The photographs in the Weinland Collection depict the people, the experiences and places which comprised their years of missionary service, first in Alaska and more extensively among the Native Americans of southern California. Though the vast majority of the photographs depict life on the Morongo Reservation, Weinland was an itinerant of sorts, an activist who sought a foothold for Protestantism wherever he could. Consequently, there are images from a number of the reservations which surrounded Morongo. The Alaska images were photographed by Hartmann and Weinland, as many of the mounts attest, and by the commercial photographer, M. Lorenz. The Morongo views are harder to attribute, though many were definitely taken by Weinland himself and others undoubtedly were. Some commercial photographers are also represented throughout this portion of the collection. Volumes 2 and 3 were albums compiled by Sarah Morris, one of the first school teachers at Morongo and a personal friend of the Weinlands. Her albums focus, naturally enough on the school houses where she taught as well as her charges. There is an item-level finding guide for all three of the volumes.

William Henry Weinland (1861-1930) was born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He attended Moravian schools and was graduated from Moravian College and Theological Seminary in preparation for a life of professional ministry. In 1884 Weinland volunteered for an exploratory expedition into Alaska with Henry Hartmann, a Moravian missionary based in Canada, to determine an appropriate site for a mission. A settlement along the Kuskokwim River was deemed suitable and in 1885, now ordained and newly married to Caroline Yost, Weinland returned to "Bethel," Alaska with his bride and three other missionaries, thus signaling the advent of a career devoted to missionary work. The Weinland's term of duty in Alaska was to be curtailed, however, by the ill health of Mrs. Weinland and one of her daughters.* The family returned to the United States where Rev. Weinland assumed the pastorate of the Moravian Church in Grace Hill, Iowa.

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