Archival Research

Overview of Archives: 

The Tomaquag Museum Archival Collection is dedicated to acquiring and preserving cultural materials of historical significance specifically related to Indigenous culture, history, storytelling, ecology, politics and sovereignty. The archive focuses on the Indigenous people of the Northeast United States and Southern New England, primarily the Narragansett/Niantic people, but the museum also collects relevant materials related to Indigenous people throughout the Western Hemisphere. The Archive contains over 100,000 physical items which encompass a wide variety of materials and resources, as well as individual collections. These individual collections include: original, primary documents such as correspondence, business records, photographs, artwork, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, language resources, oral history recordings, audiovisual materials, a small reference library and rapidly growing collection of digital assets.

The Archival Collection and library is limited in scope and focuses almost exclusively on the very late 19th century, 20th and early 21st century material.

If you are interested in researching or working with the collections at the Tomaquag Museum, please contact us at archives@tomaquagmuseum.org

*Please note that the museum’s ability to fulfill research inquiries is dependent upon the limitations of the collections and availability of staff time. With some requests certain research fees may apply. For more information about reproduction use and fees click HERE.

Please read our series in our Belongings Blog, From The Archives

Archival Collection Highlights:

Eva L. Butler

Eva Lutz Butler (1897-1969), was a historian, professor and archaeologist who founded the Tomaquag Museum along with Red Wing in Ashaway, Rhode Island in 1958. Upon her death in early January 1969, a large collection of her notebooks and some photographs remained with the museum which then became the foundation of what is now the Tomaquag Museum Archives. The Eva Lutz Butler Collection includes her research notebooks which are a representation of her expertise in history, especially obscure and interesting colonial records. [Her extensive research became the basis for the Old Mystic History Center, located in Old Mystic, Connecticut and was founded in 1965.] This collection also includes her research into all aspects of colonial era, especially Indigenous life, focusing on folklore, history, crafting, the industrial revolution and extended to general European colonial culture. Also included are the founding documents of the Tomaquag Museum and the field notes of several archaeological excavations she conducted while she was a professor at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic.

Winthrop Papers

Red Wing

Red Wing (1896-1987), born Mary E. Congdon (neé Peek, Glasko) commonly known as Princess Red Wing, was a Narragansett/Niantic and Wampanoag Sunksqua (Female Sachem), cultural ambassador, storyteller, historian, museum curator, singer and poet, co-founded the museum with Eva Lutz Butler in 1958 and remained with the museum until she retired at age 90 in 1986. Red Wing’s archive is vast and comprises of correspondence, poetry, medicinal knowledge (‘folk remedies’), stories, awards and recognitions [including an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Affairs from the University of Rhode Island in 1975], audio recordings, newspaper clippings, photographs, research, books, artwork, beadwork and publications including the Narragansett Dawn-a periodical that Red Wing edited along with Ernest Hazard in 1935 and 1936. [available at DigitalCommons@URI] Also included are the records of the Sons and Daughters of the First Americans, an organization she founded that focused on Indigenous sovereignty and rights in the 1940s until the early 1970s as well as research and drawings related to the design of the Narragansett Tribal flag and seal, which Red Wing designed.

Red Wing Finding Aid

Chief Strong Horse

Kenneth Smith, more commonly known as Chief Strong Horse, (1922-2019) was a Narragansett/Niantic cultural ambassador and the last War Chief of the Narragansett Tribe. Over the past decade Chief Strong Horse graciously donated to the Tomaquag Museum a rich archive that documents many years of his long life and some of his personal cultural belongings, some of which were regalia that he made himself.. Over the years Chief Strong Horse was a great presence at the Tomaquag Museum officiating and performing at many events including Thanksgivings at Dovecrest. His archive includes, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, photographs, oral history recordings, historical research, correspondence, writings and photocopies. Chief Strong Horse also donated his vast collection stone tools, which has greatly enhanced our lithics collection at the museum.

Hoté Casella 

Hoté Casella (1909-1990) [Gladys Mathonican Miller], Cherokee, was born Gladys Mathonican in San Angelo, Texas but moved to Los Angeles, California with her family as an infant and was raised there. A classically trained mezzo-soprano singer, who briefly studied at UCLA and Julliard, Hote’ Casella performed Native American songs and stories for school groups and audiences throughout the United States and Europe from the 1940s until the early 1980s. This collection is an overview of her career including sheet music, a notebook, promotional items, press releases, newspaper articles, programs, correspondence, photographs, and lacquer disc recordings. In addition, there are promotional photographs and miscellaneous material from another Native performer named Anita de Frey, a Modoc from California that were found with the Hoté Casella material.

Hote Casella Finding Aid and Selected Sheet Music

Dovecrest Collection

This collection relates to the Dovecrest property and the Dovecrest Restaurant and Trading Post. Dovecrest was what Ferris Babcock Dove and his wife Eleanor Spears Dove named the property in Arcadia Village in Exeter where they relocated their family in the mid-1950s. Not long after, the Doves opened Dovecrest Restaurant and Trading Post, which were in operation from 1963 until 1984, with attempts to reopen with the name after that date. The collection includes documents, correspondence, photographs, awards and recognitions, newspaper clippings, menus, catalogs, recipes, a guestbook and postcards, with related material in the Dove Family Collection.

Dovecrest Finding Aid

Dove Family Archives

The Dove Family Archives are a collection of materials from the family of Ferris Babcock Dove (1915-1983) and Eleanor Freda Spears Dove (1918-2019); their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The collection includes personal correspondence, papers, photographs, and personal and professional awards and recognitions related to the Dovecrest Restaurant, which operated from 1963 until 1984 on the Dovecrest property in Exeter Rhode Island, where the Tomaquag Museum is located today. 

John A. “Jack” Szelka Photographic Archive

John A. “Jack” Szelka (1917-2015) along with his brother Stan Szelka, operated Szelka Studios, Inc. located in Providence and Pawtucket for many years. The son of Polish immigrants, Jack was a World War II combat photographer and established his photo studio with his brother after returning from the war. He taught at the now defunct Rhode Island School of Photography and was a member of the Photographic Society of Rhode Island. Jack was well known for his portrait photography of Native Americans and these photos were frequently exhibited. Jack donated his postcards, exhibition prints, photographs and some negatives as well as notes to Tomaquag Museum Archive before he passed away at age 98 in 2015. His rich archive documents Indigenous people from New England in the mid-twentieth century and focuses on, but is not limited to, Southern New England.

Thank you to our Grant Funders and Donors for supporting the preservation and conservation of the Archives. USDA Rural Development, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Rhode Island Foundation (Herman H. Rose Civic, Cultural and Media Access Grant) and Reimagining New England Histories

Other Notable Collections

Photographic Collections

The Tomaquag Museum Archive contains thousands of photographs, slides and digital assets.  The bulk of the photographic collection includes material from the Eva L. Butler, Red Wing, Chief Strong Horse, Dove Family members, Dovecrest and Jack Szelka Collections. Additionally, the photographic archive includes the many donations from former docents, volunteers, curators, staff members and visitors to the Tomaquag Museum over the past 60+ years. 

Nuweetooun School Archive

The Nuweetooun School (Our Home) was a Kindergarten through 8th grade school for Indigenous children founded by Lorén Spears in 2003 and closed in 2010 (due to the Floods of 2010). The archive for the school includes lesson plans, school work, art projects, photographs, yearbooks and newspaper clippings.

Lyent W. Russell

Lyent W. Russell (1904-1998) was an avid archaeologist from Connecticut. Before his retirement he worked at the Sloane Physics Department at Yale University for 50+ years. His knowledge and love for archaeology was well known and as he was a founding member of the Institute for American Indian Studies and Archeological Society of Connecticut, the former which he served as President from 1944-1948. He was also a historian for the Connecticut River Powwow Society. As an archaeologist, he amassed a large collection of stone tools and documentation that he graciously donated to the Tomaquag Museum in 1982. This collection comprises the bulk of the lithic collection at this museum to this day. Every year the Lyent W. Russell Award for service to the Archaeological Society of Connecticut is given to someone who provides “outstanding contributions” to the society. 

Cassettes/Oral History Recordings

The Tomaquag Museum Archives retains a small, but significant collection of 123 audio cassettes that document several oral history projects from the 1980s-1990s and music as well as some audio recordings of Red Wing giving a museum tour, storytelling and at a school assembly. If you would like to read more about one of Red Wing’s recordings, please read the From the Archives series on the museum’s Belongings Blog HERE

Indigenous Language Resources Collection

Narragansett Dawn Collection Finding Aid

For any research inquires regarding colonial era records, local Indigenous history or genealogical inquires please visit our friends at:

Old Mystic History Center

South County History Center featuring the Kenneth T. Mars, Jr. Photograph Collection

South County History Center Archival Finding Aids

Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology

Rhode Island Historical Society and the Mary Elizabeth Robinson Research Center

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online (RIAMCO)

Rhode Island State Archives

Providence City Archives

Rhode Island State Archaeologist: State of Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission