Louis Bishop Capron Papers

Collection

Identifier: Ms 011

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The Capron Papers contain biographical materials and personal correspondence; fiction and nonfiction manuscripts; photographs, negatives, and slides by Capron; and photographs collected by Capron.

Biographical materials in the collection include newspaper clippings, blurbs from book jackets, diplomas, drawings, and personal photographs of Capron and his family. The correspondence (arranged by correspondent) spans the years from 1931 to 1967 and often includes both incoming and outgoing letters. Of special note is extensive correspondence with Smithsonian anthropologist William C. Sturtevant from 1952 to 1963.

The papers feature select typed manuscripts of several of Capron's novels, short stories, and non-fiction works on the Seminoles; several have extensive autograph revisions and outlines. The manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by title. Some also include Capron's rough sketches of suggested illustrations to accompany the text. The manuscripts in the collection are not exhaustive, but include some of his better known works like White Moccasins, The Golden Arrowhead, The Blue Witch, and others. Capron's first novel, The Red War Pole, is not included. Also absent from the collection are materials related to Capron's best known publication with the Smithsonian, "The Medicine Bundle of the Florida Seminole and the Green Corn Dance."

A significant portion of the collection is comprised of photographs taken by Capron-primarily portraits and group shots of Seminole men, women, and children in traditional attire and villages from the 1920s to 1970s. These are arranged into groupings designated by Roman numerals that he assigned. Negatives of these are keyed to their corresponding prints. People of interest featured in the photographs include the Tommie family, Toby Jones' family, John Osceola's family, the Motloe family, Dr. Tiger, and others. Furthermore, a compilation of slides from 1954 to 1967 depict canoe-making, basket-making, individual and group portraits, and landscapes. A number of these slides were incorporated by Tom King, of the UF Oral History Program, into a slide show that was in use in 1980 at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Capron also collected the work of other photographs of the Seminoles, dated from 1926 to 1949. Included in his collection are photographs from the Works Progress Administration, the Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnography, Silver Springs, and other unidentified sources. Among these are photographs of Billy Bowlegs III and other portraits and traditional scenes. They also include color photographs that juxtapose the architecture of traditional chickees with modern houses in the 1960s. In addition, Capron collected illustrated prints, clippings, and postcards of and about the Seminoles that are included in the collection.

Dates

Creation: 1913-1971

Creator

Capron, Louis. (Person)

Access

The collection is open for research. Box 5 is restricted from public access because it contains images of Seminole ceremonies not normally open to public view. Images bearing on death or mortality are also segregated from other photos. Contact curator for more information.

Biographical/Historical Note

Louis Bishop Capron was born in Albany, New York in 1891. Capron spent his childhood in Oneonta, where his exposure to local Indian history fostered an interest in folklore and ethnography. He attended Yale University to study chemistry, but received informal anthropological training by sitting in on graduate courses and participating in the Yale-Andover Archeological Survey of the Connecticut River Valley.

Capron moved to Florida in 1925 and worked at the Palm Beach Mercantile Company until 1952. He developed friendships with the Tommie family of the Seminole tribe after meeting them in 1926 during hurricane relief work. This encounter initiated a life-long relationship with the Seminoles that would inform both his work as an author and lay scholar.

Capron's young adult adventure fiction and nonfiction works both detailed the social life and customs of the Florida Seminole Indians. The novels he is best known for include White Moccasins, Golden Arrowhead, and The Red War Pole. He is also noted for his ethnographic work on the significance of medicine bundles and the Green Corn Dances. In 1953 his article on the subject was published by the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnography. Capron's nonfiction works on the Seminoles were also published by National Geographic. Capron died on December 16, 1971.

Sources: Interview by Samuel Proctor, August 31, 1971, SEM 30, Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.; "Louis Capron's First Published Book Is, of Course, On Indians," Palm Beach Post-Times, Sunday, Sept. 12, 1948, in the Capron Papers, Box 1, Biographic Material folder; Henry Marks, Who Was Who in Florida (Huntsville, Ala.: Strode Publishers, 1973); "Obituary, Louis Bishop Capron." The Florida Historical Quarterly 50, no.4 (1972:April): 461.

Extent

2.5 Linear feet (7 Boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Louis Bishop Capron Papers comprise personal correspondence, fiction and nonfiction manuscripts, and photographs of this children's author and amateur ethnographer of the Florida Seminole and Miccosukee Indians. Most of the materials pertain to Capron's interest in and friendship with the Seminoles.

Physical Location

University of Florida Smathers Library Building

Acquisition Information

Gift of Clara Hunter Capron. A number of photographic prints and slides were acquired from the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida.

Alternate Form of Material

Digital reproductions of items in this collection are available online via the University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC). Please read the Permissions for Use statement for information on copyright, fair use, and use of UFDC digital objects.

Related Material

See also the Albert DeVane collection and the Edward T. Keenan papers available at the University of Florida Special and Area Studies Collections. The transcript of an interview with Capron is available online from the University of Florida Oral History Collections. Other recordings of Capron speaking about cattlemen and the Seminoles are available in the Sound Archives.

Processing Notes

Manuscripts from the Florida Fiction collection, originally donated by Clara Hunter Capron, were joined with the Louis Capron Photographs to form a single collection. All correspondence has been re-foldered by correspondent and organized chronologically.

Box 3 contains Capron's photographs of Seminole life and people. This material is arranged in folders according to Capron's original organization, which goes by Roman numeral. Some folders are now under restriction and are housed separately.

There has been some reorganization of the contents of Boxes 3 and 4 in an attempt to group by known or conjectured provenance of photographs that Capron collected but apparently did not take himself. Known provenances for these photos include Tom King, Works Progress Administration, Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnography, Silver Springs, etc.