Thomas Dale Stewart was a physical and forensic anthropologist and worked at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History from 1931 until his death in 1997. He worked under Ales Hrdlicka until 1943, became the head curator in 1960, director of the museum in 1962, and retired in 1971. Stewart's research interests included physical and forensic anthropology and archaeology, mostly in North and South America. He also worked with the F.B.I. frequently to aid in homicide investigations, and worked extensively with the U.S. Army to identify skeletal remains from the Korean War in Operation Glory. The Thomas Dale Stewart Papers primarily deal with his life and career at the Smithsonian, particularly his research projects and publications between 1931 and 1991. Materials consist mainly of correspondence, photographic material, dossiers based on writings and research projects, and administrative files.
Scope and Contents:
The Thomas Dale Stewart Papers document his research and professional activities from 1931 to 1991 and primarily deal with his anthropological and archaeological research in North and South America. There is also significant material related to ancient human skeletal remains found in Egypt and the Middle East, Stewart's work identifying skeletal remains for the U.S. Army (Operation Glory), and the history of physical and forensic anthropology. Material documenting Stewart's work with Ales Hrdlicka and other colleagues are also represented in this collection. The collection consists of correspondence, writings and research files, project data, skeletal data punch cards, photographic and illustration materials, and administrative and financial papers.
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 As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today.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 9 series: Series 1. Biographical and Background, 1937-1983; Series 2. Correspondence, 1931-1990; Series 3. Writings and Research, 1875, 1902-1990; Series 4. Operation Glory, 1954-1957; Series 5. Professional Organizations, 1930-1990; Series 6. Trip Files, 1945-1985; Series 7. Teaching and Lectures, 1950-1970; Series 8. Exhibit Material, 1961-1969; Series 9. Photographs, 1928-1979.
Biographical note:
Thomas Dale Stewart was a curator of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian specializing in anthropometry, early man, and forensic anthropology. He worked in the Department of Anthropology for over seventy years. Born in Delta, Pennsylvania in 1901, Stewart moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue a degree at George Washington University. While attending school, he also began working at the Smithsonian in 1924 as a temporary substitute for John Baer, a family friend from Delta. After Baer died during conducting research in Panama, Stewart was invited to stay on as assistant to Ales Hrdlicka, curator of physical anthropology. Hrdlicka was impressed by Stewart's abilities and quickly took him on as a student. Promised that he would succeed Hrdlicka one day if he obtained an M.D., Stewart enrolled at The Johns Hopkins University and graduated in 1931. After graduating, Stewart was rehired by the Smithsonian as an assistant curator.
Stewart rose through the ranks of the Department of Anthropology quickly, being promoted to associate curator in 1939 and curator in 1943 after the death of his mentor Hrdlicka. Stewart was appointed head curator of the department in 1960 and director of the Natural History Museum in 1962. He continued to work at the Smithsonian well after he retired in 1971, conducting research and producing a stream of publications well into his 90s. He died in 1997 at the age of 96.
Many of Stewart's early research interests matched those of his mentor: a focus on dental caries, separate neural arch and spondylolisthesis, ossuary excavation, cranial deformations, and other examinations of archaeological remains throughout North America. While Hrdlicka was alive, Stewart provided support for many of his research projects and publications. After Hrdlicka died, Stewart expanded his interests to include forensic topics and analysis of other archaeological remains.
Anthropometry was prominent in a great deal of his work. He was the first to describe Tepexpan Man from Mexico and Midland Man from Texas. He also studied the remains of Neanderthal specimens that Ralph S. Solecki, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, had uncovered at Shanidar Cave in Iraq. In forensic work, as Hrdlicka's heir, Stewart assumed work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement officials. Moreover, Stewart devised new methods and published books and articles concerning forensic analysis, including his Essentials of Forensic Anthropology. In closely related work during 1954-1955, the United States Army engaged Stewart to go to Japan to examine skeletal remains repatriated after the Korean War in a project called "Operation Glory."
In terms of his areal specialization, Stewart was essentially an Americanist. In North America, he worked in Alaska with Henry B. Collins in 1927, and in subsequent years he excavated several ossuaries and other sites in the Washington, D.C., vicinity. These included a site on Potomac Creek in Virginia, Piscataway sites in Maryland, and the Townsend site in Delaware. He also carried out laboratory studies and prepared reports on skeletal remains uncovered by Smithsonian colleagues. In the 1940s and 1950s, Stewart conducted field work at archaeological sites in Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru.
He was awarded the Viking Medal in Physical Anthropology in 1953, the Joseph Henry Medal of the Smithsonian Institution in 1967, and an award from the physical anthropology section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in 1981.
Sources:
Ubelaker, Douglas H. "Thomas Dale Stewart, A Biographer Memoir," National Academy of Sciences, 2006.
Pace, Eric. "T. Dale Stewart Dies at 96; Anthropologist at Smithsonian," The New York Times, 1997.
Chronology
1901 -- Born in Delta, Pennsylvania.
1922-1927 -- Moved to Washington, D.C. and attended George Washington University.
1924 -- Began working at the Smithsonian Institution.
1927 -- Sent by Ales Hrdlicka to Alaska to collect skeletal remains with Henry Collins.
1931 -- Graduated from The Johns Hopkins University with an M.D.
1931 -- Appointed assistant curator at the Smithsonian under Hrdlicka.
1939 -- Promoted to associate curator.
1939 -- Field work in Mexico.
1941 -- Field work in Peru.
1943 -- Taught at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
1943 -- Promoted to curator after Hrdlicka dies.
1943 -- Began working on forensic cases for the F.B.I.
1945 -- Field work in Mexico.
1949 -- Field work in Peru.
1947, 1949 -- Field work in Guatemala.
1954-1955 -- Traveled to Japan to assist in the identification of skeletal remains from the Korean War (Operation Glory).
1957-1967 -- Taught at the George Washington University School of Medicine.
1960-1962 -- Served as head curator of the Department of Anthropology.
1962-1965 -- Served as the director of the National Museum of Natural History.
1964 -- Assisted in the production of Smithsonian exhibits on physical anthropology.
1966 -- Retired from administrative duties and appointed senior scientist.
1971 -- Retired from the Smithsonian.
1997 -- Died in Bethesda, Maryland.
Related Materials:
The following manuscripts related to Stewart and his work can be found at the NAA:
NAA MS 1615- Excavations in Mancos Canyon, Colorado September 1943.
NAA MS 4669- The Townsend Site Near Lewes, Delaware 1962 by Henri Omwake.
NAA MS 4843- Report by T. Dale Stewart on Human Skeletal Material Excavated by W.M. Walker at Cedar Grove Cave, Arkansas and Natchitoches, Louisiana.
NAA MS 7025- A Tentative Closing Report on the Willin Site, Eldorado, Maryland September 1, 1952.
NAA MS 7121- "Memories from Half a Century at the Smithsonian January 11, 1978" recording.
NAA MS 7223- The Townsend Site January 1950.
NAA MS 7264- Documents Concerning Preserved Paleolithic Human Remains Found in the Vicinity of Cueva, Spain 1969-1972.
NAA MS 7357- Material Relating to Dermatoglyphics of Mayan Groups ca. 1947-1949.
NAA MS 7358- Personal Identification in Mass Disasters December 9-11 1968.
NAA MS 7359- T. Dale Stewart on the Identification of Human Remains April 6, 1970.
NAA MS 7474- Sketches of Burials at Ossuary 2, Juhle Site ca. 1971-1972.
Additional material T. Dale Stewart created while assisting Ales Hrdlicka is located at the National Anthropological Archives, The Papers of Ales Hrdlicka, ca. 1887-1943.
Many objects and artifact materials collected by T. Dale Stewart throughout his career are also held by the Smithsonian Department of Anthropology. These include skeletal remains and other materials from the Shanidar Cave in Iraq, forensic anthropological material including bone casts from Operation Glory, archaelogical materials from excavations in Maryland and Virginia including the Nanjemoy and Potomac Creek sites, and skeletal remains and other related materials from Stewart's 1927 expedition to Alaska with Henry Collins. Contact Anthropological Collections for more information.
Provenance:
Materials were transferred from T. Dale Stewart to the National Anthropological Archives in multiple accretions between 1975 and 2000 under accessions 1981-52, 1981-59, 1986-04, 1988-15, 1988-33, 1995-04, 1998-61, and 2000-46.The bulk of materials in this collection were transferred to the NAA from the Department of Anthropology in 1994 (1995-04).
Restrictions:
The Thomas Dale Stewart papers are open for research.
The mathematical sciences; a report, by the Committee on Support of Research in the Mathematical Sciences of the National Research Council for the Committee on Science and Public Policy, National Academy of Sciences
Author:
National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on Support of Research in the Mathematical Sciences Search this
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) Committee on Science and Public Policy Search this
21.95 cu. ft. (17 record storage boxes) (3 12x17 boxes) (4 16x20 boxes) (6 3x5 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Books
Clippings
Manuscripts
Ephemera
Black-and-white negatives
Black-and-white photographs
Color photographs
Artifacts
Place:
British Columbia
Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.)
Date:
1720-1929, 1944, 1995
Descriptive Entry:
This accessions consists of the personal correspondence of Charles D. Walcott, his family, and his extended family, as well as genealogical materials, family Bibles,
photographs, medals, and other materials related to the Walcott family. The correspondence documents the personal relationships between the immediate Walcott family, as well
as the extended family, mostly relations and ancestors of Helena Stevens Walcott. Photographs consist of both personal photography, and photography from field research expeditions.
Of note are eight boxes of lantern slides used by Mary Vaux Walcott to illustrate American wildflowers. The medals encompass awards presented to Charles D. Walcott, most notably
the Mary Clark Thompson Medal, presented by the National Academy of Sciences. Materials include correspondence, images, negatives, albums, medals, school records, wedding
registers, legal documents, family Bibles, articles, clippings, and ephemera.
Historical Note:
Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850-1927) was born in New York Mills, New York. He attended Utica public schools and the Utica Academy, but never graduated or pursued further
education. He had an early interest in natural history, and began his professional career in 1876 when he was appointed as an assistant to James Hall, New York's state geologist.
In 1879, he joined the newly formed United States Geological Survey (USGS) as an assistant geologist. Shortly after his appointment, Walcott began to do field work in Utah.
Field work would continue to define his life, and later sites included the Appalachians, New England, New York, several Mid-Atlantic states, western and southwestern United
States, and eastern Canada. From 1882 to 1893 he worked with the Survey's invertebrate Paleozoic paleontological collections, and in 1893 he was appointed Geologist in charge
of Geology and Paleontology. He also served as an honorary curator of invertebrate Paleozoic fossils at the United States National Museum (USNM) from 1892 to 1907, and as
Acting Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in charge of the USNM from 1897 to 1898. In 1894 Walcott was appointed Director of the USGS and served until 1907
when he resigned from the USGS and was appointed Secretary of the Smithsonian, a position he would remain at until his death.
During Walcott's administration at the Smithsonian he oversaw the completion of the National Museum Building (now the National Museum of Natural History) in 1911. He also
convinced Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer to donate his extensive Asian art collection and money for a building during his lifetime rather than after Freer's death,
as was originally intended. He also set up the National Gallery of Art (predecessor to the Smithsonian American Art Museum) as a separate administrative entity in 1920.
Despite his responsibilities as Secretary, Walcott found time to continue his research and collecting of fossils from the Cambrian and Ordovician periods, with primary
focus on the Canadian Rockies. In 1909 he located Cambrian fossils near Burgess Pass above Field, British Columbia. The following season he discovered the Burgess shale fauna,
which proved to be his greatest paleontological discovery.
In 1872, Walcott married Lura Ann Rust. Their marriage was relatively short, as Rust died in 1876 from an undiagnosed illness. In 1888, he married Helena Stevens. Charles
and Helena had three children: Charles Doolittle (born 1889), Sidney Stevens (born 1892), Helen Breese (born 1894), and Benjamin Stuart (born 1896). Helena and the children
often accompanied Charles on fieldwork excursions. Unfortunately, in 1911 Helena was killed in a train accident in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Charles Doolittle Walcott Jr. (often
referred to as "Charlie") died in 1913 while a student at Yale University, after suffering from multiple severe ear infections. In 1917, Benjamin Stuart (often referred to
as Stuart), was killed in action while serving as a pilot in the l'Escadrille de Lafayette in France during World War I. In 1914, Walcott married Mary Morris Vaux, an accomplished
naturalist. In 1925, the Smithsonian published her illustrations of American wildflowers in five volumes. Also in 1925, Helen Breese Walcott married Cole Younger. On February
9, 1927, Charles D. Walcott passed away.
For a more detailed history of Charles D. Walcott, please see Record Unit 7004: Charles D. Walcott Collection 1851-1940 and undated.
This collection consists of six feet of material documenting Porter's many scientific contributions. The following types of material are included: photographs, lecture notes, correspondence, trip notes, newspaper clippings, symposium programs, papers, and periodicals, circa 1930s-1980s.
Scope and Content:
The Richard Porter Collection reflects Porter's career as an electrical engineer, rocketry expert, and a corporate manager and consultant. Almost the entirety of this collection consists of materials related to his professional work. This includes correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, reports, notes, speeches, photographs, brochures, pamphlets, programs, magazines, newsletters, papers, articles, newspaper clippings, miscellaneous materials (directories, mailing lists, transcript, etc.), as well as a scrapbook. It is worth singling out a few of the aforementioned materials for their particular historical significance pertaining to the development of rocketry and space exploration. Some of the correspondence, memoranda and notes reveal the inner workings of Operation Paperclip: the U.S. plan to seek out, debrief, recruit and evacuate German rocket scientists from war-torn Germany to America. Additionally, other examples of correspondence and notes give candid appraisals of some key figures in the aerospace field, as well as to illustrate exchanges between Porter and such scientific luminaries as Carl Sagan, Wernher von Braun, Simon Ramo, Holger Toftoy, Fred Durant III, Edith Goddard and Clyde Tombaugh.
The Porter Collection is arranged both chronologically and alphabetically. Correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, notes, notebooks, speeches, photographs, brochures, pamphlets, programs, magazines, journals, articles, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous materials are organized by the former method. Reports are arranged alphabetically by organizational name while newsletters and papers are grouped alphabetically by title and then chronologically.
The reader should note that the Porter Collection was exposed to a fire in Porter's office sometime during the late 1970s. The fire, along with the subsequent dousing of water from the firefighters, destroyed much of this collection. All that remained are the materials described here. While the surviving materials generally suffered only minor damage (mainly to their original folders), scorch marks can be occasionally observed on some correspondence, speeches, reports, etc.. More serious problems exist with seven folders containing photographs. For conservation purposes, they have been separated from the rest of the photographs in this collection and are currently unavailable to researchers.
Arrangement:
The Porter Collection is arranged both chronologically and alphabetically. Correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, notes, notebooks, speeches, photographs, brochures, pamphlets, programs, magazines, journals, articles, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous materials are organized by the former method. Reports are arranged alphabetically by organizational name while newsletters and papers are grouped alphabetically by title.
Biographical/Historical note:
As an established authority on rockets, GE placed Porter in overall charge of the company's guided missiles department in 1953. By the mid-1950s, his great knowledge in this field also lead to a position as head of a panel of scientists tasked with developing a U.S. space program in time for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58. On February 1, 1958, Porter was given the honor of announcing to reporters that the U.S. had launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, the previous night. The booster employed for this endeavor, an Army Jupiter-C, was designed and built mainly by the German rocket scientists (including their leader, Wernher von Braun) Porter helped to bring to America thirteen years earlier. By this time, GE assigned him as a company-wide consultant. Besides serving as leader of the U.S. IGY effort, he also served on many other boards and panels such as the International Relations Committee of the Space Sciences Board, U.S. National Academy of Science, the U.S. Academy in the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and the U.S. delegation for the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. During his long career in engineering and aerospace development, Porter was also the recipient of numerous honors and awards. These included the Coffin Award, Goddard Award and the Scientific Achievement Award given by Yale University.
Aside from his career, Porter had a busy personal life. In 1946, he married Edith Wharton Kelly. The couple had two daughters and a son. Porter enjoyed horticulture -- especially growing orchids, as well as skiing and playing the clarinet. He died on October 6, 1996 at the age of 83.
General note:
Dr. Porter had a fire that destroyed most of his papers. These six boxes are all that remain.
Provenance:
Susan Porter Beffel and Thomas Andrew Porter, Gift, 1997, 1997-0037, NASM
Global dimensions of intellectual property rights in science and technology / Office of International Affairs, National Research Council ; edited by Mitchel B. Wallerstein, Mary Ellen Mogee, Roberta A. Schoen
