John Peabody Harrington was an ethnologist and linguist at the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology between 1915 and 1955. During that time, Harrington was dedicated to recording Native American languages throughout North America. Today, the Institute's remarkable J.P. Harrington Collection documents over 130 languages across North America via written notes and sound recordings. The collection also includes photographs and other artifacts collected by Harrington. On this website, visitors can see the full catalogue of the J.P. Harrington collection and explore a number of digitized archives. By visiting the Access the Collection page, visitors can explore the collection by media type, such as Photographs or Sound Recordings. Alternatively, visitors can explore a map of Native Languages of North America or a more detailed map of California, where Harrington did much of his research. The Sounds Recordings are perhaps the highlight of this collection and many are available for online listening. In some cases, these recordings are the only existing audio records of languages that are no longer spoken.
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