The People in the Pictures

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

African American History And Culture, American History, Exhibits, Dc, History, Science, Sidedoor, History Of The World, Society & Culture, The Smithsonian, Washington, Natural History, Pop Culture, Smithsonian, Exhibit, Tony Cohn, Zoo, National Museum, Air And Space, National Zoo, Art19, Museum, Postal Museum

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, archivists are working with Native communities to correct the historical record … one photo at a time.

In this episode, we go inside the archives, where century-old photographs once labeled “Indian man” or “woman in costume” are being reexamined and renamed so they can be reconnected to living descendants. It’s a painstaking effort that’s also challenging the romanticized imagery popularized by photographers and anthropologists of the late 1800s, early 1900s.

Think there might be photos of your ancestors in the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives? Check here: https://sova.si.edu/

You can read about the Smithsonian's Ethical Returns and Shared Stewardship Policy here: https://ncp.si.edu/SI-ethical-returns

To submit a shared stewardship or ethical return inquiry or request, complete this form: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7447374/Shared-Stewardship-and-Ethical-Returns-Inquiry-Request-Submission-Form

If you have questions about the policy, contact nmai-sser@si.edu.

Guests:

Emily Moazami, head archivist at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Archive Center

Nathan Sowry, reference archivist at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Archive Center

Rachel Menyuk, processing archivist at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Archive Center

Special thanks to the Harmon Family:

Leonard Harmon, Pam Pierce Harmon Johnston, Mike Harmon and Matthew Harmon

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:13.2	I'm Lizzie Peabody.
0:14.3	A few years back, Emily Moazami was digging around in the archives of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, when she found something that took her by surprise.
0:33.6	I came across this photo and it just made me laugh out loud. Emily is the head
0:40.2	archivist at the museum, so she's seen a lot of photos, but this one really stuck out. It's an image of a
0:48.2	girl standing outside in a field. It's a black and white image. And she's clearly dressed up for an occasion.
0:56.5	And what's amazing about it is that she is grinning while also sticking her tongue out at the camera.
1:05.0	And I just love this moment so much because often you see historic photographs of Native peoples and they're very romanticized.
1:15.6	This photo was taken in the early 1900s, and most pictures from that period showed Native people dressed in ceremonial clothes,
1:23.6	staring at the camera expressionless. They were formal, even staged.
1:29.0	Not at all like this one.
1:30.3	This is like a very sweet, candid moment where a girl is acting like a typical girl
1:36.4	and she's just being like, I don't want my photo taken or I'm going to tease you and I'm
1:41.0	going to stick my tongue out at you.
1:43.0	Emily was enthralled by this young girl.
1:46.0	She wanted to know who is she.
1:48.0	So she went to the card catalog.
1:50.0	And all it said was woman in costume and that it was shot circa 1903 to 1910 and depicting the Crow community.
2:00.0	How normal is it to have so little information with a photo in the archives?
2:04.5	It is not that unusual, honestly.
2:07.0	This is Rachel Menyak.
2:08.4	She's a processing archivist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
	...

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