in all states. According to his son, Donaldson authored five special reports which were afterwards emasculated by authorities in Washington.

Donaldson was a passionate collector, transforming his house into a veritable museum of Americana and North American Indian artifacts of all kinds. It included a gallery of art works, fine glass and porcelain pieces, and a manuscript collection of considerable importance.

In 1900, the Penn Museum acquired the Thomas C. Donaldson collection of North American Indian artifacts from his son, Thomas Blaine Donaldson, with funds from John Wanamaker, the department store magnate. In addition to the Native American artifacts, which are housed in the American Section Collections of the Museum, around 1901, Thomas B. Donaldson offered separately a large collection of photographs amassed by his father. The last letter regarding the purchase of the photographs is from 1913.

The Thomas C. Donaldson photograph collection consists of three distinct groups:

Photographs by William Henry Jackson, Timothy O'Sullivan, and John K. Hillers, 1860s-1880s. Arranged by photographer/survey and then by size. Catalogued individually.

Photographs of Native American delegations taken mostly in Washington, DC by C. M. Bell, Alexander Gardner, Antonio Zeno Shindler, Julian Vannerson, and others, 1850s-1890s. Arranged geographically and then by Native American nation. The oversize C. M. Bell portraits are collected under the photographer's name.

Photographs from local photographers around the country or taken by Special Agents assigned to a particular area to illustrate the Report on Indians Taxed and Indians Not Taxed in the United States (Except Alaska) at the Eleventh Census, 1890 (1894). Five Special Agents, including Julian Scott, Henry R. Poore, and Peter Moran, were sent to document, photographically and artistically, the larger reservations, including in the southwest (Pueblo, Navajo, Hopi), the Dakotas, and Oklahoma (or Indian) Territory. The 1890 Census photographs are arranged geographically and then by Native American nation.

The Census material also includes two scrapbooks of news clippings on Native Americans, 1890-1893, some drawings (including one pen-and-ink by Julian Scott), and hundreds of galley proofs of the illustrations used in the published report. The galleys may include additional identification information than that which appears on the prints. Not all the photographs used in the publication are extant in the collection.

The census material is especially significant since nearly all the data collected in the 1890 census was lost in a fire in 1921.

Correspondence and lists regarding the acquisition of the Thomas C. Donaldson collection can be found in the American Section Records, Collectors and Collections series.

Publication Information: University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives,

Finding Aid Author:

Use Restrictions: