George Gustav Heye | |
|---|---|
 Heye in 1917 | |
| Born | 1874 |
| Died | January 20, 1957(1957-01-20) (aged 82–83) |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
| Occupations | engineer, investment banker |
| Known for | Collector and authority onIndigenous peoples of the Americas |
| Notable work | Museum of the American Indian |
George Gustav Heye (1874 – January 20, 1957) was an American collector ofNative Americanartifacts in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in North America. He founded the Museum of the American Indian, and his collection became the core of theNational Museum of the American Indian.[1]
It is described as the largest and most comprehensive collection in the world. During his years of collecting and study, Heye funded numerous archeological expeditions and supported scholarly work of the time. He established the Heye Foundation in the early 20th century to support such work, as well as contributing independently.
Heye was born in 1874, the son of Carl Friederich Gustav Heye and Marie Antoinette Lawrence ofHudson, New York. His father was a German immigrant who earned wealth in the new petroleum industry.
George Gustav Heye graduated fromColumbia School of Mines (nowColumbia School of Engineering and Applied Science) in 1896 with a degree in electrical engineering.[2] While superintending railroad construction inKingman, Arizona in 1897, Heye acquired aNavajo deerskin shirt, his first Native American item.[3] He continued to acquire individual items until 1903, then he began collecting material in larger numbers.
In 1901, Heye started a career in investment banking that lasted until 1909. His success gave him the financial means to fund archeological expeditions conducted by scholars in the field. For instance, he funded an expedition in 1907 toEcuador andColombia by Professor Saville of the Department of Anthropology ofColumbia University, Heye's alma mater. Saville had already completed two expeditions to sites in those countries.[2]
Heye continued with his interest in Native American culture, funding archeological surveys and excavations in the American Southeast. The field was young, but he supported some of the most professional work of the time. In 1915, Heye worked withFrederick W. Hodge andGeorge H. Pepper on theNacoochee Mound inWhite County, Georgia. The work on Nacoochee Mound was done through the Heye Foundation, the Museum of the American Indian (which opened in 1922), and theBureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. It was some of the most complete work of the time, including numerous photographs. In 1918, Heye and his colleagues published a report entitledThe Nacoochee Mound In Georgia.
Also from 1915 to 1919, the Heye Foundation sponsored a team excavating the James Plott Mound (later referred to as Mound#3) at theGarden Creek site west of Asheville, inHaywood County, North Carolina. The Foundation published a report on this in 1919.[4] Other parts of the archeological site were excavated in 1965–1967, including two villages and two earthwork mounds.[4]
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By 1908, Heye was referring to the collection as "The Heye Museum."[3] He began to lend materials for exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania, at what later becameits Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology inPhiladelphia.[5]
In 1916, he purchased the collection ofAlaskan Native artifacts that had won the gold medal for ethnological collections at the 1909Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition, from J. E. Standley ofYe Olde Curiosity Shop.[6] Eventually, the Heye collection was moved to the Heye Foundation's Museum of the American Indian at155th Street and Broadway, which broke ground in May 1916.[7] He had been encouraged to build there byArcher Milton Huntington, who had already establishedThe Hispanic Society of America in its own building and sponsored a complex of cultural institutions.
In 1919, Heye founded the journalIndian Notes and Monographs.[7] The Museum of the American Indian opened to the public in 1922.[8] It closed in 1994, after the collection had been moved in 1989 to theSmithsonian Institution. In 1994 theGeorge Gustav Heye Center of theNational Museum of the American Indian opened in the formerAlexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House nearBattery Park in Lower Manhattan.
Heye died on January 20, 1957, at his house in theRitz Tower in New York City.. He is interred inWoodlawn Cemetery inthe Bronx, New York City.
Heye created the Museum of the American Indian in 1916 in New York City and was its director until 1956. The collection contains over one million objects, particularly fromNative Americans,Inuit andAlaskan Natives, and also other indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. The collection was transferred to theSmithsonian Institution in 1989, which established theNational Museum of the American Indian. (It now has two locations, in New York City and in Washington, DC.)
About one-third of the original collection has beenrepatriated under the National Museum of the American Indian Act. This federal legislation recognized that grave goods and other sacred items had been taken from Native American tribes without permission through archeological and other collecting expeditions.[9] Artifacts were once stored in the Bronx in a building along theInterstate 95 corridor. After the land and building were sold, the property was cleared for redevelopment as private housing.
After 1930, the library of the Museum formed the bulk of the Native American Collection at the Huntington Free Library. The 40,000+ books and archival artifacts were sold to Cornell University in 2004.
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