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Gift of Camilla S. Edholm in 1950.
Arranged by media type and catalog number.
Camilla Shaler Edholm was born in Nebraska to Albert and Katherine Edholm in 1901. She later became a New York City public school teacher and in the 1930s made several trips to Latin America including multiple trips to Panama. In 1938, Edholm taught English at Balboa High School in the Canal Zone in Panama. During her 1938 trip to Panama, Edholm went on various expeditions to the San Blas Islands visiting with the Guna (Kuna) communities. She died in Minnesota in 1976.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Camila S. Edholm photographs from Panama, image #, NMAI.AC.157. National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Processed by Rachel Menyuk, Processing Archivist, 2020. Identifications and additional cultural information provided by Kuna Yala artist Oswaldo De Leon Kantule in 2004.
The MAI also purchased a small collection of Guna (Kuna) material from Edholm in 1950. These objects have catalog numbers 21/7215 – 21/7220 and can be found in NMAI's ethnographic collections.
This collection includes 18 copy negatives, 10 postcards and 6 photographic prints made around 1934 and in 1938 in San Blas Islands and Darién Province in Panama. The negatives, made in 1938, include images of Guna (Kuna) community members in the Guna Yala Indigenous Territory (San Blas) and Guna de Madugandí Indigenous Territory. These include portraits of women, men and children posed in front of dwellings, in canoes, and completing communal tasks such as sugar cane extraction. One of the portraits includes an image of Chief Nele Kantulu from Ustupu who was the Kuna Yala leader of the Kuna Revolution (N25431). The postcards, acquired by Edholm in either 1934 or 1938, include captions in white lettering on the front and depict Kuna community members along the Río Chucunaque which runs between Emberá-Wounaan Indigenous Territory, Darién Province and the Guna de Waragandí Indigenous Territory. These include both scenic views and portraits. The last six photographic prints, also made in 1938, include images labeled as "Mona Island" though it is likely that they were shot on Monos Island in Kuna Yala (San Blas). These include an interior view of a primary school as well as portraits and scenic views.
Only five of the photographs were shot by Edholm (likely from P18401-P18406), the remainder of photographs from 1938 were shot by a Mr. Hatau who accompanied Edholm on her trip. The set of postcards were bought as a set on a trip to Panama in 1934. Edholm's original negatives were loaned to the MAI in 1950 and were made into prints and copy negatives by the Museum at the time.
Copy Negatives made from Edholm's prints (most likely shot by Mr. Hatau): N25430-N25447, Postcards: P18243-P18252, Photographic prints by Edholm: P18401-P18406.
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's