Elephant Pipes and Inscribed Tablets in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Davenport, Iowa.

Putnam, Charles E.

Published by Glass & Hoover, Printers and Binders, Davenport, IA, 1885

About this Item

Original publisher's orange-brown paper wrappers. Black lettering and illustration of an elephant pipe printed on front cover. 6" x 9." Ninety-five pages, complete. A few black-and-white illustrations, complete. Errata printed in back. Pages are clean and intact except for two faint dampstains on fore-edge, slight crease in lower corner of fore-edge, small dampstain at bottom edge of last few pages, and light age toning. Covers are clean and intact overall except for slight chipping and wear to corners and head and tail of spine, creases at corners of fore-edge on front, and a small faint dampstain at bottom edge on back. A Very Good copy. This is a paper that was prepared by Charles E. Putnam, President of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, in defense of the Davenport Academy's collection and findings relating to the elephant pipes and inscribed tablets of the "Mound Builders." Putnam writes that his paper is a vindication in response to accusations made by researchers of the Smithsonian Institution and Bureau of Ethnology. Putnam takes particular issue with Henry W. Henshaw, an ethnologist at the Smithsonian and Bureau, who had published a monograph that charged the Davenport Academy with making false theories about the identity of the Mound Builders and fraudulently claiming that its collection of elephant pipes, inscribed tablets, and other artifacts are authentic. Putnam had originally agreed with the prevailing theory of the Smithsonian and Bureau that the Mound Builders were ancestors of present-day Indigenous Peoples in the United States. However, Putnam emphatically defends his change of course and current theory that the mounds and artifacts found within them belonged to an ancient race completely separate from the Indigenous tribes of North America. Putnam appears to be more supportive of theories claiming that the Mound Builders were descended from Central American or Peruvian civilizations. Part of Putnam's opposition to the Smithsonian's and Bureau's findings is based on his misconception that Pre-Columbian hunter-gatherer cultures of North America were incapable of building complex structures such as the mounds or creating intricate artifacts such as the elephant pipes or tablets. Most of the pamphlet is Putnam's defense of his theory as to the ancestral origins of the Mound Builders and the authenticity of the related artifacts. While Putnam's theory has been widely discredited in the present day, it is very possible that the related artifacts of the Davenport Academy were authentic. Modern consensus appears to conclude that at least most of the mounds and their constituent artifacts found in the present-day U.S. were indeed constructed by ancestors of present-day Indigenous Peoples in the U.S.

Seller Inventory # 026541

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Elephant Pipes and Inscribed Tablets in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Davenport, Iowa.
• Publisher: Glass & Hoover, Printers and Binders, Davenport, IA
• Publication Date: 1885
• Language: English
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science and Technology
  • Literature
  • U.S. History