Abstract
Copyright
Biographical Information
Scope and Content of the Collection
Container List

Collection Number

HUMCO E78 C15 H6 (1999.12)

Contact Information

The University Library, Special Collections
Cal Poly Humboldt
Arcata, California 95521

Processed By

Rebecca Strickland and Edith Butler, MA, CA

Date Collection Processed

2005, 2012

Language

English

Collection Creator

Elsie E. Hover

Dates Covered by Collection

Ca 1900-1920

Size of Collection

47 photographic prints, 1 digital print, 48 photographic negatives

Abstract

The Hover Collection contains 48 images depicting early 1900s life along the Klamath River in Humboldt and Siskiyou counties, California within the Karuk Indian homeland region. The images present activities of ceremonial significance as well as everyday Native American life, plus portraits, landscapes, and basket collections.

Access

Collection is open for research.

Copyright

Copyright has not been assigned to Cal Poly Humboldt. To obtain permission to reproduce, please contact the Special Collections Librarian.

Acquisition Information

The photographs were donated to the Cal Poly Humboldt Library around 1970, at the same time that a portion of the Hover Basket Collection was loaned to the Library. The Hover Basket Collection is now at the Clarke Historical Museum in Eureka, CA.

Biographical Information

Elsie Starritt Hover (1902-1972) taught in elementary schools in Humboldt County for thirty-two years. Throughout her career she incorporated information about the Indians of northwest California into class programs and presentations. She used her family's basket collection and photographs in these activities.

Mrs. Hover is a descendent of Karuk Indian families and of Euro-Americans who came to northwest California as gold miners. As a young woman, Elsie Hover was befriended by Grace Nicholson. Ms. Nicholson financed Elsie's education at Humboldt State University where she graduated in 1925.

More information about the Hover and Starritt families can be found in The Hover Collection of Karuk Baskets. Eureka, Ca.: Clarke Memorial Museum; 1985. The Hover Basket Collection can be seen at the Clarke Historical Museum (formerly the Clarke Memorial Museum) in Eureka, CA.

Scope and Content of the Collection

The Hover Collection contains 48 images, held in one three-ring binder, depicting early 1900s life along the Klamath River in northern California in the Karuk Indian homeland region. The images show activities of ceremonial significance as well as those of everyday life. There are also portraits, landscapes, and images of Indian baskets.

It is arranged in one series with all of the available information about each image included in the item level inventory in the Container List.

Container List

The container list provides the following information:

Line 1: The number assigned to the photograph.

Line 2: Describes the title or content of the photo either as it was written on the photo by either Elsie E. Hover or by Library staff in the 1970s. Some images did not have a title so one was supplied during processing. These supplied titles are enclosed in brackets [ ].

Additional lines: Other information, including quotations of captions for images that were used in The Hover Collection of Karuk Baskets. For some images additional information was gained during a personal interview with Lee Hover, son of Elsie E. Hover, conducted by Edie Butler on 1/28/05. This information is indicated by (LH).

View images in the Humboldt Room Photos Database: 1999.12.0001-1999.12.0048

• 1999.12.0001
  [Posed portrait of three men on the occasion of a White Deerskin Dance]
• 1999.12.0002
  Sweat House, Orleans, California.
  Right to left: Webb, Jim Davis, Sandy Bar Joe and P.L. Young, 1888.
  See 1999.12.0038, a cropped version of 1999.12.0002
• 1999.12.0003
  [Plank structure with eel net leaning against it (LH)]
• 1999.12.0004
  [Woman paddling dugout canoe]
• 1999.12.0005
  [Grace Nicholson and unidentified man in a canoe]
• 1999.12.0006
  Lumphy Pepper, 1923.
  Died 1929 when road was completed to Somes Bar.
  Cropped version of image in The Hover Collection of Karuk Baskets, p.96: “White Deerskin dancer wearing an abalone shell headpiece.”
• 1999.12.0007
  [Woman carrying wood, walking on trail]
  Photo by Grace Nicholson, Pasadena
• 1999.12.0008
  White Deerskin Dance, Klamath River Indians
• 1999.12.0009
  [White Deerskin Dance]
• 1999.12.0010
  P.L.Young, Orleans, California. Deerskin Dance by the Klamath River Indians, 1900
• 1999.12.0011
  Deerskin Dance, 1900
• 1999.12.0012
  Indian Dance
  Photo by Grace Nicholson, Pasadena.
• 1999.12.0013
  Muggins
  Photo by Grace Nicholson, Pasadena
• 1999.12.0014
  Indian Dance
• 1999.12.0015
  Deerskin Dance
• 1999.12.0016
  Old Captain, Brother of Sandy Bar Bob, old time Indians
• 1999.12.0017
  Indian Dance
  Photo by Grace Nicholson, Pasadena.
• 1999.12.0018
  [Two women in regalia with crowd in background]
• 1999.12.0019
  Karok man and wife, Orleans, California
• 1999.12.0020
  Old lady taking a smoke, 1900.
• 1999.12.0021
  [Two men playing stick game and crowd in background]
• 1999.12.0022
  White Deerskin Dance
  One of the Tribal dances of the Klamath River Indians. The white deerskin, coming from an albino deer is very rare and held at great value among the Indians. With the skin on a long stick, they go through their dance, which is their prayer for high water in the river so that the fish may come up to them from the ocean, 1898.
• 1999.12.0023
  An Indian Dance, Natives, Orleans, Cal.
• 1999.12.0024
  [Elderly woman with a burden basket]
  Photo by Grace Nicholson, Pasadena.
• 1999.12.0025
  White Deerskin Dance
  One of the Tribal dances of the Klamath River Indians. The white deerskin, coming from an albino deer is very rare and held at great value among the Indians. With the skin on a long stick, they go through their dance, which is their prayer for high water in the river, so that the fish may come up to them from the ocean. 1898.
• 1999.12.0026
  [Men, women, and children with buckets and baskets]
• 1999.12.0027
  [White Deerskin Dancers with a large group watching]
• 1999.12.0028
  [White Deerskin Dancers walking single file]
• 1999.12.0029
  Fannie Bacon, who gave the ground for the church, Orleans, California.
  LYMAN BACON: According to the 1869 Great Register, of Klamath County, California, Lyman Bacon was a native of the United States, possibly Indiana and born in the year 1826. He came to California in 1855 and two years later took up residence at Orleans Bar where he followed butchering. On August 10, 1866 the Klamath County Board of Supervisors appointed him the Superintendent of the Indigent Sick with authority to determine who are entitled to the benefits of the Indigent Sick Fund; to provide suitable places and proper treatment of the sick. He held that position one year. The assessment roll of Klamath County for 1859 showed him owning two acres of improved land on Camp Creek and 7/16 interests in a mining ditch. In September 1904 he took a trip to the World’s Fair at St. Louis and also to visit a sister in Indiana whom he had not seen for 49 years. He had married a full blood Indian named Fannie at Orleans and they had one daughter who passed away many years before they did. She died in Orleans February 8, 1927 and had been a familiar figure in Orleans for over ninety years. She was buried in the Orleans Cemetery. In her death notice it stated her husband Lyman Bacon had preceded her death by about 12 years.
  Cropped version of image in The Hover Collection of Karuk Baskets, p.34: “Fannie Bacon of Orleans preparing acorn meal, surrounded by her, hopper, her flour trays, and carrying basket.”
• 1999.12.0030
  Indian Dance, White Deerskin, Hoopa, California. Ericson Photograph
  See Ericson Photograph Collection 1999.02.0246
• 1999.12.0031
  [White Deerskin Dance]
• 1999.12.0032
  Sourvam Dolly - name after mountain.
  note card with photo
  Cropped version of image in The Hover Collection of Karuk Baskets, p.52: “A skilled weaver displaying a variety of her baskets including eating and cooking baskets, a storage basket with lattice twined rim, trays, and a hat.”
• 1999.12.0033
  [White Deerskin Dancers]
• 1999.12.0034
  White Deerskin Dance, Hoopa Cal.
  Boat Dance
• 1999.12.0035
  White Deerskin Dance, Hoopa, Cal.
  Boat Dance
• 1999.12.0036
  Taken above Somes Bar, McYarla.
• 1999.12.0037
  White Deerskin Dance, Hoopa, Cal.
  Boat Dance
• 1999.12.0038
  Sweat House, near Georgia Henry’s Orleans, California. [Left to right] P.L. Young, Sandy Bar Joe, Jim Davis and Webb, 1888.
  Cropped version of 1999.12.0002
• 1999.12.0039
  White Deerskin Dance
• 1999.12.0040
  Basket collection. Seely’s Redwood Studio Photograph.
  Photo taken at an elementary school; Elsie E. Hover gave many presentations to school children over a long period of time, (LH)
• 1999.12.0041
  [Mrs. Elsie E. Hover with a child, baskets and regalia]
• 1999.12.0042
  Basket collection, Mrs. Elsie E. Hover on left. Seely’s Redwood Studio Photograph.
• 1999.12.0043
  Mrs. Orcutt (Lottie), Isabel Orcutt’s grandmother, 1908. Somes’ widow.
  Cropped version of image in The Hover Collection of Karuk Baskets, p.17: “Karuk woman carrying a burden basket of the type used when gathering wood. Photo by William Lange, ca.1923.”
• 1999.12.0044
  [Plank house]
  Photo in The Hover Collection of Karuk Baskets, p.18: “Red cedar plank house”.
• 1999.12.0045
  [Four men with baskets and regalia]
  P.L. Young is the man second from the left (LH)
• 1999.12.0046
  [Five men in regalia during a Brush Dance]
• 1999.12.0047
  [Baskets displayed in a home setting; cultural/tribal origin of each written on back]
• 1999.12.0048
  [Three men showing stick game sticks and toggle]

Bibliography

Hover Collection of Karuk Baskets: Clarke Memorial Museum. Text by Virginia M. Fields. Eureka, CA.: Clarke Memorial Museum, 1985.

Subject Headings

Karok baskets
Karuk Indians