Articles could advertise “Ishi.”

Museum visitors could say they had seen “Ishi.”

Books could later place “Ishi” on their covers.

But the famous name was a substitute.

The private identity of the man behind it remained outside the reach of the institutions that documented almost every other aspect of his life.

This is one of the rare places where the failure of the archive tells us something more powerful than another document might have.

The University could record his voice.

It could photograph his face.

It could collect the objects he made.

It could preserve measurements, medical notes, field observations, and linguistic data.