Museum of Us

Constance Goddard DuBois (1869-1934) was a historical novelist turned ethnographer. As a young woman she wrote historical fiction and became interested in the plight of the American Indian, especially the Mission Indians of Southern California. She became an activist for reform in the government’s treatment of the American Indians and as a result took on personal fieldwork to determine the conditions on Southern California reservations, especially documenting conditions of the Luiseño and Kumeyaay. She became a member of the American Anthropological Association and the American Folk-Lore Society, and she undertook fieldwork for the American Museum of Natural History and Alfred L. Kroeber at the University of California, Berkeley. Her personal photograph albums, documenting the years 1897 to 1907, were donated to the Museum by Dr. Goddard DuBois in 1968. These albums contain priceless information about the people and their living conditions on San Diego County reservations a century ago. In addition to her own personal photographs, the albums also contain photos by Edward H. Davis (1862-1951) and other friends, with whom Goddard DuBois traveled to different southern California reservations and missions, most notably the Mesa Grande Reservation in San Diego, California.

This collection is made up of 121 negatives of various sizes. The photograph locations encompass sites in San Diego, California and Baja California, Mexico. The San Diego locations are as follows: the Mesa Grande and Pala Indian Reservations, Warner Springs, Laguna Mountains, Pine Valley, Jacumba, Escondido, Oceanside, Imperial County, Balboa Park, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The locations in Baja California include: El Rosario, Jatay, Laguna Salada, San Felipe, San Quintín, Santo Domingo, Santo Tomás, Sierra San Felipe, Sierra San Juarez, and Sierra San Pedro. The photographs are taken by eight different photographers including: Clinton G. Abbott, Edward H. Davis, Guy L. Fleming, Mrs. Marjorie Lee Guest, Laurence Markham Huey, F. W. Kelsey, W. S. Wright, and R. E. Vandruff.