Harry L. George

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Harry L. George was a twentieth century American collector of Native American artifacts.

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Collector

He amassed a large collection of Native American artifacts from St. Joseph, Missouri between 1904 and 1923. This notable collection includes over 4,000 objects, hundreds of photographs, books and two large ledgers filled with correspondence surrounding the collection. The collection is owned by St. Joseph Museums, Inc.

Native Americans in the United States Indigenous peoples of the United States (except Hawaii)

Native Americans, also known as American Indians, Indigenous Americans and other terms, are the indigenous peoples of the United States, except Hawaii. There are over 500 federally recognized tribes within the US, about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. The term "American Indian" excludes Native Hawaiians and some Alaska Natives, while Native Americans are American Indians, plus Alaska Natives of all ethnicities. Native Hawaiians are not counted as Native Americans by the US Census, instead being included in the Census grouping of "Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander".

St. Joseph, Missouri Place in Missouri, United States

St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri, United States. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County, Missouri, United States. It is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Buchanan, Andrew, and DeKalb counties in Missouri and Doniphan County, Kansas. As of the 2010 census, St. Joseph had a total population of 76,780, making it the eighth largest city in the state, and the third largest in Northwest Missouri. St. Joseph is located roughly twenty-five miles north of the Kansas City, Missouri city limits.

In 1904, Harry George purchased his first basket on a trip west and by 1914 the Kansas City Star wrote he had "assembled one of the finest collections [of Native American artifacts] in existence".[ citation needed ]

George corresponded with George Gustav Heye, Francis La Fleshe, Grace Nicholson, Luther Standing Bear, and many other notable collectors and dealers in Native American artifacts in the early 1900s. His correspondence includes letters from reservation agents and lesser known collectors yet to be significantly researched.

George Gustav Heye collector of Native American artifacts

George Gustav Heye was a collector of Native American artifacts. His collection became the core of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Francis La Flesche Native American writer and anthropologist

Francis La Flesche was the first professional Native American ethnologist; he worked with the Smithsonian Institution. He specialized in Omaha and Osage cultures. Working closely as a translator and researcher with the anthropologist Alice C. Fletcher, La Flesche wrote several articles and a book on the Omaha, plus more numerous works on the Osage. He made valuable original recordings of their traditional songs and chants. Beginning in 1908, he collaborated with American composer Charles Wakefield Cadman to develop an opera, Da O Ma (1912), based on his stories of Omaha life, but it was never produced. A collection of La Flesche's stories was published posthumously in 1998.

Grace Nicholson American art collector and dealer

Grace Nicholson was an American art collector and art dealer, specializing in Native American and Chinese handicrafts. The space she originally designed for her shop is now home to the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California.

Personal life

George was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in November, 1849. He moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, in September, 1869, and entered the employ of R. L. McDonald & Co., with whom he continued for twenty-seven years. On January 23, 1884, he married his employer's daughter Maggie Beattie McDonald. They had two daughters.

The St. Joseph businessman and textile broker died in 1923, leaving his collection to his heirs. His hope was to create a museum for St. Joseph and he had worked towards raising $25,000 for that purpose. In 1924, the collection was loaned to the State Museum in Jefferson City, Mo. It returned to St. Joseph in 1944 on loan and was purchased by the St. Joseph Museum in 1947.

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