The digitized portion (4,500 items; 4,603 images) of the papers of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864), geologist, ethnologist, U.S. Indian Agent and Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Michigan Territory and the state of Michigan, pertains primarily to his wife, Ojibwe poet and translator Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (Bamewawagezhikaquay) (1800-1842), the first Native American woman poet to receive major literary recognition in the United States.

Featured are Henry’s and Jane’s diaries and journals, 1818-1878; original draft poems by Jane written circa 1815-1840; extant draft issues of a handwritten manuscript magazine, The Literary Voyager (Muzzeniegun), which the two produced in the Sault Ste. Marie community in winter 1826-1827; and handwritten drafts of Indian legends and tales collected from various sources and translated into English by Jane and her family or written out by them in English form.  Documentation includes contributions by Jane’s parents John and Susan Johnston, her siblings William, George, Charlotte, and Eliza Johnston, and other individuals they knew from networks of kin or from the acquaintanceships formed through Indian Agency work and trade.  Many contributors remain unidentified.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft later adapted in selected and revised ways for his print publications on Native American culture the legends and tales written or collected and translated by Jane and her Johnston family.  Included in the digitized materials are various forms of bilingual linguistic information which can be consulted for Ojibwemowin/Anishinaabemowin language revitalization study, and which is based in part on archaic use of phonetic spellings and forms, as well as variations on Native American stories and tales originally transmitted through generations by oral tradition.

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was born in the trading village of Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan Territory, near the St. Mary’s River and the Canadian border.  She was the daughter of Ozhaguscodaywayquay (Susan Johnston), who was a member of a prominent Ojibwe (Chippewa) family of LaPointe (Adik or Caribou clan), and the fur trader John Johnston, an immigrant from Ireland who moved in the international circles of the Great Lakes United States-Canadian borderlands.  She married the newly appointed U.S. Indian Agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in Sault Ste. Marie in 1823 and remained married to him until her death.  The two lived at Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac Island during his service as an Indian Agent and superintendent of Indian Affairs. They traveled and stayed periodically in Detroit, New York, and Washington, D.C.  In 1841 they relocated from the Sault region of Jane’s birth to New York City, in the state where Henry was born.  Jane Johnston Schoolcraft died suddenly on May 22, 1842, while on an extended visit to her sister Charlotte’s home in Dundas, Ontario, Canada, while Henry was away on a lecture tour of England and Europe. Additional information about Jane, Henry, and their extended families may be found in the timelines and biographical essay under the Articles and Essays tab.

A finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Papers is available online with links to the digital content on this site.

The full Henry Rowe Schoolcraft collection (25,000 items; 1788-1941) is arranged in twelve series as noted below, with three series digitized in full from the originals and four series digitized in part. The materials are primarily in English and Ojibwemowin/Anishinaabemowin. The entire collection was microfilmed on 69 reels between 1967 and 1973, and individual reels are available for interlibrary loan.  A grayscale digitized version of the full microfilm is also available by subscription through the Gale Indigenous Peoples of North America proprietary electronic resource. 

General Correspondence, 1806-1864 (Reels 1-42)
Bound correspondence, memoranda, reports, and notes, arranged chronologically, 1809-1864, and unbound correspondence and enclosures with a few printed items sent to Schoolcraft, arranged chronologically, 1806-1864.

Correspondence of Mary Howard Schoolcraft, 1846-1889 (Reels 43-47)
Correspondence and a few related items of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s second wife, Mary Howard Schoolcraft, arranged chronologically.  Additional correspondence may also be found in the series of bound General Correspondence, Vols. 23-33.

Letter Copybook, 1822-1825 (Reel 48)
Contemporary copies of letters received by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft while Indian agent at Mackinac and Sault Sainte Marie, Mich. Contains a partial index. Arranged chronologically.

Journals, 1818-1873 (Reel 48) (Digitized in full)
Bound and unbound journals and notes kept by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, with transcripts of some journals. Arranged chronologically.

Subject File, 1822-1836 (Reel 49) (Digitized in full)
Lists, notes, reports, memoranda, statistics, and Native American vocabularies. Arranged in approximate alphabetical order.

Articles, 1818-1862 (Reels 50-51) (Selected files digitized)
Chiefly manuscripts of articles and book reviews by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft or ascribed to him. Arranged in approximate alphabetical order.

Manuscript Magazines, 1809-1941 (Reel 52) (Digitized in full)
Manuscripts of magazines by members of the Schoolcraft and Johnston families. Arranged chronologically in bound volumes.

Poetry File, 1788-1873 (Reels 53-56) (Selected files digitized)
Drafts, printers’ copies, and newspaper clippings of Schoolcraft’s poems. Collected works under single titles are at the end of the series. Poems of John Johnston, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, and others are filed separately at the end of the series. Arranged by title in approximate alphabetical order.

Book File, circa 1817-1857 (Reels 57-63) (Selected files digitized)
Research material, notes and drafts, manuscripts, fair copies, and page proofs of Schoolcraft's major published and unpublished works. Contains some fragments. Arranged in approximate alphabetical order.

Miscellaneous Writings, 1820-circa 1860 (Reels 63-65) (Selected files digitized)
Lectures, speeches, prospectuses, government reports, forms, unidentified fragments of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s writings, and clippings of reviews of Schoolcraft's books. Arranged by type of material and chronologically or alphabetically therein.

Miscellany, 1814-1906 (Reels 66-68)
Manuscripts of articles by others, calling cards, newspaper clippings, a commonplace book, Spanish and Native American mission books, notebooks, printed matter, sketches, maps and charts, financial records, and indexes and descriptions of the papers. Includes Joseph N. Nicollet's journal. Arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Oversize, circa 1820-1846 (Reel 69)
Commissions, charts, and maps. Unarranged.