John Adair's The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths is the cornerstone study of its subject. First published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1944, it remains the work that scholars, traders, and collectors still reach for when tracing how silverwork arrived among the Navajo in the late nineteenth century and spread to Zuni and the Rio Grande pueblos. Adair did his fieldwork directly with the smiths, recording techniques, tools, and the social world of the craft, and his account has never been fully superseded.
This is the tenth printing of 1975, its copyright page laying out the full lineage of impressions from 1944 onward, which shows how steadily the book has stayed in print. The striking dust jacket wraps a close photographic study of a silversmith's hands at the forge, and the rear panel advertises the Press's celebrated "Oklahoma Books on Indian Art and Culture" list.
Tenth printing (1975) of the 1944 first
The copyright page lists ten printings from 'First Edition, 1944' to 'Tenth printing, 1975.' This copy is the tenth; the long printing history is itself the tell. This is a University of Oklahoma Press book; see how University of Oklahoma Press states its first printings.
| Author | John Adair |
| Publisher | University of Oklahoma Press |
| Year | 1975 |
| ISBN | 0-8061-0133-4 |
| Edition | Tenth printing (1975) of the 1944 first |
| Condition | Hardcover in dust jacket, jacket edge-worn. |
| Topic | Navajo & Pueblo silverwork |
Photographs © New Mexico Literacy Project. Licensed under CC BY 4.0; reuse with attribution. This is an identification and provenance record of a real donation; no appraisal or valuation is offered.
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