National Museum of Natural History (U.S.). Department of Anthropology Search this
Smithsonian Institution. Department of Anthropology Search this
Smithsonian Institution. United States National Museum. Department of Anthropology Search this
Extent:
330.25 Linear feet (519 boxes)
Note:
Some materials are held off-site; this will be indicated at the series or sub-series level. Advanced notice must be given to view these portions of the collection.
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1840s-circa 2015
Summary:
The Department of Anthropology records contain administrative and research materials produced by the department and its members from the time of the Smithsonian Institution's foundation until today.
Scope and Contents:
The Department of Anthropology records contain correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, memoranda, invoices, meeting minutes, fiscal records, annual reports, grant applications, personnel records, receipts, and forms. The topics covered in the materials include collections, exhibits, staff, conservation, acquisitions, loans, storage and office space, administration, operations, research, budgets, security, office procedures, and funding. The materials were created by members of the Section of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, the Division of Anthropology of the United States National Museum, the Office of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History, and the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History and range in date from before the founding of the Smithsonian Institution to today. The Department of Anthropology records also contain some materials related to the Bureau of American Ethnology, such as documents from the River Basin Surveys.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 28 series: (1) Correspondence, 1902-1908, 1961-1992; (2) Alpha-Subject File, 1828-1963; (3) Alpha-Subject File, 1961-1975; (4) Smithsonian Office of Anthropology Subject Files, 1967-1968; (5) River Basin Survey Files, 1965-1969; (6) Research Statements, Proposals, and Awards, 1961-1977 (bulk 1966-1973); (7) Publication File, 1960-1975; (8) Memoranda and Lists Concerning Condemnations, 1910-1965; (9) Notebook on Special Exhibits, 1951-1952 (10) Section on Animal Industry; (11) Administrative Records, 1891-1974; (12) Administrative Records, 1965-1994 (bulk 1975-1988); (13) Fiscal Records, 1904-1986; (14) Annual Reports, 1920-1983; (15) Chairman's Office Files, 1987-1993; (16) Division of Archaeology, 1828-1965; (17) Division of Ethnology, 1840s, 1860-1972, 1997; (18) Division of Physical Anthropology; (19) Division of Cultural Anthropology, 1920-1968; (20) Records of the Anthropological Laboratory/Anthropology Conservation and Restoration Laboratory, 1939-1973; (21) Collections Management, 1965-1985; (22) Photographs of Specimens and Other Subjects (Processing Laboratory Photographs), 1880s-1950s; (23) Exhibit Labels, Specimen Labels, Catalog Cards, and Miscellaneous Documents, circa 1870-1950; (24) Antiquities Act Permits, 1904-1986; (25) Ancient Technology Program, circa 1966-1981; (26) Urgent Anthropology; (27) Records of the Handbook of North American Indians; (28) Personnel; (29) Repatriation Office, 1991-1994
Administrative History.:
The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846. Although there was no department of anthropology until the creation of the Section of Ethnology in 1879, anthropological materials were part of the Smithsonian's collection from its foundation. The Section of Ethnology was created to care for the rapidly growing collection. In 1881, the United States National Museum was established. Soon thereafter, in 1883, it was broken up into divisions, including the Division of Anthropology. In 1904, Physical Anthropology was added to the Division.
The Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) was created in 1879 as a research unit of the Smithsonian, separating research from collections care. However, during the 1950s, research became a higher priority for the Department of Anthropology and, in 1965, the BAE was merged with the Department of Anthropology to create the Office of Anthropology, and the BAE's archives became the National Anthropological Archives (NAA).
In 1967, the United States National Museum was broken up into three separate museums: the Musuem of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History), the National Museum of American Art, and the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). The Office of Anthropology was included in NMNH and was renamed the Department of Anthropology in 1968.
New divisions were added to the Department, including the Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) in 1981, the Research Institute on Immigration and Ethnic Studies (RIIES) in 1982, and the Repatriation Office in 1993. In 1983, the Smithsonian opened the Museum Support Center (MSC) in Suitland, Maryland, as offsite housing for collections with specialized storage facilities and conservation labs.
The Department of Anthropology is currently the largest department within NMNH. It has three curatorial divisions (Ethnology, Archaeology, and Biological Anthropology) and its staff includes curators, research assistants, program staff, collections specialists, archivists, repatriation tribal liaisons, and administrative specialists. It has a number of outreach and research arms, including the Repatriation Office, Recovering Voices, Human Origins, and the Arctic Studies Center.
The Museum is home to one of the world's largest anthropology collections, with over three million specimens in archaeology, ethnology, and human skeletal biology. The NAA is the Smithsonian's oldest archival repository, with materials that reflect over 150 years of anthropological collecting and fieldwork. The HSFA is the only North American archive devoted exclusively to the collection and preservation of anthropological film and video.
Sources Consulted
National Museum of Natural History. "Department of Anthropology: About" Accessed April 13, 2020. https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/anthropology/about
National Museum of Natural History. "History of Anthropology at the Smithsonian." Accessed April 13, 2020. https://naturalhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/media/file/history-anthropology-si.pdf
National Museum of Natural History. "History of the Smithsonian Combined Catalog." Accessed April 13, 2020 https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/sihistory.htm
Chronology
1846 -- The Smithsonian Institution is founded
1879 -- George Catlin bequeaths his collection to the Smithsonian The Section of Ethnology is established to oversee ethnological and archaeological collections The Bureau of Ethnology is established by Congress as a research unit of the Smithsonian
1881 -- The U.S. National Museum (USNM) is established as a separate entity within the Smithsonian Institution
1883 -- The staff and collections of the USNM are reorganized into divisions, including a Division of Anthropology
1897 -- The United States National Museum is reorganized into three departments: Anthropology headed by W. H. Holmes; Biology with F. W. True as head; and Geology with G. P. Merrill in charge The Bureau of Ethnology is renamed the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) to emphasize the geographic limit of its interests
1903 -- The Division of Physical Anthropology established
1904 -- The Division of Physical Anthropology is incorporated into the Division of Anthropology
1910 -- The USNM moves into the new Natural History Building
1965 -- The Smithsonian Office of Anthropology is created on February 1 The BAE is eliminated and merged with the Office of Anthropology
1968 -- The Smithsonian Office of Anthropology (SOA) of the National Museum of Natural History is retitled the Department of Anthropology on October 29
1973 -- The Research Institute on Immigration and Ethnic Studies (RIIES) is established at the National Museum of Natural History's (NMNH) Center for the Study of Man (CSM) to study the waves of immigration to the United States and its overseas outposts that began in the 1960's
1975 -- The National Anthropological Film Center is established
1981 -- The National Anthropological Film Center is incorporated into the Department of Anthropology
1982 -- The RIIES, part of the CSM at the NMNH, is transferred to the Department of Anthropology
1991 -- NMNH establishes a Repatriation Office
1993 -- The Repatriation Office is incorporated into the Department of Anthropology
Head Curators and Department Chairs
1897-1902 -- William Henry Holmes
1902-1903 -- Otis T. Mason (acting)
1904-1908 -- Otis T. Mason
1908-1909 -- Walter Hough (acting)
1910-1920 -- William Henry Holmes
1920-1923 -- Walter Hough (acting)
1923-1935 -- Walter Hough
1935-1960 -- Frank M. Setzler
1960-1962 -- T. Dale Stewart
1963-1965 -- Waldo R. Wedel
1965-1967 -- Richard Woodbury
1967-1970 -- Saul H. Riesenberg
1970-1975 -- Clifford Evans
1975-1980 -- William W. Fitzhugh
1980-1985 -- Douglas H. Ubelaker
1985-1988 -- Adrienne L. Kaeppler
1988-1992 -- Donald J. Ortner
1992-1999 -- Dennis Stanford
1999-2002 -- Carolyn L. Rose
2002-2005 -- William W. Fitzhugh
2005-2010 -- J. Daniel Rogers
2010-2014 -- Mary Jo Arnoldi
2014-2018 -- Torbin Rick
2018- -- Igor Krupnik
Related Materials:
The NAA holds collections of former head curators and department chairs, including the papers of Otis Tufton Mason, Walter Hough, T. Dale Stewart, Waldo Rudolph and Mildred Mott Wedel, Saul H. Riesenberg, Clifford Evans, and Donald J. Ortner; the photographs of Frank Maryl Setzler; and the Richard B. Woodbury collection of drawings of human and animal figures.
Other related collections at the NAA include the papers of Gordon D. Gibson, Eugene I. Knez, and Betty J. Meggers and Clifford Evans; and the records of the Bureau of American Ethnology, the Center for the Study of Man, and the River Basin Surveys.
Provenance:
This collection was transferred to the National Anthropological Archives (NAA) by the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Anthropology in multiple accessions.
Restrictions:
Some materials are restricted.
Access to the Department of Anthropology records requires an appointment.
Harold K. Schneider was an economic anthropologist specialized in Africa. He was trained at Northwestern University (Ph.D., 1953) and taught at Lawrence University (1953-1970) and Indiana University (1970-1987). The Schneider papers comprise mainly sets of documents relating to fieldwork in East Africa. The collection includes a few original fieldnotes, complete copies of expanded typscript versions of the notes, collations of data on subject categories, lexicons and other linguistic material, indexes, maps, and a few photographs. Also among the material are translations of German sources and copies of notes based on archival material, particularly material produced in colonial district offices. A small quantity of material concerning Africa generally reflects Schneider's broad interest in Africa and African pastoral economies.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Harold K. Schneider are primarily comprised of documents relating to his fieldwork in East Africa. One part concerns the Pokot (Suk), a pastoral people of Kenya, among whom Schnieder conducted fieldwork in 1951-1952 and about whom he wrote his dissertation. Another part concerns the Turu, a pastoral people of Tanzania, whom Schneider visited in 1959-1960.
The collection includes original fieldnotes, complete copies of expanded typescript versions of the notes, collations of data by subject categories, lexicons and other linguistic material, indexes, maps and a few photographs. Also among the materials are translations of German documents, copies of archival items, and notes from archival research, especially in records of colonial district offices. A small quantity of material concerning Africa in general reflects Schneider's broad interests in Africa and African pastoral economies. There are also a number of sound recordings, mainly recordings of Schneider's own lectures but also including a lecture by historian George Stocking.
There is also an alphabetical file based on personal names that includes correspondence, obituaries and publications. Notable contacts include William R. Bascom, G. Boulogne, John Bucklew, Stephan Borhegyi, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Father Delbert Ewing, Lloyd A. Fallers, George Fathauer, William N. Fenton, Daryll Forde, Meyer Fortes, H.A. Fosbrooke, Padraic Frucht, Alexander Galloway, James Gibbs, Maurice Godelier, J.R. Good, Melville J. Herskovits, Hubert H. Humphrey, Father Raymond F. Kelly, Edward E. LeClair, Jr., Alan P. Merriam, James Moody, Joseph G. Moore, Leonard Moss, Raoul Narroll, Maxine Nimitz, J. Peristiany, Nathan M. Pusey, Audry I. Richards, Chandler W. Rowe, Aidan W. Southall, Kathleen Stahl, Roy Swanson, Curtis W. Tarr, Sol Tax, and E.H. Winter.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
1. Personal name file (includes correspondence); 2. Pokot Material; 3. Turu Material; 4. Other Materials (comprising draft manuscripts, conference papers, lecture notes and typescripts of Turu fieldnotes; 5. General Africa Materials; 6. Sound recordings.
Biographical Note:
Harold K. Schneider was an economic anthropologist who specialized in Africa. He began his undergraduate studies at Macalester College, attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (1946-48), then returned to Macalester to complete his degree, majoring in sociology with a minor in biology (B.A., 1949). He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Northwestern University (where he studied with Melville Herskovits) in 1953. Following his fieldwork among the Pokot of Kenya, Scheider accepted a position as instructor of anthropology at Lawrence University (1953-1970). He conducted fieldwork among the Turu of Tanzania in 1959-60, from which he further developed his theories in economic anthropology. He served as the president of the Central States Anthropological Society (1965); as founding president of the Society for Economic Anthropology (1982-84); and as associate editor for American Ethnologist (1980-84). In 1970, he joined the faculty of Indiana University, where he remained until his death on May 2, 1987.
1925 -- Born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, on August 24, 1925
The papers of Aleš Hrdlička, curator in the Division of Physical Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, United States National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, offer considerable insight into the development of physical anthropology in the first half of this century. The papers include honors bestowed on Hrdlička, autobiographical notes, correspondence with many of the leading anthropologists of the day, anthropometric and osteometric measurements and observations (forming most of the collection), extensive photographs of Hrdlička's field work, manuscripts, research materials, and "My Journeys" (essentially a diary Hrdlička kept of his field work). In addition, there is material of a personal nature. The papers date from 1875 to 1966, but the bulk of the materials date from 1903 to 1943, the time of Hrdlička's career at the USNM.
Scope and Contents:
This collection is comprised of both professional and personal materials. The professional material includes honors bestowed on Hrdlička, autobiographical notes, correspondence with many of the leading anthropologists of the day, anthropometric and osteometric measurements and observations (forming most of the collection), extensive photographs of Hrdlička's field work, manuscripts, research materials, and "My Journeys" (essentially a diary Hrdlička kept of his field work). The personal material primarily consists of correspondence with his first wife (Marie Dieudonnée Strickler) and other family members, but there are also financial records. The papers date from 1875 to 1966, but the bulk of the materials date from 1903 to 1943, the time of Hrdlička's career at the United States National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Hrdlička investigated all major questions confronting physical anthropologists of his day (the fossil record of early humans, the arrival of humans in the Americas, human variation, evolution, and eugenics) and made valuable contributions in all these areas. Hrdlička's interests in the establishment of physical anthropology as a distinct and important field, the welfare of the Czech people, early hominids, and variation within the human species are all documented in the collection as are the services he performed for various United States government agencies. He pursued field studies in many different parts of the world, but there are relatively few field notes as such among his papers. There is instead the edited journal "My Journeys," photographs, and physical anthropological forms. There is also relatively little material on his administrative involvement in the USNM. There is no material from Hrdlička's time at the Pathological Institution of the New York State Hospitals; after he resigned, fire destroyed the anthropological records Hrdlička collected as a member of the staff. There are materials in the collection which contradict, or at least complicate, many long-held criticisms of Hrdlička, particularly claims that he was racist and opposed feminist ideas. The collection contains materials of interest to genetic research, including anthropometric measurements, hair clippings and fingerprints.
There are a few items in the collection which are dated earlier than the collection's date span. These are publication dates, and the folders containing the items have been dated accordingly, but they have not affected the dates of the series or collection. There are also a few items which are dated after Hrdlička's death. These dates reflect the fact that the collection was added to by the Department of Physical Anthropology after Hrdlička's death and have been taken into account when formulating dates for the series and collection.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 37 series:
(1) Miscellaneous Personal Papers, 1875-1940
(2) Early Personal Correspondence, 1883-1919
(3) Correspondence, 1885-1953
(4) News Clippings and Printed Matter, 1893-1953
(5) Financial Papers, 1910-1943
(6) Journeys to the Southwestern United States and Mexican Indians, 1898-1919
(7) Journeys to the Dakota, Chippewa, Kickapoo, and Shawnee, 1916-1917
(11) Journey to Egypt, Europe, and Russia, 1908-1909
(12) Journey to South America, 1910, 1910-1912
(13) Journey to the Far East, 1920, 1900-1930
(14) Journey to Australia, Java, India, South Africa, and Europe, 1924-1925
(15) Anthropometric Measurements of Indians Taken at the United States National Museum, 1904-1905, most undated
(16) Bone Studies, 1893-1929, most undated
(17) Old Americans, 1914-1930
(18) Children Who Run on All Fours, 1928-1936
(19) Early Man Studies, 1906-1930
(20) European Ethnic History, 1908-1938
(21) Miscellaneous Research Notes, 1887-1930
(22) Manuscripts of Writings, 1901-1944, most undated
(23) Writings by Other Authors, 1877-1942
(24) Anthropometry, undated
(25) "From My Journeys", 1898-1938
(26) -- American Journal of Physical Anthropology -- , 1918-1931
(27) American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 1924-1931
(28) International Congress of Americanists, 1900-1928
(29) Institute of Population, 1942
(30) Department of Anthropology, 1914-1943
(31) Lecture Notes, 1920-1932
(32) Maps and Charts, 1900-1932
(33) Miscellany, 1895-1954
(34) Index Cards, 1899-1948
(35) Bibliographic Index, undated
(36) Physical Anthropology Folios, undated
(37) Photographs, 1887-1944
Biographical Note:
Aleš Hrdlička was born in Bohemia in 1869 and came to America when he was thirteen. As a young man, he was trained in medicine at New York's Eclectic Medical College and the New York Homeopathic Medical College, receiving degrees from each. His first professional work was as a private practitioner, but he gave that up in 1894 when he joined the staff of the New York State Hospital for the Insane at Middletown. There, in addition to other duties, he began studies of the physical characteristics of inmates. This set in motion developments that would eventually lead him to become one of the world's most prominent anthropologists who has sometimes been referred to as "the founder of physical anthropology in America."
In 1896, in preparation for a research appointment with the Department of Anthropology in the Pathological Institute of the New York State Hospitals, Hrdlička went to Paris and studied with Leon Manouvrier. After his return to America, he worked for a short period with the Pathological Institute and came into contact with G.S. Huntington of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Hrdlička arranged and studied Huntington's large collection of skeletal material, thus gaining knowledge of a well-documented collection representing largely normal persons of European ancestry. He came to the attention of Frederic Ward Putnam, of the American Museum of Natural History, who arranged for his first anthropological field studies.
It was thus that Hrdlička became a member of the Hyde Expeditions to the American Southwest and northern Mexico. In 1898, he traveled to Mexico with Carl Lumholtz to study the Tarahumaras, Huichols, and neighboring tribes. In subsequent years, he returned to Mexico and the Southwest alone and studied physical characteristics and medical conditions of several American Indian tribes. With this experience and examinations of the Trenton and Lansing skeletal material for Putnam, Hrdlička came fully into the world of anthropology. In 1903, he was appointed head of the newly formed Division of Physical Anthropology in the United States National Museum.
While in his position at the Smithsonian, Hrdlička returned to the Southwest for studies of Pima and Apache children in 1905 and, in the following year, traveled to Florida to examine allegedly ancient remains of man. In 1908, he worked among a number of Indian tribes, including the Menominee, Oglala Dakota, Quinailt, Hupa, and Mohave, in a study of tuberculosis among them. In 1909, he traveled to Egypt with an expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in order to study living Egyptians and to examine remains of Egypt's past population. The following year took him to Argentina, Peru, and Mexico. In the first of these, he again examined allegedly ancient remains of man. In Peru, he made a large collection of skeletal material near Trujillo, at Pachamac, and in the Chicama Valley.
From 1912-1914, Hrdlicka undertook a physical anthropological exhibit for the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego and, for this, traveled to eastern Siberia, Mongolia, Peru, and Florida. He also examined fossil remains of man in Europe and directed field work of other anthropologists in South and East Africa, St. Lawrence Island in Alaska, the Philippines, eastern Siberia, and the Ukraine. In 1915, for the Department of Justice, he assessed the racial makeup of Chippewas on the Leech Lake and White Earth reservations in Minnesota and also studied Dakota Indians. In 1917, his field work was directed toward white American families with longtime residence in the United States. In 1918, he carried out a survey of ancient sites in eastern Florida for the Bureau of American Ethnology. In 1920, he traveled to Hawaii, Japan, Korea, and Manchuria in connection with an appointment to lecture at the Peking Union Medical College. As director of the American School for Prehistoric Studies in France, he again studied fossil remains of man in Europe in 1922 and 1923. In 1925, he carried out work in India, Ceylon, Java, Australia, South Africa, and Europe. In 1927, he was again in Europe to deliver the Huxley Memorial Lecture before the Royal Anthropological Society in Great Britain. Between 1929 and 1938, he traveled frequently to Alaska to carry on an anthropological survey. In 1939, he traveled to Russia and Siberia.
Beginning with much of the skeletal collection of the Army Medical Museum, which had been transferred to the Smithsonian in 1898 before he was appointed there, Hrdlička amassed a bone collection that included, among many other specimens, the Huntington collection, casts of fossil remains of man, and a large and diverse North American collection. He also gathered a large collection of human brains. Over three hundred publications resulted from his study of this material, his field work, and his study of specimens in other museums. In addition, he was involved in many other activities. For United States government agencies, he provided services ranging from examinations of human remains for law enforcement officials to providing information and opinions concerning national origins and traits that were needed to interpret laws and form foreign policy. During World War II, he also advised government officials on policies to be pursued with certain national groups following the war.
In 1918, Hrdlička founded the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and remained its editor until 1942. In 1928, he was the major force behind the organization of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and served as its president from 1928 to 1932. He was also president of the Anthropological Society of Washington in 1907, the American Anthroplogical Association from 1925 to 1927, and the Washington Academy of Sciences from 1928 to 1929. He was chairman of Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1918 and secretary of the Committee on Anthropology of the National Research Council in 1917. From the 1920s to the 1940s Hrdlicka was a member of the American Eugenics Society and prepared exhibits for various eugenics congresses. In addition, Hrdlička was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. He represented the Smithsonian at several international gatherings of scholars, including meetings of the International Congress of Americanists.
Chronology
1869 March 29 -- Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička (Aleš Hrdlička) born in Humpolec, Bohemia
1882 September -- Emigrated to New York City
1888 -- While stricken with typhoid, met M. Rosenbleuth, a physician who arranged for Hrdlička to enroll at the Eclectic Medical College of New York City
1892 -- Enrolled in the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital Published first article, "Scheme of Examination (Medical)," Publications of the Eclectic Medical College Graduated first in his class from the Eclectic Medical College
1894 -- Graduated first from his class from the Homeopathic Medical College Became research intern at the State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane in Middletown, New York, where he began his studies in physical anthropology Passed state board examination (allopathic)
1895 -- Joined staff of the Pathological Institute of the New York State Hospitals as associate in anthropology
1896 -- Studied anthropology under Leon Manouvrier in Paris
1896 August 6 -- Married Marie Stickler (Dieudonnée)
1898 March-July(?) -- Accompanied Carl Lumholtz on his expedition to northern Mexico, sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and visited the Tarahumara, Huichol, and Tepecan Indians
1899 Spring -- Resigned from the Pathological Institute to take charge of physical and medical anthropological research on the Hyde Expeditions of the AMNH to the southwestern United States
1899 August -- Hyde expedition for the AMNH to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, to excavate the site of Pueblo Bonito and to conduct somatological surveys among the Indians; visited Grand Gulch caves in southern Utah; included visits to the Navahos and southern Utes
1900 -- Hyde expedition for the AMNH to New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Colorado to conduct somatological surveys among the Indians; included visits to the Apaches, Yumas, and Pueblo Indians
1902 January-September -- Hyde expeditions for AMNH to southwestern Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico to conduct somatological surveys; included visits to the Tepecanos, Papagos, Opatas, Pimas, Yaquis, Mayos, Huichols, Otomis, Tepehuanes, Maricopas, Yumas, Yavapais, Paiutes, Walapais, and Havasupais
1902 October-December -- Hyde expedition for the AMNH to Mexico for Hrdlička to complete his somatological investigations; included visits to the Tepehuanes, Coras, Huichols, "Nahuas," "Aztecs," and Tarascans
1903 May 1 -- Became assistant curator in charge of the new Division of Physical Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, at the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution
1905 -- Expedition under the auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology to Arizona and New Mexico to complete the observations on the tribes of this region; Hrdlička especially studied Apache and Pima Indian children
1906 February -- Expedition to western Florida to investigate remains of alleged ancient man
1907 -- President of the Anthropological Society of Washington
1908 -- Expedition to Indian schools and reservations in Wisconsin, Washington, California, Arizona, and South Dakota to study tuberculosis for a report to the International Congress of Tuberculosis
1908 December - 1909 May -- Traveled to Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Hungary, Bohemia, Russia, Poland, and Germany to examine human skeletal remains from an excavation in Egypt by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and to study peoples of the Near East
1910 March 28 -- Promoted to curator in the Division of Physical Anthropology
1910 April-September -- Attended the 17th International Congress of Americanists in Buenos Aires and Mexico City Traveled to Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Panama
1912 -- Planned and directed seven expeditions for the physical anthropology exhibit at the Panama-California Exposition held at San Diego in 1915; expeditions included Hrdlička to Siberia and Mongolia and later to Peru; Riley D. Moore to St. Lawrence Island, Alaska; Philip Newton to the Philippine Islands; Vojtech Suk to Africa; Stanislaw Poniatowski to eastern Siberia; Kazimir Stolyhwo to the Birusa caves in Siberia and to the Ukraine; and Jindřich Matiegka to Bohemia
1912 May-Summer -- Traveled to London to attend 18th International Congress of Americanists Traveled to Siberia and Mongolia for the Panama-California Exposition
1912 September -- Traveled to Geneva for the 14th International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology
1913 January-April -- Expedition to Peru as part the effort for the Panama-California Exposition
1914 November 18 - 1915 January 18 -- Attended Panama-California Exposition
1915 May -- Research for the Department of Justice at the White Earth and Leech Lake reservations in Minnesota to determine non-Indian mixture among Chippewas
1915 December -- Served as General Secretary for the 19th International Congress of Americanists held in Washington
1916 Fall -- Traveled to Florida to examine remains of supposed ancient man
1917 March-July -- Served as Secretary on the Committee on Anthropology of the National Research Council
1917 Summer -- "Old American" research at Yale University, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia and in Tennessee
1917 August -- Sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, traveled to Oklahoma to visit the Shawnee Agency in eastern Oklahoma and the Kickapoo Indians in McCloud to search for adequate samples of pure blood Indians
1918 -- Elected to the American Philosophical Society Served as Chairman of Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Founded the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and became its long-time editor Surveyed prehistoric sites on the southwest coast of Florida
1918 October 8 -- Death of his wife Marie
1920 -- Anthropometry published by the Wistar Institute Elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society of Great Britain
1920 Summer -- Married Mina (Vilemina) Mansfield
1920 January-May -- Visited Japan, Korea, Manchuria, northern China, Mongolia, and Hawaii Lectured at Peking Union Medical College in China
1920 Fall -- Visited Minnesota Chippewa (at the White Earth Reservation?) to help the Department of Justice setter the question of mixed and pure bloods among the Chippewa
1921 -- Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
1922 -- Visited Spain, France, Germany, Moravia, and England Awarded honorary Sc.D. degree from the University of Prague Chairman of the American delegation to the 20th International Congress of Americanists in Rio de Janiero
1923 -- Served three and one-half months as Director of the American School in France for Prehistoric Studies Visited England, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Croatia, and Italy
1925 -- The Old Americans published by Williams and Wilkins Co.
1925 March-October -- Traveled to Australia, Java, India, South Africa, and Europe on a trip sponsored by the Buffalo [New York] Society of Natural Science to obtain cranial measurements of Australian aborigines and Tasmanians, to investigate the Rhodesian Man site in South Africa, to survey the field of early man, and to collect data to support his hypothesis about the peopling of the Earth
1925-1926 -- President of the American Anthropological Association
1926 -- Awarded honorary Sc.D. degree from University of Brno and D.Nat.Sc. degree from Brunn University
1926 May-September -- First fieldwork in Alaska: reconnaissance down the Yukon River to its mouth, around the Bering Sea and through the Bering Strait along the Alaskan coast to Point Barrow
1927 -- Received Huxley Memorial Medal and gave Huxley Lecture on "the Neanderthal Phase of Man" before the Royal Anthropological Society of Great Britain
1928 -- Helped found the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA)
1928-1929 -- President of the Washington Academy of Sciences
1928-1932 -- Served as first president of the AAPA
1929 -- Fieldwork in Alaska: surveyed the Yukon River from Tanana to its mouth, to St. Lawrence and the Diomede Islands, to Cape Prince of Wales, up to Point Barrow and back to Unalaska Awarded honorary Sc.D. degree from Charles University, Prague
1930 -- Published The Skeletal Remains of Early Man, Vol. 83 Smithsonian Miscellaneous collections Published "Anthropological Survey in Alaska," Forty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 21-374
1930 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: surveyed the Kuskokwim River from Bethel down river to Apogak and up river to Stony River
1931 -- Children Who Run on All Fours published by McGraw-Hill Book Co.
1931 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) point site, trial excavations at Chief's Point and other sites, and a survey of Kodiak Island
1932 -- Kober Foundation lecturer of Georgetown University
1932 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) Point site, trial excavations at Chief's Point and other sites, and a survey of Kodiak Island
1934 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) Point site and surveyed Cooks Inlet sites and the mainland opposite the Our Point site
1935 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) Point site
1936 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: excavated at Our (Jones) Point site and surveyed the Dutch Harbor caves, some of the Aleutian Islands, and the mummy cave on Kagamil Island
1937 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: surveyed the Aleutian Islands and Commander Islands
1938 Summer -- Fieldwork in Alaska: surveyed the Aleutian Islands, Dutch Harbor caves, and Commander Islands
1939 April 4 -- Testimonial dinner given by the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in honor of his 70th birthday
1939 April-June -- Recuperated in London hospital after suffering a coronary occlusion
1942 March 31 -- Retired from curatorship at United States National Museum, becoming an associate in anthropology
1942 December -- Resigned as editor of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology
1943 -- Alaska Diary published by Cattell Press
1943 September 5 -- Died of heart attack
1944 -- Anthropology of Kodiak Island published by Wistar Institute
1945 -- The Aleutian and Commander Islands and Their Inhabitants published by Wistar Institute
1969 -- Tenth Anthropological Congress of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences dedicated to Hrdlička in the 100th anniversary year of his birth
Selected Bibliography
1908 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Physiological and Medical Observations Among the Indians of Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. Bulletin 34, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1908.
1912 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Early Man in South America. Bulletin 52, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1912.
1919 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Physical Anthropology: Its Scope and Aims. Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1919.
1920 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Anthropometry. Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1920.
1925 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. The Old Americans. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins Co., 1925.
1930 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. The Skeletal Remains of Early Man. Vol. 83, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. City of Washington: The Smithsonian Institution, 1930. Hrdlička, Aleš. Anthropological Survey in Alaska. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1930.
1931 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Children Who Run on All Fours, and Other Animal-like Behaviors in the Human Child. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1931.
1943 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Alaska Diary, 1926-1931. Lancaster, PA: The Jacques Cattell Press, 1943.
1944 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. Anthropology of Kodiak Island. Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1944.
1945 -- Hrdlička, Aleš. The Aleutian and Commander Islands and Their Inhabitants. Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1945.
Related Materials:
Additional material in the National Anthropological Archives relating to Aleš Hrdlička can be found in the papers of William Louis Abbott, Henry Bascom Collins, Herbert William Krieger, and Frank Spencer; records of the American Anthropological Association, Bureau of American Ethnology, Department of Anthropology of the United States National Museum (National Museum of Natural History), Science Service, Anthropological Society of Washington, and the United States Army Medical Museum (anatomical section, records relating to specimens transferred to the Smithsonian Institution); and glass negatives of Indians collected by the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution illustrations.
Additional related photographs can be found in Photo Lot 8, Division of Physical Anthropology collection; Photo Lot 9, Photographs of Indians for the Panama-California Exposition, San Diego; Photo Lot 24, Bureau of American Ethnology, United States National Museum photographs of American Indians; Photo Lot 70, Department of Anthropology portrait file; Photo Lot 78, Miscellaneous negatives; Photo Lot 97, Division of Ethnology collection ("USNM" Collection); Photo Lot 73-26B, Aleš Hrdlička photographs relating to the Panama-California Exhibition; Photo Lot 73-26G, Miscellany; Photo Lot 77-48, Group portraits of International Congress; Photo Lot 79-38, Division of World Archeology collection; Photo Lot 83-41, Division of Physical Anthropology collection of photographs of human bones; and Photo Lot 92-46, Anthropology lantern slides.
Related films can be found in the Human Studies Film Archive under the accession numbers HSFA 1982.2.1, 1982.2.2, 1986.12.1, and 2015.13.1.
Hrdlička's extensive collection of reprints is maintained in the Division of Physical Anthropology.
Frank Spencer's doctoral dissertation "Aleš Hrdlička, M.D., 1869-1943: A Chronicle of the Life and Work of an American Physical Anthropologist" (1979) is the only book length biography of Hrdlička. The Frank Spencer papers, 1836-1999, are available at the NAA and contain original correspondence between Hrdlička and his first wife, Marie Strickler; his childhood report card from 1869; copies of family photos obtained from Lucy Miller, Hrdlička's niece; and an audio recording of Hrdlička speaking at Wistar Institute.
Further material may be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
The University of Alaska Anchorage holds diaries relating to Hrdlička's Expeditions to Alaska in 1936, 1937, and 1938 in the Alan G. May papers. The finding aid for this collection is avialable online at https://archives.consortiumlibrary.org/collections/specialcollections/hmc-0690/ and a trascription of May's diaries from the expeditions is available online at https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/11850
Provenance:
Hrdlička bequeathed his papers to the Smithsonian Institution. The Division of Physical Anthropology maintained them until they were deposited in the National Anthropological Archives in the 1960s. Some papers have come into the collection since then, most recently in 2018. These new accretions came to the collection through Donald Ortner, David Hunt, T. Dale Stewart, the Department of Anthropology, and the University of Alaska.
Restrictions:
The Aleš Hrdlička papers are currently restricted pending ethics review. Please contact the archive to discuss access or request an appointment.
Aleš Hrdlička papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The Repatriation Office, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, provided funds for the arrangement and description of the Aleš Hrdlička papers
Watson, James B. (James Bennett), 1918-2009 Search this
Extent:
52.5 Linear feet (123 boxes)
47 Sound recordings
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sound recordings
Correspondence
Books
Programs
Field notes
Maps
Punched cards
Journals (periodicals)
Grant proposals
Photographs
Articles
Lecture notes
Place:
Papua New Guinea
Brazil
Mato Grosso (Brazil : State)
Papua New Guinea -- Social life and customs
Date:
1904-1998
bulk 1933-1987
Summary:
This collection contains the professional papers of cultural anthropologist James B. Watson, and documents his fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, Brazil, and Del Norte, Co., as well as his teaching career at the University of Washington. Included are field notes, lecture notes, correspondence, maps, photographs, books, articles, journals, grant proposals, surveys, data punch cards, conference materials, and sound recordings.
Scope and Contents:
This collection is comprised of the professional papers of James B. Watson, the bulk of which relate to his research and academic work on the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The series are Research, Writings, Correspondence, Professional Activities, University Files, Biographical Files, Maps, Photographs, and Sound Recordings.
The Research series contains Watson's research on Hopi food classification systems in Arizona, Cayua acculturation in Brazil, social stratification between English-speaking and Spanish-speaking residents of Del Norte, Co., numerous research projects in Papua New Guinea, and gift exchange theories.
The Arizona, Hopi Food Classification Systems subseries consists of his research among the Hopi in Arizona, primarily on their food classication systems. Included are field notes and reports.
The Mato Grosso, Brazil and Cayua Acculturation subseries consists of research materials conducted while Watson was working as an assistant professor in Sao Paulo. Included are field notes, bibliographies, a journal, and a language notebook primarily regarding his research on culture change among the Cayua.
The Del Norte, Colorado Surveys subseries contains material related to research conducted in the summers of 1949 and 1950 as part of a study on social stratification between English-speaking and Spanish-speaking residents of Del Norte. Included are datasets from several community surveys on education, occupations, business, and cultural attitudes, along with research notes and background materials.
The Papua New Guinea subseries consists of research materials on the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Included are field notes, language materials, bibliographies, grant documents and research proposals, genealogy data, long reports and patrol reports, data punch cards, and TAT (thematic apperception test) protocols. There is material from several research projects including the Committee on New Guinea Studies (CONGS), the Kainantu Blood Group Study, and the New Guinea Religions Project. Watson's wife, Virginia Drew Watson, also has research material in this series. Language documentation include lexicons and notes about Agarabi, Auyana, Awa, Tairora, Gadsup, and Tok Pisin.
The subsubseries Micro-evolution Studies Project (MES) consists of related Papua New Guinea research as part of this multi-year project. Material included is correspondence, financial documents, memorandums and planning documents, grant proposals, language files, and work papers.
The Gift Exchange Theories subseries consists of Watson's research on gift exchange theories, primarily as they relate to small autonomous peoples. The material consists of research notes, paper ideas, bibliographies, and grant applications.
The Other Research subseries consists of papers and research that are not easily catagorized. Included are subject files on perception, notes and critiques of Marshal Sahlins's Stone Age Economics, and a research project by Watson studying innovation in high school social studies curriculum.
The Writings series primarily consists of journal articles produced over the duration of his career. Included are research notes, drafts, and some correspondence. A print copy is included where possible. There is significant material related to his book Tairora Culture, including chapter drafts, outlines, and reader comments. The writings by others are primarily annotated copies of articles, rare and small print-run items, or manuscripts by others sent to Watson for comment.
The Correspondence series contains professional and personal correspondence with Watson's colleagues and contemporaries in the field, including J. David Cole, Terence Hays, Paula Brown-Glick, Richard Lieban, Howard P. McKaughan, Harold Nelson, Kerry Pataki-Schweizer, Kenneth E. Read, Sterling Robbins, and Roy Wagner. Topics include his academic career, student dissertations, research grants and fellowships, and research related to Papua New Guinea, and in particular the Micro-evolution Studies project.
The Professional Activities series primarily consists of conference notes, papers, presentations, and symposium documents. Included are materials for the American Anthropological Association, the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, the Pacific Sciences Conference, as well as symposiums held at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Some of the files are related to specific symposiums Watson attended or helped to organize, the bulk of which are related to Papua New Guinea. Also included are Watson's lecture notes, and materials related to the United Nations West Irian Development Plan
The University Files series contains material related to Watson's academic career. The bulk of the files are course materials from the classes he taught at the Univesity of Washington, which include lecture notes, syllabi, exams, and student papers. Other materials includes student dissertation files and some of Watson's course work from the University of Chicago.
The Biographical Files series includes numerous editions of his curriculum vitae and bibliographies.
The Maps series contains maps used in Watson's research, which includes Brazil; Del Norte, Co.; and Papua New Guinea. The bulk are maps of Papua New Guinea, and include published maps, annotated maps, hand-drawn maps, patrol reports, and linguistic maps.
The Photographs series contains photographs of Watson's fieldwork and professional career. The bulk of his fieldwork photographs are from Del Norte, Co. and Papua New Guinea. The Del Norte photographs include aerial images along with photographs of residents, houses, and cultural activities. The photographs from Papua New Guinea include images of a taro garden, a woman before and at her marriage ceremony, and images of tools found at an excavation site near the Wahgi Valley.
The sound recordings contain seven identified recordings made in the Papua New Guinea Eastern Highlands, Kainantu District during James and Virginia Watson's first trip, 1954-1955. Also included are 31 recordings of lectures and classes by James Watson and others, two recordings of popular music, and six reels recorded at the Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo in 1966. The remaining 23 uncataloged recordings are unidentified or partially identified.
Please see individual series descriptions in the finding aid for additional information.
Arrangement note:
This collection is arranged in 9 series:
Series1: Research, 1933-1993
Series 2: Writings, 1904-1995
Series 3: Correspondence, 1933-1994
Series 4: Professional Activities, 1944-1998
Series 5: University Files, 1939-1991
Series 6: Biographical Files, 1941-1991
Series 7: Maps, circa 1920s-1970
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1942-1977
Series 9: Sound Recordings, 1954-1984
Biographical/Historical note:
James B. Watson (1918-2009) was a cultural anthropologist and university professor. He is primarily known for his ethnographic studies of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, with a concentration on acculturation. He taught at the University of Washington, was the prinicipal investigator for the Micro-evolution Studies project (MES), and the author of numerous journal articles and books.
Watson was born in Chicago, Ill., and raised in Bangor, Maine. He studied anthropology at the University of Chicago, earning his B.A. in 1941; his M.A. in 1945; and his Ph.D. in 1948. Fred Eggan acted as his advisor while he was pursuing his doctorate. He began his teaching career as an assistant professor at the Escala Livre de Sociologia e Politica, Sao Paulo (1944-1945); Beloit College (1945-1946); University of Oklahoma (1946-1947); and as an associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis (1947-1955). He then became a full professor of anthropology at the University of Washington (1955-1987), where he spent the majority of his career.
His ethnographic research began with his fieldwork among the Hopi in Arizona in 1942. He researched Hopi food classification systems, which would become the subject of his master's thesis. Watson would next study the effects of acculturation among the Cayua people in Mato Grosso, Brazil in 1943-1945. This research would become the basis of his dissertation, later to be published as Cayua Culture Change: A Study in Acculturation and Methodology. His wife, anthropologist Virginia Drew Watson, accompanied him and conducted her own research. While at Washington University, he directed fieldwork in the summers of 1949 and 1950 in Del Norte, Co., conducting several community surveys on education, occupations, business, and cultural attitudes. These surveys were part of a larger study on social stratification between English-speaking and Spanish-speaking residents of Del Norte.
Watson is most noted for his work in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, where he was one of the first generation of Highland ethnographers. Along with Virginia Drew Watson, he studied the Kainantu peoples of the Eastern Highlands including the Tairora, the Gadsup, the Auyana, and the Awa. He was involved in several research projects, including the Committee on New Guinea Studies (CONGS), The Kainantu Blood Group Study, and the New Guinea Religions Project.
He was also the principal investigator for the Micro-evolution Studies project (1959-1968) where he directed a team of researchers examining the interconnections of the Kainantu peoples from the perspectives of ethnography, linguistics, archaeology, and physical anthropology. Other MES researchers include Kenneth E. Read, Robert A. Littlewood, Howard McKaughan, Kerry J. Pataki-Schweizer, and Sterling Robbins. This research on Papua New Guinea is best described in his book Tairora Culture: Contingency and Pragmatism (1983).
He was professionally active, attending and organizing sessions at annual meetings for the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO). He also organized symposiums at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Additionally, he served as a consultant to the United Nations on their West Irian Development Plan in 1967. Watson retired from teaching in 1987, but continued to publish and remain involved in AAA and ASAO. He died in 2009.
Sources Consulted:
1999 Westermark, George. ASAO Honorary Fellow: James B. Watson. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania Newsletter 104: 21
Chronology
1918 -- Born on August 10 in Chicago, Illinois
1941 -- B.A. in anthropology, University of Chicago Lecturer, University of Chicago
1941-1942 -- Fieldwork: Hopi
1943 -- Married Virgina Drew Fieldwork: Mato Grosso, Brazil
1943-1945 -- Fieldwork: Brazil
1944-1945 -- Assistant Professor, Escala Livre de Sociologia e Politica, Sao Paulo, Brazil
1945 -- M.A. in anthropology, University of Chicago
1945-1946 -- Assistant Professor, Beloit College
1946-1947 -- Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma
1947-1955 -- Associate Professor, Washington University in St. Louis
1948 -- Ph.D. in anthropology, University of Chicago
1949-1950 -- Director, Washington University summer field project
1949-1950 -- Fieldwork: Del Norte, Colorado
1953-1955 -- Fieldwork: Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea
1955-1987 -- Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington
1959 -- Fieldwork: Papua New Guinea and Netherlands New Guinea
1959-1968 -- Principal Investigator, New Guinea Micro-evolution Studies Project
1963-1964 -- Fieldwork: Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea
1966-1967 -- Senior Specialist, Institute of Advanced Projects, East-West Center
1967 -- Consultant for United Nations Development Programme, West Irian
1967 -- Fieldwork: West Irian (Indonesia)
1987 -- Retired from teaching at University of Washington
2009 -- Died on November 12
Related Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives also holds the papers of Virginia D. Watson.
Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD holds the Micro-evolution Project Papers, MSS 436.
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by James Watson's daughter, Anne Watson, in 2003.
Restrictions:
Some research proposals not authored by Watson are restricted until 2083.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Search this
Extent:
24.96 Linear feet (59 document boxes plus 1 oversize box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
Italy
Monte Castello di Vibio (Italy)
Date:
1939-2010
bulk 1949-2010
Summary:
The Sydel Silverman papers, 1939-2010 (bulk 1949-2010) document her field research in Italy, her work as an educator and foundation executive, and her involvement in professional organizations. Sydel Silverman taught at Queens College in New York, was Executive Officer of the CUNY Ph.D. Program in Anthropology, and served as president of the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Her primary fields of research have been agrarian communities in Italy and the history and practice of anthropology. Materials in the collection include field notes, journals, correspondence, calendars, published and unpublished writings, conference papers and lectures, teaching files, student files, photographs and slides, and sound recordings.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains the professional papers of anthropologist Sydel Silverman. Included are research materials consisting of field notes, journals, other scholars' publications, and newspaper clippings; correspondence; postcards; calendars; published and unpublished writings; conference papers and lectures; brochures; itineraries; conference meeting notes; teaching files, including syllabi and reading lists; student files such as class notes and papers from Silverman's years as an anthropology student; photographs and slides; and sound recordings.
The materials in this collection document Silverman's travels through Italy while conducting field research, her role as an educator and academic administrator, and her involvement in professional organizations such as the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the American Anthropological Association. Silverman participated heavily in conferences and seminars across the U.S. and internationally. A copious note taker, Silverman recorded her reflections on many of these experiences. Her notes can be found throughout the collection.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into 10 series: (1) Field Research, 1939-2002 [bulk 1960-1987]; (2) Correspondence, 1959-2009; (3) Writings, 1963-2009; (4) Wenner-Gren Foundation Files, 1985-2009; (5) Professional Activities, 1961-2010; (6) Teaching Files, 1958-2005; (7) Biographical Files, 1961-2008; (8) Student Files, 1949-65; (9) Photographs, 1961-2002; (10) Sound Recordings, 1960-61
Biographical Note:
Sydel Silverman was an anthropologist known for her work as a researcher, writer, academic administrator, and foundation executive. Her career in anthropology began with her graduate studies at the University of Chicago (1952-1957) and Columbia University (1957-63). After graduation she started teaching at Queens College in New York (1962-75) and became Executive Officer of the CUNY Ph.D. Program in Anthropology (1975-86). After leaving CUNY, she moved on to the Wenner-Gren Foundation, serving as president of the Foundation from 1987 to 1999.
Silverman was born on May 20, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. Sydel, the youngest of seven siblings, was raised in the Jewish neighborhood of Lawndale on the west side of Chicago. Silverman credited her Uncle Hirschel for inspiring her to learn about foreign cultures and traditions, writing that her time spent with him reading about mysticism and oriental religions "may have been the beginnings of what became my interest in anthropology" (Silverman 2008).
Silverman graduated from high school in January 1951 and entered the University of Illinois at Navy Pier as a pre-med student. At the end of her second year at the University of Illinois, she entered the University of Chicago's program in Committee on Human Development, which combined study in biology, psychology, and sociology-anthropology. The program allowed students to enter with only two years of college with a special exam, which Silverman passed. She completed her Masters in 1957 and enrolled in the PhD program in Anthropology at Columbia University, during which she decided to focus her research on central Italy.
Silverman's first experience in Italy was in 1955 when she spent a year traveling through Europe with her first husband, Mel Silverman. They moved from city to city, beginning in Naples and then Rome, the city that Sydel writes was "the instant beginning of my love affair with Italy" (Silverman 2008). Upon their return from Europe the couple moved to New York. Sydel began working as a secretary but she soon decided to go back to school. She "picked anthropology, because it was the closest thing to being multi-disciplinary while still having a label, and Columbia was the obvious place to go in New York" (Silverman 2008). She was inspired to focus on the Mediterranean for her fieldwork because of Conrad Arensberg's cultural anthropological work in Europe.
In August of 1960 Sydel left for Italy to conduct a community study of the village Montecastello di Vibio. Silverman confessed in her memoirs that she was "never good at fieldwork," but she formed relationships with many of the locals who helped her collect data for her dissertation. Her research in Italy was one of the first social-anthropological studies of Central Italy and is known for its description of the traditional agrarian system of that area (the mezzadria) shortly before it was abolished by law. Silverman's dissertation research resulted in a book, Three Bells of Civilization, and numerous journal articles. She was awarded her Ph.D. in 1963.
Silverman's subsequent research in Italy included a study of a land reform area in the South (1967) and several field seasons (1980-85) devoted to a comparative study of competitive festivals in Central Italy. Most notable from this work are her publications on the Palio of Siena.
Silverman's other primary research interest has been in the history and practice of anthropology. She edited Totems and Teachers (1981, rev. 2004), a text about prominent anthropologists, and co-authored One Discipline Four Ways (2005). Her book The Beast on the Table (2002) analyzes twenty-five international symposia that she organized and led while at the Wenner-Gren Foundation and is a record of the living history of anthropology. She later became interested in parallels between the history of anthropology and that of the movies, which she presented as the 2006 Distinguished Lecture to the American Anthropological Association (published in The American Anthropologist Volume 109, Issue 3). In addition, she initiated an effort to save the primary documents of anthropology, co-authoring with Nancy Parezo the book Preserving the Anthropological Record (1992, rev. 1995) and co-organizing CoPAR (the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records).
Silverman's career as an administrator began in 1970 when she was elected as departmental chair at Queens College. In 1975 she was chosen as the Executive Officer of the CUNY Ph.D. Program in Anthropology, and under her leadership the program went from disarray and the threat of elimination to being cited as one of the ten top anthropology doctoral programs in the country. She also led a successful effort to retain full anthropology departments at all the senior CUNY colleges during the New York City budget crises of 1965-76. In 1987 she was appointed president of the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and acted as the spokesperson for the Foundation, overseeing fellowship and grant funding and advocating for the field of anthropology. She retired from Wenner-Gren in 1999.
Silverman died of cancer on March 25, 2019 at age 85.
Roberts, Sam. "Sydel Silverman, 85, Dies; Defended Anthropology in Academia." New York Times, April 5, 2019.
Chronology
1933 -- Born May 20 in Chicago, Illinois
1951 -- January: Entered University of Illinois at Navy Pier, pre-med, through August 1952
1952 -- Entered University of Chicago, Program in Human Development
1953 -- December 27: Married Mel Silverman
1957 -- September: Entered Columbia University, Department of Anthropology Received M.A. from University of Chicago
1960-1961 -- Conducted fieldwork in Montecastello di Vibio
1962 -- September: Began teaching classes at Queens College, CUNY
1963 -- PhD awarded
1966 -- Mel Silverman died
1968 -- Fall semester: Acting Chairman, Dept. of Anthro., Queens Tenure awarded, Queens College
1970-1973 -- Department Chairman, Anthropology, Queens
1972 -- March 18: Married Eric R. Wolf
1975 -- Executive Officer of Ph.D. Program in Anthropology, CUNY Graduate School (through June 1982)
1980-1982 -- Festival research and travels in Italy: Siena, Perugia, Gubbio, Rome, Florence, Geneva
1982-1983 -- September: Acting Dean of the Graduate School, CUNY
1987 -- President of Wenner-Gren Foundation
1999 -- Eric R. Wolf died Retired from Wenner-Gren presidency
2019 -- Silverman died of cancer on March 25 at age 85
Selected Bibliography
1968 -- Silverman, Sydel F. "Agricultural Organization, Social Structure, and Values in Italy: Amoral Familism Reconsidered." American Anthropologist 70 (February 1968): 1-20.
1970 -- Silverman, Sydel F. "'Exploitation' in Rural Central Italy: Structure and Ideology in Stratification Study." Comparative Studies in Society and History 12 (July 1970): 327-339.
1975 -- Silverman, Sydel. Three Bells of Civilization: the Life of an Italian Hill Town. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975.
1976 -- Silverman, Sydel. "Anthropology and the Crisis at CUNY." Anthropology News 17, no.10 (December 1976): 7-10.
1981 -- Silverman, Sydel, ed. Totems and Teachers: Key Figures in the History of Anthropology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
1984 -- Silverman, Sydel. "Anthropological Perspectives on Suicide." In Suicide: The Will to Live vs. The Will to Die, edited by Norman Linzer, 225-233. New York: Human Sciences Press, 1984.
1986 -- Silverman, Sydel. "Anthropology and History: Understanding the Boundaries." Historical Methods 19 (Summer 1986): 123-126.
1992 -- Silverman, Sydel and Nancy J. Parezo, eds. Preserving the Anthropological Record. New York: Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, 1992.
2002 -- Silverman, Sydel. The Beast on the Table: Conferencing with Anthropologists. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002.
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Sydel Silverman in April 2011.
Restrictions:
Files containing Silverman's students' grades and papers have been restricted, as have grant and fellowships applications sent to Silverman to review and her comments on them. For preservation reasons, the computer disks from The Beast on the Table are also restricted.
Access to the Sydel Silverman papers requires an appointment.
Sydel Silverman papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The papers of Sydel Silverman were processed with the assistance of a Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program grant awarded to Sydel Silverman.
This series consists of fieldwork materials, data analysis, and publications related to Ortner's work with specimens from Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain, dated 1977 to 2010 and undated. The bulk of this series relates to Ortner's participation in fieldwork at a cemetery complex in Bab edh-Dhra, Jordan, a part of the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain with Walter Rast and R. Thomas Schaub.
Subseries 3.1, Publications, dated 1977 to 2008 and undated, includes drafts, data, data analysis, research materials, notes, correspondence, photographs, a blueprint, and a map related to Ortner's publications on his work in Bab edh-Dhra. The computer disks in this series are digital copies of the paper manuscripts they are included with. Several folders in this subseries contain planning material related to the series of books: Reports of the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain. Bruno Frohlich and Ortner's 2008 book The Early Bronze Age I Tombs and Burials of Bab edh-Dhra, Jordan, also represented in this series, was volume 3 of the Reports.
Subseries 3.2, Bab edh-Dhra field seasons 1977 and 1979, dated 1977 to 2005, includes travel and finance documents, data analyses, correspondence, photographs, negatives, and maps. Of note are the sound recordings and transcripts of Ortner's audio journals in 1977 and 1979; as well as an interview, interpreted by Muhammed Darwish, conducted by between Ortner and Mahmoud Mustafa about burial practices of people living in El Mazra. Recordings are on 9 sound cassettes.
Subseries 3.3, Bab edh-Dhra field season 1981, dated 1980 to 1990, includes mostly financial and planning materials because Ortner did not travel to the site for this field season.
Subseries 3.4 Other projects and events, 1980 to 1983 and undated, includes files from other projects Ortner was involved with in Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain unrelated to the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain. This includes a proposal for a Near Eastern Skeletal Biology Program with Smithsonian archaeologist Bruno Frohlich in collaboration with Yarmouk University in Bahrain. There is not much information on the Early Islamic Project in Egypt, the Yemen mummy project, or the Abydos study.
The series maintains Ortner's original arrangement with some changes for clarity.
This series is arranged in 4 subseries: 3.1 Publications, 1977-2008; 3.2 Bab edh-Dhra field seasons 1977 and 1979, 1977-2005; 3.3 Bab edh-Dhra field season 1981, 1980-1990; 3.4 Other projects and events, 1980-1983, undated
Restrictions:
The CD-Roms and floppy disks are unavailable for research due to preservation concerns.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Donald J. Ortner Papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The papers of Donald J. Ortner were processed with the assistance
of the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
This collection contains 73 open reel tapes, made by Eric H. Davidson between 1958-1984, featuring the traditional music of Southern Appalachia.
Scope and Contents:
The Eric H. Davidson audio recordings consists of 73 open reel tapes dating from 1958-1984, featuring field recordings made by Davidson and his colleagues (including Caleb Ellicott Finch, Paul Newman, Lyn Davidson, and Jane Rigg) featuring the traditional music of Southern Appalachia. The recordings were collected primarily in Grayson and Carroll counties in Southwestern Virginia, and adjacent counties in North Carolina.
Arrangement:
The Eric H. Davidson audio recordings are arranged in chronological order. Each open reel tape was assigned a unique number by Eric Davidson.
Biographical / Historical:
Eric H. Davidson was born in 1937, in New York City. He was primarily known as a pioneering developmental biologist, who revolutionized the research of and theoretical framework behind "the gene regulatory networks that perform complex biological processes, such as the transformation of a single-celled egg into a complex organism. His work helped to reveal how the DNA sequences inherited in the genome are used to initiate and drive forward the sequence of steps that result in development." (1)
Davidson's work in biology began at the age of 16, when he began conducting research with cell physiologist L. V. Heilbrunn, a family friend, at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He began as a dish washer at the MBL, but was informed by Heilbrunn that he was also expected to have a research project. This project resulted in a published abstract in the Biological Bulletin on clotting in sand dollars.
Davidson earned his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958 and his doctorate from Rockefeller University in 1963. After working as a postdoctoral researcher and faculty member at Rockefeller, he moved to Caltech, where he would spend the rest of his career, beginning as a visiting assistant professor. He was named Norman Chandler Professor of Cell Biology in 1982 and remained there until his death.
His interest in old time music arose at nearly the same time as his interest in biology. His father, a well-known abstract painter, and mother were connected to several people who were hired to do research for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the late 1930's and 40's. At 14, he began to play the 5-string banjo after being introduced to the instrument through his exposure to recordings of Southern Appalachian music recorded as a part of the WPA, held at the Library of Congress.
In college, he played music in cafes. He also got a hold of the log of WPA recordings that were so influential to him. He began to stick pins in maps wherever the recordings were made, and began to notice that most of the pins were clustered in two counties in Southwestern Virginia--Grayson and Carroll counties--and adjacent counties in North Carolina.
In 1956, he began to take trips down to these areas during breaks from school to record musicians that had learned songs and skills through oral tradition, as opposed to the radio or records. He continued to go every year for many years, until the last person he knew had learned by oral tradition passed away. He formed close relationships with many notable musicians during these trips, including Wade Ward (from whom he learned the clawhammer banjo playing technique), Tommy Jarrell, Paul Joines, Glen Neaves, Vester Jones, Ed Spencer, Glen Smith, Cullen Galyean, and Bobby Harrison. He often recorded with his longtime collaborators Caleb Ellicott Finch, Paul Newman, Lyn Davidson, and Jane Rigg. Many of these recordings were released by Moses Asch as Folkways Records albums, produced by Davidson and his collaborators between 1962-1986.
Davidson was interested in the personal, musical, structural, traditional, and historical aspects of Southern Appalachian music. His fieldwork style was to continue to record a musician until they got tired or he'd run out of tape. Then he'd come back the next day, and the next year, and the year after that, until he had recorded everything that musician knew. This gave his work the characteristic of what he described as, borrowing from his scientific background, a longitudinal study. He was able to observe changes in the musical tradition of the region: the transition of traditional ballad singing from a cappella to string band accompaniment, the incorporation of the guitar into the string band ensemble, and the shift from clawhammer to three-finger banjo picking. In an oral history interview with Davidson conducted by the Ralph Rinzler Folklife and Collections in 2015, Davidson said that in his research, he could see how "ballads combine and recombine like genetic organisms in biology."
Davidson was also an accomplished banjo musician in his own right. He formed the Iron Mountain String Band together with Caleb Finch (fiddle), and Peggy Haine (guitar), releasing an album (FA 2473) on Folkways Records in 1973 consisting of songs and tunes learned from his many recording trips into Grayson and Carroll counties.
Eric Davidson died on September 1, 2015 at the age of 78.
1. "Developmental Biologist Eric H. Davidson Passes Away," Caltech News, September 4, 2015, accessed January 5, 2016, http://www.caltech.edu/news/developmental-biologist-eric-h-davidson-passes-away-47772.
Disclaimer:
Please note that some language in this collection is culturally insensitive or offensive to viewers. It is presented as it exists in the original material for the benefit of research and the historical record. The material reflects the culture and context in which it was created and not the views of the Smithsonian Institution.
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://doi.org/10.25573/data.21771155.
Related Materials:
An oral history with Eric H. Davidson was conducted by the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections on April 26, 2015. Both the video and transcript is available for researchers. Contact archives staff for information.
Provenance:
Donated by Eric H. Davidson.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Topic:
Fiddle tunes -- Appalachian Region, Southern Search this
Folk music -- Appalachian Region, Southern Search this
Banjo music -- Appalachian Region, Southern Search this
The papers of Francis P. Conant document his anthropological work and, to a lesser extent, his previous career as a journalist and photographer. Francis Paine Conant was a cultural anthropologist who pioneered the use of satellite data in anthropology. He conducted fieldwork in Nigeria and Kenya, and his research interests spanned cultural ecology, AIDS, malaria, and sex and gender studies. He was also Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Hunter College, where he taught from 1962 to 1995.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Francis P. Conant document his anthropological work and, to a lesser extent, his previous career as a journalist and photographer. The bulk of the collection consists of his field work in Africa, specifically his doctoral research among the Barawa in Nigeria during the 1950s; his work among the Pokot in Kenya for Walter Goldschimdt's Culture and Ecology in East Africa Project during the 1960s; and his later research among the Pokot during the 1970s incorporating remote sensing tools. These materials include his dissertation, field notes, kinship charts, maps, correspondence, photographs, and sound recordings. The collection also contains photographs, correspondence, and writings relating to the Bernheim-Conant expedition through Africa. Among the photos are Polaroids of Mohammad Naguib, first president of Egypt. Also present in the collection are his published and unpublished academic writings, his writings and correspondence as a news correspondent in Finland, and files from courses that he taught. In addition, the collection contains some of Conant's digital files, which have not yet been examined. Overall there is little correspondence in the collection, aside from some letters scattered throughout the collection relating to his research and writings (both as an academic and a journalist).
Arrangement:
Collection is organized into 9 series: 1) Nigeria, 1956-1960, undated; 2) Kenya, 1961-1974, undated; 3) Remote Sensing, 1967, 1971, 1976-1984, 1991-1992, 2002; 4) Bernheim-Conant Expedition, 1953-1956; 5) Writings, 1960-1966, 1974-1995, 2000-2006, undated; 6) University Files, 1956-1957, 1961, 1970, 1972, 1982-1995, undated; 7) Biographical Files and Letters, circa 1940, CIRCA 1946-1947, 1951, 1955, 1979, 1989-1991, 1996-2000, 2007-2011, undated; 8) Sound Recordings, 1956-1965, 1971, 1977-1978, undated; 9) Digital Files
Biographical / Historical:
Francis Paine Conant was a cultural anthropologist who pioneered the use of satellite data in anthropology. He conducted fieldwork in Nigeria and Kenya, and his research interests spanned cultural ecology, AIDS, malaria, and sex and gender studies. He was also Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Hunter College, where he taught from 1962 to 1995.
Conant was born on February 27, 1926 in New York City. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy, he deferred college to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1944. He served as a field artillery observer for the 294th Field Artillery Battalion and helped liberate two concentration camps during World War II. After he was honorably discharged in 1946, he attended Cornell University, where he obtained his B.A. in 1950. While at Cornell, a Finnish student invited Conant to Finland to help relocate families, farms, and livestock further from the Russian border, a protective measure against another Russian invasion. Conant accepted his invitation and took time off from his academic studies to spend several months in Finland in 1947, as well as a summer in 1949.
After graduating from Cornell, Conant attended University of Iowa's graduate writing program for a short time. Dissatisfied with the program, he worked briefly for the Carnegie Endowment, during which time he occasionally served as a personal driver for Alger Hiss. In 1951, he returned to Finland to pursue a career in journalism. He worked for United Press International until 1953.
From December 5, 1953 to May 26, 1954, Conant traveled throughout Africa as part of the Bernheim-Conant Expedition for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The expedition was led by Claude Bernheim, the father of his first wife, Miriam. They traveled 16,000 miles through Northern Central and Eastern Africa, collecting film footage and material culture for the museum. Conant served as the writer and photographer for the expedition, publishing illustrated articles in the New York Times and Natural History Magazine.
He later returned to Africa as a doctoral student at Columbia University, where he earned his PhD in Anthropology in 1960. After studying the Hausa language at the International African Institute in London, he traveled to Nigeria as a Fellow of the Ford Foundation to carry out his fieldwork in Dass Independent District, Bauchi Province. Working among the Barawa that live in the mountains of Dass, he focused on their religion and its impact on the technology, social and political organization, and structure of their society. His dissertation was titled "Dodo of Dass: A Study of a Pagan Religion of Northern Nigeria." During his fieldwork, he also collected data on rock gongs, which were first identified and written about by Bernard Fagg in 1955.
In 1961 to 1962, Conant was a research associate for Walter Goldschmidt's Culture and Ecology in East Africa Project. The purpose of the project was to conduct a controlled comparison of four different East African societies and the farmers and pastoralists within each tribe. Conant was assigned to conduct ethnographic research among the Pokot in West Pokot District in Kenya. This research would form the basis of his remote sensing work in the same area more than a decade later.
Conant was first introduced to remote sensing data in 1974 when his colleague Priscilla Reining showed him Landsat imagery of one his former fieldwork sites. He was inspired by the potential applications of satellite data to study cultural and ecological relationships. In 1975, he and Reining organized a workshop on "Satellite Potentials for Anthropological Studies of Subsistence Activities and Population Change." He incorporated remote sensing tools in his 1977 to 1980 study of the changing cultivation patterns and management of livestock in West Pokot District. His research combined traditional fieldwork (which included data he had collected in the 1960s), LANDSAT data, and geospatial data collected from the ground.
Later in his career, Conant's research interests expanded to include the spread of diseases, specifically AIDS and malaria. He, along with Priscilla Reining, John Bongaarts, and Peter Way found that uncircumcised men were 86% more likely to contract HIV than circumcised men. Their findings were published in their paper "The Relationship Between Male Circumcision and HIV Infection in African Populations" (1989). His research on malaria focused on the spread of the disease during African prehistory.
Conant taught briefly at Columbia University and was an Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts, at Amherst in 1960-1961. Most of his academic career was spent at Hunter College, where he served as Chair of the Anthropology Department several times. He also founded and headed the college's Research Institute in Aruba.
Conant was a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University's Pitts Rivers Museum in 1968-1969. He was also a fellow of the American Anthropological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International African Institute, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Anthropological Institute. In addition, he was actively involved with the Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal.
Conant died at the age of 84 on January 29, 2011.
Sources Consulted
Bates, Daniel G. 2011. Francis P. Conant: A Tribute to a Friend of Human Ecology. Human Ecology 39(2): 115.
Bates, Daniel and Oliver Conant. Francis P. Conant. Anthropology News. 52(5): 25.
Conant, Veronika. Email message to Lorain Wang, October 22, 2013.
[Curriculum Vitae], Series 7. Biographical Files and Letters, Francis Conant Papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Francis P. Conant. http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/anthropology/faculty-staff/in-remembrance/francis-p.-conant [accessed August 23, 2013].
1926 -- Born February 27 in New York City, New York
1944-1946 -- Enlists in Army and serves in World War II as a flash ranger in 294th Field Artillery Battalion
1950 -- Earns B.A. from Cornell University in English and Russian, minor in Engineering
1953-1954 -- AMNH Bernheim-Conant Expedition to northern Africa
1957 -- Conducts language studies at the International African Institute
1957-1959 -- Conducts fieldwork in northern Nigeria
1960 -- Earns PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University
1960-1961 -- Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
1961-1962 -- Research Associate for Culture and Ecology in East Africa Project directed by Walter Goldschimdt
1962 -- Joins faculty at Hunter College
1968-1969 -- Fulbright Senior Research Fellow, Oxford University, Pitt-Rivers Museum
1977-1980 -- Sets up remote sensing monitoring area in West Pokot district in Kenya. Studies changing cultivation patterns and management of livestock
1995 -- Retires from Hunter College; Emeritus Professor
2011 -- Dies on January 29 at the age of 84
Related Materials:
For additional materials at the National Anthropological Archives relating to Francis Conant, see the papers of Priscilla Reining and John Lawrence Angel.
His film collection is at the Human Studies Film Archives.
Artifacts and film collected during the Bernheim-Conant Expedition, his doctoral research in Nigeria, and his fieldwork in Kenya during the 1960s and 70s are at the American Museum of Natural History. He also deposited collections at the Pitts River Museum at the University of Oxford.
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Francis Conant's widow Veronika Conant in 2012.
Restrictions:
The Francis P. Conant Papers are open for research. Access to the Francis P. Conant Papers requires an appointment.
Francis P. Conant Papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The papers of Francis P. Conant were processed with the assistance of a Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program grant awarded to Veronika Conant. Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
INTVW W/ PAUL VANLANDSCHOOT, SR: LAKE SUPERIOR COMMERCIAL FISHING: FISHER FOLK BIOLOGY; CATCHING METHODS; DIVISION OF LABOR; NAVIGATION; NETS; RELATIONS W/ FISH AND GAME AUTHORITIES; NARRATIVES; HISTORY; TRADITION OF SMOKING FISH MORE DETAILS IN FIELDWORK FILE
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Michigan, United States, September 29, 1986.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
INTVW W/ FRANCIS THILL: LAKE SUPERIOR COMMERCIAL FISHING: HIS FAMILY; COMPARE W/ LAKE MICHIGAN; NETS, BIOLOGY, BOATS, BOAT ENGINES, RELATION W/ DNR; WISC INDIAN FISHING; NARRATIVES MORE DETAIL IN FW FILE
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Michigan, United States, September 30, 1986.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
