61 loose gelatin silver photos (including 12 duplicates), all ca. 8x11 cm (3 x 4 ½ in) or slightly smaller. Twenty-six images with period ink captions “Brevard Cty., Fla., 1933-34” on verso; several photos with pencil site numbers on verso (“2A,” “4A,” “4D,” “B”). With 95 film negatives and three negative glass plates, all ca. 8,5x12 cm (3 ½ x 4 ¾ in). Film negatives are housed in a period card “Kodak Film Pack” box with a period ink inscription “George Woodbury, Cocoa, Fla. (Hotel Knox), Exp. 3rd Feb.” A few photos mildly faded, and several negatives with lost contrast, but overall a very good collection.

Historically significant collection of original gelatin silver photos, film negatives and glass plates documenting archaeological excavations on Cape Canaveral (Brevard County, Florida), undertaken in 1933-1934 by Dr. George Woodbury. “This work was done as a part of a Federal Relief archaeological program under the sponsorship of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution. It was under the general direction of Dr. W.M. Stirling, Chief of the Bureau” (Willey, G.R. Burial patterns in the Burns and Fuller Mounds, Cape Canaveral, Florida// The Florida Anthropologist, Vol. VII, No. 3, September 1954, pp. 79-90). The main work was carried out at two sites on the northern end of the Indian River area – Burns mound (territory of modern-day Cape Canaveral Space Force Station) and Carter-Fuller mound complex (modern-day Center Street Park of Cape Canaveral town). It is generally agreed that the remains and artifacts belong to the Ulumay division of the Ais tribe. They are now housed at the National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C.) and at the Peabody Museum (Harvard University). Woodbury’s unpublished original papers and photographs are deposited in the National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Institution.

Most of the photographs are views of the excavated remains taken from different angles. The locations of the majority of the remains are identified - either by physical numbers photographed next to them or by period captions on verso - 2A (possibly, Burns mound, see: Stirling, p. 387; Willey, p. 80), 4A, 4D or B (likely, various mounts of the Fuller complex). Four general views show the site “2A” - taken at the “beginning excavation” and when “completed.”

The film negatives include views of the sites 2A (33), 4A (8), 4D (7), and unnumbered (16). There are also about twenty-five negatives, showing the mounds in their initial states, the excavation process, portraits of the workers and anthropologists digging the mounds, standing next to the unearthed remains, taking their photos or posing for the camera themselves. The glass plates are two photos of the remains and one portrait of a female anthropologist in her office with boxes and human skulls visible on the shelves on the right. Overall an important visual source on the history of archaeological excavations in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the 1st half of the 20th century.

See more about Woodbury’s excavations:

Sterling, M.W. Smithsonian Archeological Projects conducted under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, 1933-34// Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1934. Washington, 1935, pp. 371-400.