Marshall Family Archives: Researcher Guide
The Marshall Family Archives collection documents eight expeditions in the years 1950, 1951, 1952-53, 1955, 1956, 1957-58, and 1961. The Marshall family (Laurence Marshall, Lorna Marshall, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, and John Marshall) with an expedition team of staff and researchers spent months traveling through the Kalahari Desert conducting field research, taking photographs, and recording sound and film among the Ju’/hoansi and additional peoples including the G/ui and Naro. The collection includes images and paper records from these activities.
Terminology
Images
The majority of images in the collection are cataloged under accession number 2001.29. Go to the Advanced Search and enter 2001.29.* (with the asterisk) into Object Number. You can also add additional terms to your search, such as by entering keywords into Description (see “Suggested search terms”) and/or filtering by Geography.
After you press Search, you will be able to further filter your results by Culture and/or Geography.
Please note when filtering by Culture/Period: In their photograph catalogs, the Marshall Family used the term “Bushman” or “!Kung” to describe many of the Indigenous people of Southwest Africa at that time. While some scholars and even some Indigenous people still use the term “Bushman,” others consider it to be offensive. “!Kung” is also thought to be outdated and more accurately refers to a language group. The term “San,” which is used in the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Study Film Archives, groups together cultures and ethnicities that are distinct. Thus, whenever possible, we used the specific name for each ethnic group, such as Ju/’hoansi, G/ui, Naro, etc. When we were not able to identify a specific San group, we used the term San.
- With one exception, each expedition (1950, 1951, 1952-53, 1955, 1956, 1957-58, 1959, 1961) has separate photograph logs for color and for black and white images. Images from the 1951 and 1952-53 expeditions were combined by the Marshalls in both the color and black and white photograph logs.
- There is a separate photograph log for color stereoviews (1950, 1951, 1952-53) but no log for Land Polaroid black and white images (1950, 1951, 1952-53, 1956, 1959, 1961).
- Most photograph logs contain forward matter which includes a list of most of the participants in the expedition, the itinerary and other notes. The photograph logs, except the 1957-1958 black and white log, contain indexes.
- Image descriptions are arranged by camera reel. Depending on the type of film and camera used, reels differ in length. The reels are generally organized by number and often, but not always, chronologically.
- Geographic information is often recorded in the header of each page of the photograph logs. The cultural group or ethnicity of the people living in that location is also often captured in the photograph log page header. That information is captured in the Catalog Transcription for each image where applicable. The 1961 logs contain geographical coordinates for some places, although some may not be entirely correct.
- Some names of people, places and ethnicities are approximate/guesses by the Marshalls (spelling, or who people are). Some of the places the Marshalls describe are either no longer there or have had their names changed. Unverifiable Marshall place names appear in quotes in the Display Title. Some spellings vary: for example, water-hole vs waterhole vs water hole.
- In the 1952-1953 color transparency photograph logs, subject codes were assigned to each slide. In Collections Online, the subject that corresponds to the code for a particular slide in the Catalog Transcription appears in square brackets after the code and appears at the beginning of the Display Title before a colon.
- The 1955 expedition photologs contain image numbers starting with P and ones starting with T. While this likely indicates that two different cameras were used at the same time, it is likely that multiple people used each camera.
- Individual people often share the same name.
- The Marshalls gave nicknames to some people whose name they did not know, such as “visiting girl,” “the handmaiden.” However, most nicknames were used by Ju/'hoansi themselves. Nicknames were in common use, especially among Ju/'hoan men, mainly referring to the physical characteristics of the individual. The following are examples:
- Gao Feet
- Gao Beard
- Short Gao
- Gao Thumb
- /Gunda Chubby
- Bo Black
- /Gao Knees
- / Qui Stomach (because he ate so much)
- /Qui Shoulder
- /Qui Crooked
- /Qui Short
- /Qui Navel
- /Qui Collarbone
- //Ao Fat Chin
- The Marshalls used the term “visitors” to describe people who are not from the Ju/’hoan band the Marshalls are observing.
- Additional contextual information about sequences of images may be included within the photograph logs. For example, for Reel # XXII, at the bottom of the page is a brief description of a project that Elizabeth initiated, working with Ju/’hoansi to make plasticine models of animals (the collection also includes drawings by Ju/’hoansi from another project Elizabeth initiated). Additional contextual information such as this may be transcribed into the Catalog Transcription field.
- In their descriptions the Marshalls used terms that had local origins such as kaross (the animal hide worn as clothing), indaba (a council or conference, especially between or with Indigenous tribes of South Africa). They also used Afrikaans words that seemed not to have a better English translation: skerm or scherm (for the semi-nomadic homes the Ju/’hoansi built), kraal (a traditional African village of homes, typically enclosed by a fence), veld (open rural landscape), werft (yard or spaces adjacent to homes).
Formats in the collection include: black and white prints, color slides, stereoviews, and black and white negatives. Format information will be found in the Materials and Dimensions fields.
Prints
- Most but not all prints have corresponding negatives; see “Navigating Collections Online” for tips on searching for corresponding images.
- Some prints are duplicates or cropped. Exact duplicates, or duplicates without substantive additional annotations, have not been scanned.
- Some prints are loose; some prints are mounted on black paper, paperboard, or cardboard.
- While some prints have Anneliese Scherz’s stamp on them (see image below), they may have been printed but not taken by her. All negatives known to have been taken by Anneliese Scherz are identified as such.
- Lorna Marshall organized a significant number of prints into folders by themes. These thematic folder titles are included in the relevant image Display Titles before a colon.
Slides
- Some 1952-53 slides are organized thematically.
Stereoviews
- Some are organized thematically.
- Laurence Marshall took most of these.
- There are anaglyph images which may be viewed with 3D glasses.