Zitkála-Šá

Object Details

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National Portrait Gallery Collection

Date

1898

Object number

NPG.2006.10

Exhibition Label

Born Pine Ridge, South Dakota

This portrait pictures Zitkála-Šá—also known as Gertrude Bonnin—at age twenty-two, during a period when she taught at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. Although she left Carlisle to study violin at the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music, she is best remembered not as a musician but rather as a writer and political activist. In 1900 she began publishing short stories and essays about her childhood and about the issues then affecting Native Americans. Following her marriage in 1902, she resettled in the West, where she worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, led community service programs, and taught school again. In 1916 Zitkála-Šá was elected the secretary of the Society of American Indians, an appointment that prompted her to move to Washington, D.C. There she worked on various Native American campaigns, including the effort that led to the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Artist

Joseph Turner Keiley, 26 Jul 1869 - 21 Jan 1914

Sitter

Zitkála-Šá, 22 Feb 1876 - 26 Jan 1938

Topic

Costume\Jewelry\Necklace

Interior

Home Furnishings\Blanket

Zitkála-Šá: Female

Zitkála-Šá: Literature\Writer

Zitkála-Šá: Society and Social Change\Reformer

Zitkála-Šá: Performing Arts\Performer\Musician\Violinist

Zitkála-Šá: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Lobbyist

Portrait

Medium

Glycerine-developed platinum print

Dimensions

Image/Sheet: 12.4 x 10.3cm (4 7/8 x 4 1/16")

Mount: 33.1 x 24.9cm (13 1/16 x 9 13/16")

Mat: 45.7 x 35.6cm (18 x 14")

Data Source

National Portrait Gallery

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Photograph

Metadata Usage

CC0

GUID

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm44b01ba3c-3295-4495-af77-a8eb439535f0

Record ID

npg_NPG.2006.10