Anthropological Society of Washington Records 1879-1980

> You are only searching: Archives, Manuscripts and Photographs

Anthropological Society of Washington Records 1879-1980

Anthropological Society of Washington

Anthropological Society of Washington Records 1879-1980

Numbered manuscripts 1850s-1980s (some earlier)

Phy. Description:

Digital Reference:

Finding aid

Additional forms:

Parts microfilmed are indicated on "microfilm record copy" of the inventory in Manuscript Guides file.

Bio / His Notes:

The Anthropological Society of Washington (ASW) was founded in a series of meetings beginning February 10, 1879, and was formally organhized on February 17, 1879. On December 13, 1887, the society was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia. It purpose, as stated in its original charter, was the encouragement "of the study of the natural history of man, especially with reference to American." Membership was open to all who were interested in anthropology.

From its beginning, ASW has been essentially a local organization serving the needs of anthropology in the United States capital city. Its business affairs were entrusted to a board of managers, the general membership largely engaged in periodic meetings of a scientific nature focusing on the research of local members. Such characteristics, however, belie the significance of the society in the growth of American anthropology as an organized discipline. Since government-sponsoredanthropology centered in Washington--in the earlier days largely at the Smithsonian and, later, extending to other agencies--the talks and discussion have been of importance, involving leading anthropologists involved in original work at the forefront of their disciplines. It followed that the society's early membership, in spit of its essentially local nature, was at the same time nationally and internationally known. Furthermore, in the American Anthropologist, the society established the first national journal concerned exclusively with anthropology, and the publication came to provide an outlet for followers of the discipline throughout the country.

During the early decades of the 20th century, along with the American Ethnological Society, the ASW played a role in the found of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), the organization that was to become the major national organization for English-speaking North American anthropologists. The influence of the Washingtonians was particularly evident in the fact that the AAA became a general membership organization rather than a group restricted to professionals. Arrangements were thus possible for membership in the ASW to bring automatic affiliation with the AAA, a fact that allowed the ASW with its relatively large nonprofessional membership to exert a considerable influence on the national organization.

The Washington group also provided the Association its major publication series. Prior to the establishment of the AAA, a movement began in Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to make the American Anthropologist a truly national journal. Thus the Anthropologist was placed under two owernes (WJ McGee, of Washington, and Franz Boas, of New York) and a board of managers drawn from anthropologists of Washington and other cities. With the founding of the AAA, the journal was transferred to it as the official organ of the AAA, the ASW, and the AES.

Yet another significant influence of teh ASW on the national anthropoogical scene came during the 1940s, a period during which many anthropologists were at work for the federal government. It was these anthropologists who perceived the weakness of the AAA, with its large nonprofessional membership and very incomplete representation of professional anthropologists in its membership, in influencing post-World War II federal policies affecting the social sciences. The ASW provided, in a sense, the membership of a group, the initial forum and, to a limited extent, funds for a drive toward a more truly professional association. This the ASW did in spite of pusuant adjustments in its relations with the AAA that brought the ASW, among several other organizations, under the wing of the AAA.

On the local scene, the ASW was one of the founding organizations of the Joint Commission of Scientific Socieities, which evenutally developed into the Washington Academy of Sciences. In 1908, it absorbed the members of the Washington-centered Women's Anthropological Society of America. It also played a part in the Social Science Federation of Washington. In addition, the ASW became involved in movements of local interest that ranged from its oppostition to the anti-vivisectionist efforts of the Soceity for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to its interest in the George Washington Memorial Fund and the improvement of dwellings of the poor.

The record of the ASW concern its organization, membershipm, and management of its business affairs. Records of its early meetings include not only minutes but also summaries--and at times almost complete papers--of its talks and discussions. Often these are manuscripts written by the speakers. There are also small quantities of documents concerning many of the national and local development in which the society was involved. In addition, dcouments of the 1950s and 1960s concern the society's special publications and special programs that often involved appearances by outstanding anthropologists from outside Washington.

(1) Constitution and bylaws; (2) minutes of meetings; (3) correspondence; (4) report of the curator; (5) records of the treasurer; (6) records of the secretary; (7) data about ASW histroy abstracted from the records; (8) publications; (9) publications about ASW history; (10) records regarding the exhibitAnthropology and the Nation's Capital; (11) library; (12) general file, 1964-1977; (13) records of the treasurer, 1953-1975; (14) records of the secretary, 1920-1923; (15) sound records, 1971, 1974

Original deposit placed in the archives September 19, 1968 by Clifford Evans in accordance with letter to Evans from Conrad C. Reining, President, A. S. W., September 13, 1968. The records had been in the custody of Dr Evans since 1956, when he served as chairman of a committee to review and arrange them; in 1968 Evans recommended to the A. S. W. that they be placed in the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology Archives. Other deposits since.

Manuscript 4821, Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives

An inventory of the original deposit was prepared in September, 1968 by Margaret Blaker; a copy accompanies the collection. Reining's transmittal letter and Evans' committee report (1956, 1 page) are in Smithsonian Office of Anthropology Archives accession files.

Can't locate photos, 11/85. KTB

Repository Loc:

National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Museum Support Center, Suitland, Maryland

Babcock, William H.

Beals, Ralph Leon 1901-1985

Bennett, John William

Blaker, Margaret Contant

Brinton, Daniel Garrison

Boas, Franz 1858-1942

Braidwood, Robert J.

Carter, George F.

Casagrande, Joseph Bartholomew

Cooper, John Montgomery Fr 1881-1949

Cushing, Frank Hamilton, 1857-1900

Densmore, Frances

Devereux, George

Dorsey, George Amos

Duncan, George S.

Eiseley, Loren Corey

Evans, Clifford Jr

Fenton, William Nelson

Fewkes, Jesse Walter, 1850-1930.

Flannery, Regina

Fletcher, Alice Cunningham

Fletcher, Robert H.

Folkmar, Daniel 1861-1932

Gladwin, Thomas Favill

Goddard, Pliny Earle

Greenberg, Joseph Harold

Haag, William George

Hallowell, Alfred Irving

Hewitt, J. N. B. (John Napoleon Brinton)

Hodge, Frederick Webb, 1864-1956.

Hough, Walter, 1859-1935.

Hrdlička, Aleš, 1869-1943.

Jackson, William Henry

Judd, Neil Merton 1887-1976

Kluckhohn, Clyde

Knez, Eugene Irving 1916-

Lantis, Margaret Lydia

Larson, Thomas J.

MacDonald, Arthur

Mason, Otis Tufton, 1838-1908

Matthews, Washington

Maynard, George

Mayr, Ernst, 1904-

Meggers, Betty Jane

Merriam, John C.

Michelson, Truman

Moorehead, Warren King

McGee, W. J., 1853-1912

McGuire, Joseph Deakins

Mooney, James, 1861-1921.

Murdock, George Peter

Newman, Marshall Thornton 1911-

Reed, Erik Kellerman

Riesenberg, Saul H.

Roberts, Frank Harold Hanna Jr

Schultz, Adolph H.

Setzler, Frank M. (Frank Maryl), 1902-1975

Sharp, Lauriston

Simoens da Silva, Antonio Carlos

Spaulding, Albert Clanton 1914-1990

Starr, Frederick

Steward, Julian Haynes

Stewart, T. D. (Thomas Dale), 1901-1997

Strong, William Duncan, 1899-1962.

Sturtevant, William Curtis

Swanton, John Reed

Tatum, Robert M.

Tooker, William Wallace

Trager, George L.

Tuckerman, L.B.

Wedel, Waldo Rudolph

Weiner, J. S. (Joseph Sydney), 1915-

Wheeler-Voegelin, Erminie

White, Leslie Alvin

Withers, Arnold M.

Woodbury, Richard Benjamin

Bourke, John Gregory, 1846-1896

Horizon Information Portal 3.09_74.01

SIRIS

© 2001-2004 Smithsonian Institution All rights reserved.

SIRIS-Smithsonian Institution Research Information System