Glass lantern slights, hand-colored. With typed captions mounted on one side, the other side with label of the General Board of Promotion (or of Missionary Cooperation) of the Northern Baptist Convention. Some with imprint of Edward Van Altena, notable producer of lantern slides. Slides measure 8.2x10.2 cm (3¼x4").
Selection of rare original lantern slides of Mono Indians taken for the Northern Baptist mission. Work with the Mono Indians started in 1907, and in 1909 the Fresno County Indian Association succeeded in getting the Baptist denomination to establish the first station for Mono Indians at Auberry, Fresno County, with Ida M. Schofield as the first missionary. Six months later she was joined by Emma C. Christensen. They were working under the direction of the Northern California Baptist State Convention. Later came J. G. Brendel, general missionary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society.
Besides the first missionaries to Mono, there was another bearer of the of the Good News laboring independently in another part of the mountains. This was Neas-je -gar-gath (Alfred Lord), a Christian Indian and woodcarver. He supported himself by carving wooden curios which he sold to white people who passed his tent. He is featured in one of the glass lantern slides ("Mono Alfred Lord preaching to his people ").
Mr. Hannibal, a deacon of the First Negro Baptist Church in Fresno, was with a party of hunters in the remote settlements where Alfred Lord had pitched his tent and attended one of the meetings. Impressed with the Indian preachers; message and his sincerity, Mr. Hannibal brought word of his activities to Dr. H. E. Wilkinson, a prominent Baptist of Fresno. The latter in turn sent to Mr. Brendel (American Baptist Home Mission Society). In time Alfred Lord received a commission from the Northern California Baptist State Convention and the Home Mission Society to work as Baptist missionary to the Mono. His two fields, Coarse Gold and Nip-pin-na-wa-see (Nippinnawasee), are twenty miles apart.
The slides comprise:
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Alfred Lord Preaching to His People. (This slide is not colored.)
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Nio-pin-na-wa-see Indian station near Yosemite Valley. (This slide with two cracks.)
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Athletics Among the Mono.
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Hunter Jim - A Mono Christian of Sycamore.
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Jim Waley - A Mono Christian.
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Indian Mother and Papoose.
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Getting Dinner Ready at Conf.
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Gladys Largo and borther [sic].