E. Jane Gay (1830-1919)
E. Jane Gay was born in Nashua, New Hampshire in 1830 and was educated in New York. In 1856, she traveled with her friend Catherine Melville to Macon, Georgia to found a school for young women. Gay taught at the school until its closing in 1860, and went on to administer a Washington, D.C. school for children with Melville until the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861.
From 1861 to 1865, Gay worked alongside Dorothea Lynde Dix as a nurse tending to wounded soldiers for the Union Army. After the war, Gay worked first as a tutor to President Andrew Johnson's grandchildren, then as a clerk in a dead letter office (1866-1883).
In 1888, Gay began teaching herself photography. In 1889, she was hired as the photographer and cook for an expedition led by anthropologist Alice C. Fletcher, an old friend and agent for the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. From 1889 to 1893, Gay traveled as the photographer with the expedition to the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Idaho. Gay's letters and photographs vividly capture the expedition's experiences with the Nez Perce in the American West.
After her return from the West, Gay lived in Washington, D.C., until 1906 when she traveled to Europe with one of her nieces, Emma Jane Gay (1859-1924). While in England, Gay and her niece published her photographs, illustrations, and letters from the Fletcher expedition to the Nez Perce in a two-volume book entitled Choup-nit-ki, with the Nez Perce. Besides providing a first-hand account of U.S. policy toward the American Indians under the Dawes Act, Choup-nit-ki, with the Nez Perce is an excellent window into the social conditions on the American frontier in the late nineteenth century.
After publishing Choup-nit-ki, with the Nez Perce, Gay decided to remain in Somerset, England, where she lived with her friend Dr. Caroline Sturge. Gay died in England in 1919 at the age of eighty-nine.
OCP Resources
ManuscriptsMany of E. Jane Gay's papers are held in the Jane Gay Dodge collection at Schlesinger Library. Jane Gay Dodge was one of E. Jane Gay's nieces. This collection includes Gay's two-volume collection of photographs, illustrations, and letters in Choup-nit-ki, with the Nez Perce. This book and her other albums provide a first-hand account of the implementation of the federal government's allotment policy toward the American Indians, as well as commentary on missionary work, westward expansion, racial conflict, and women's issues. In addition to the albums, the collection includes photographs and correspondence, such as a large selection of letters that were written to E. Jane Gay by Dorothea Dix and other influential women. The collection also incorporates biographical background on E. Jane Gay that will be valuable to researchers.
Dodge, Jane Gay, 1881-1963. Papers, 1861-1951. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
- Choup-nit-ki, With the Nez Perce, Volumes 1 and 2. Excerpts of letters from E. Jane Gay and Alice Cunningham Fletcher, originally written 1889-1893, copied with her illustrations, decorations, and photographs by E. Jane Gay. Hand bound (leather) by Emma Jane Gay in London, 1909.
- [Biographical], Folder #3.
- Jane Gay Dodge: reminiscences of E. Jane Gay, Alice Cunningham Fletcher; biography of E. Jane Gay.
- Re: school in Macon, Georgia
- [Photographs], Folders #4-6.
- Folder #4. Photographs of E. Jane Gay and Alice Cunningham Fletcher
- Folder #5. E. Jane Gay photo album, "Reminiscent Bits," Virginia, c.1890, with ts. poem.
- Folder #6. E. Jane Gay photo album, "Where We Camped," Idaho, 1889, with ms. poem.
- [Correspondence and miscellaneous], Folders #7-9.
- Folder #7. Francis La Flesche to E. Jane Gay and Jane Gay Dodge re: Alice Cunningham Fletcher's illness, death, and will, 1923-1926 Francis La Flesche's will TLS from George Russell, 1927
- Folder #8. Alice Cunningham Fletcher's will, and re: will Index cards re: Alice Cunningham Fletcher's work on Indian culture "An act to provide for the sale of a part of the reservation of the Omaha tribe of Indians in the State of Nebraska. . . ," 1882, ts.
- Folder #9. Correspondence, 1939, re: death of Chief Joseph (Nez Perce); also 4 photographs of Chief Joseph monument.
- [Correspondence to Dorothea Lynde Dix, arranged chronologically], Folders #10-14.
- Folder #10."Biographical sketches of people who wrote to Dorothea L. Dix," compiled by Jane Gay Dodge.
- Folder #11. Dorothea Lynde Dix's signature; 2 ALS from E[lizabeth] Blackwell, n.d.; ANS from W. Longfellow, n.d.
- Folder #12. 1861.
- January 14. Charles Sumner
- May 1. Frances Seward, wife of William H. Seward
- May 10. Pass issued to Dorothea Lynde Dix by Simon Cameron, Secretary of War
- May 11. Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis
- July 2. George Hughes Hepworth
- August 22. Washington Atlee
- October 2. L.M. Bonaparte
- Folder #13. 1863
- February 17. Eben Norton Horsford
- April 29. Joseph Hooker (signature)
- July 17. Horace Binney, Jr.
- ? A.D. Bache
- January 20, 1864. A.D. Bache
- June 18, 1864. Mary (Ashton) Livermore
- April 20, 1865. Torn letter from Fortress Monroe re: President Lincoln's visit to Leitz Point
- May 2, 1865. John J. Cronin
- 3 envelopes, "From the President of the United States": 1864, with John Hay signature 1865 (2), with J.G. Nicolay signature
- Folder #14. 1868.
- May 30. William Wilson Corcoran 1870.
- January 13. Francis Elias Spinner, Treasurer of the United States
- January 31. Francis Elias Spinner 1877.
- October 15. To Reverend Doctor Bellows from Mary Carpenter re: Dorothea Lynde Dix
Finding Aids
The papers of E. Jane Gay can be found in the Jane Gay Dodge Papers, 1861-1951, housed by Schlesinger
Library of the Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Study. All papers in the Jane Gay Dodge collection have been digitized and are available, using the link above. For more information consult the following
Finding Aids:
Finding Aid: Dodge, Jane Gay, 1881-1963. Papers, 1861-1951.
Web Resources
David Barber (Professor of English at the University of Idaho).
Three Victorian Gentlewomen Encounter Idaho and Live to Tell the Tale. July 2003.
The University of Idaho. With the Nez Perce During Allotment: E. Jane Gay, Her Majesty's Cook and Photographer, A Touring Exhibit of Photographs and Letters from the Nez Perce Reservation, 1889-1892.
National Anthropological Archives. Biographical Note on Alice Cunningham Fletcher. Fletcher, Alice Cunningham (1838-1923) and Francis La Flesche (1859-1932), Papers.
University of Nebraska Press. Bibliography of Works by Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche. 1988.