Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881)
Lewis Henry Morgan, although trained as a lawyer, became interested in the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)
Indians of New York State and was among the earliest Americans to make scientific studies of Native
Americans. Like many of his generation, he feared the Indian people of America would not survive the
impact of western civilization. He and a group of like minded young men founded the Grand Order of
the Iroquois, an organization dedicated to understanding and preserving the social and political structure
of Iroquois society.
Ely Parker, probably before the
Civil War. Galena Historical
Society, Galena, Illinois
Lewis Henry Morgan at about age 32
Dept of Rare Books and Special Collections,
University of Rochester Library
After a chance meeting in 1844 with Ely S Parker, a Seneca teenager fluent in English and Seneca,
Morgan’s interest in the Haudenosaunee increased. The two young men became friends, and Parker
introduced Morgan to his friends and family at Tonawanda Reservation, near Akron, New York. Morgan
pursued his studies of Iroquois ethnology with Parker’s assistance both at Tonawanda and at the Six
Nations Reservation in Canada. The joint intellectual effort resulted in Morgan’s book, The League of
the Iroquois, which he dedicated to Parker, the first full length study of an American Indian people.
Frontspiece of the League of
The Iroquois (1851)
Morgan collected objects from the daily life of the Haudenosaunee for the State Cabinet of Natural
History of the Regents of the State of New York. His reports to the Regents are illustrated with hand
colored images. His notes of his fieldwork reveal his enthusiasm for the material culture of the Iroquois
people and his belief that
“the fabrics of a people unlock their social history. They speak a language
which is silent, but yet more eloquent than the written page.”
Skirt, or Gä-kä-ah, Pl 17,
Fifth Regents Report
A disastrous fire in the Albany (NY) Museum in 1911 destroyed much of this collection. Morgan’s
personal collection was donated to the Rochester Museum & Science Center by the University of
Rochester and is preserved today for research and special exhibits.
Morgan’s initial interest in the American Indian was sparked by a desire to learn about their kinship
systems. He first described the Haudenosaunee system of kinship and then pursued the subject with other
native groups. He made five field trips (by horse, train and steamboat) to the western “Indian country”
between 1859 and 1862, and to southwestern Colorado and Arizona in 1878, collecting artifacts along
with recording kinship systems whenever possible. His extensive knowledge of kinship systems led to
the publication of his Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family (1870).
His journals of these trips have been published as The Indian Journals, 1859-62 (1959) by Leslie A
White, editor, and “Lewis Henry Morgan’s Journal of a Trip to Southwestern Colorado and New Mexico,
June 21 to August 7 1879” also edited by Leslie A White (1942). In these journals he recorded purchases
of objects that now are in the Rochester Museum collection.
Morgan’s business interests led him to invest in mining and railroads. In 1855, on the first of many
business trips to Michigan, he became interested in studying the American beaver, which culminated in a
volume detailing the American Beaver and His Work (1868).
His last book, Houses and House-life of the American Aborigines, was published in 1881, only a few
weeks before his death.
Bark House, or Gä-nó-sote, Pl 20
Fifth Regents Report