This series contains correspondence, reports and newspaper clippings relating to research projects conducted by graduate students and faculty of the Department of Anthropology.
Subseries I.1: Council for Research in the Social Sciences, 1930-1962
This series contains records related to research projects conducted by graduate students and faculty that were funded by the Columbia Council for Research in the Social Sciences (CRSS). These files are arranged by project number and title for ease of access. Correspondence includes that between Ruth Benedict and CRSS administrator Thomas Hayden on the dispersal of funds, progress reports, publications, and other research project issues. The files contain research proposals and subsequent progress reports. Material includes routine correspondence regarding expenditures, salaries, appointments and fieldwork arrangements. Research data is not significant in these records.
Graduate research training in Ecological Anthropology, or "Human Ecology" was funded by the Research Training Grants branch of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). The principal investigator was Prof. Andrew P. Vayda. The bulk of these files contain appointments, grant proposals, and fund applications.
Box 1 Folder 1
Project 2: Heredity and Environment, 1936-1938
Box 1 Folder 2
Project 19: Research in Anthropology, ca., 1940
Box 1 Folder 3
Project 26: Racial and Social Differences in Mental Ability, 1936
Box 1 Folder 4
Project 35: Acculturation, 1930-1938
Box 1 Folder 5
Project 39: Religion and Culture in Mexico, 1930-1936, 1953, 1930-1936, 1953
Box 1 Folder 6
Project 46: Research in New Guinea, 1930-1937
Box 1 Folder 7
Project 47: Approaches to History, ca., 1930
Box 1 Folder 8
Project 86: Social Isolation, 26, March 1936
Box 1 Folder 9
Project 87: Negro Studies in Haiti, 12, October 1937
Box 1 Folder 10
Project 89: Research on Aging and Heredity of Life Span, 1938
Box 1 Folder 11
Project 103: Caribbean Negro Studies, 12, October 1937
Box 1 Folder 12
Project 126: South American Ethnology, 1939 undated, 1939, undated
Box 1 Folder 13
Project 140: Current Culture in the Grand Chaco, ca., 1940
Box 1 Folder 14
Project 143: Family life in Pueblo of Zuni, undated
Box 1 Folder 15
Project 218: Afro-Caribbean Pidgins, 1950-1952
Box 1 Folder 16
Project 228L Language Variance and Divergence, 1951-1952
Box 1 Folder 17
Project 256: American-Indian Ethnolinguistics, 1953
Box 1 Folder 18
Project 264: Archeological Excavation of Zuni Pueblo, 1953-1954
Box 1 Folder 19
Project 272: Linguistic Acculturation in Nigeria, 1952-1962
Box 1 Folder 20
Assorted Projects, 1936-1940
Box 1 Folder 21
Assorted Projects, 1947-1958 undated, 1947-1958, undated
Subseries I.2: Fieldwork and expeditions, 1931-1979
This series contains correspondence, reports and newspaper clippings documenting field schools and expeditions not funded by the CRSS. Material documenting a particular research project or expedition was removed from the general chronological "current expedition" file and labeled accordingly. The records document relations between the Anthropology Department and the Department of the Interior for both archeological and ethnographic field work.
Of note are newspaper clippings, telegrams, and letters documenting the death of student Henrietta Schmerler, murdered by 22 year-old Max Seymour, while conducting field research at an Apache reservation in Arizona. Correspondence includes telegrams, reports, and letters between Frank D. Fackenthal, Secretary of Columbia College, William Donner, Superintendent at the Whiteriver [Fort Apache] Indian Agency, U.S. Department of the Interior, and Professor Boas. Newspaper clippings and letters report the incident, along with editorials directed at the field of ethnography, the Anthropology Department, and Columbia University. Also included are letters authored by Henrietta Schmerler during her field work to both Franz Boas and others.
The archeological investigation of the Borough of Brooklyn was undertaken by the Department of Anthropology and funded by the National Parks Service. According to the contract, "funds were appropriated to the Service by Interior Department Appropriation Act of 1957 for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of Public Law 214, 84th Congress (69 Stat. 445) relative to the conduct of an historical and archeological investigation of the burial site of 256 Maryland soldiers who fell in combat during the Battle of Brooklyn on the 27th day of August, 1776…"
Expeditions and other projects not identified as CRSS-sponsored may still have some relation, such as the funding for Arabic language training for Kepler Lewis. He led an ethnological study group in Lebanon which was part of a larger "Middle East Research Project." Professor Joseph H. Greenberg was the faculty advisor to the project.
Photographs accompany field notes for the excavation of the MacHaffie site, Folsom culture.
Box 1 Folder 22
Schmerler (Henrietta) murder, correspondence, 4 July 1931-18, January 1932
Box 1 Folder 23
Schmerler (Henrietta) murder, clippings, 15 July-1, August 1931
Box 1 Folder 24
Archeology field school – Point of Pines, Arizona, 1947
Box 1 Folder 25
Bahia, Brazil Project, 1949-1953
Box 1 Folder 26
MacHaffie site, Montana (Folson culture), 1951
Box 1 Folder 27
Middle East Research Project, 1949-1953 undated, 1949-1953, undated
Box 1 Folder 28
National Park Service Battle of Brooklyn archeological investigation project, 1952, 1956-1957, 1952, 1956-1957
Box 1 Folder 29
Lipkind, William – Caraja field materials, 1979
Box 1 Folder 30
Assorted expeditions, 1937-1954
Subseries I.3: National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), 1966-1973
Graduate research training in Ecological Anthropology, or "Human Ecology" was funded by the Research Training Grants branch of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). The principal investigator was Prof. Andrew P. Vayda. The bulk of these files contain appointments, grant proposals, and fund applications.
Box 1 Folder 31
Research Training grants, 1966-1973
Box 1 Folder 32
Trainee Appointments, 1968-1973
Box 1 Folder 33
Research Supplementary funds, 1968-1969
Box 1 Folder 34
Research supplementary proposal (Minda Brown),1968
Box 1 Folder 35
Research renewal application, 1970
Box 1 Folder 36
Research continuation proposal, three year, 1970
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Research continuation proposal, four year, 1970-1971
Subseries I.4: Publication, 1931-1972
contains articles and miscellaneous manuscripts relating to departmental contributions in Anthropological literature. An annotated manuscript, along with a carbon copy, titled "Notes on Child Development at San Ildefonso," by William and Marjorie W. Whitman is included and may be a draft of their work, The Pueblo Indians of San Ildefonso, a changing culture, New York, Columbia University Press, 1947.
Box 1 Folder 38
Columbia University Press: Archeological Studies in Peru (Strong, Willey, and Corbett), 1949, 1956-1957, 1949, 1956-1957
Box 1 Folder 39
Columbia University Press: Cultural Stratigraphy in the Viru Valley, Northern Peru, (Strong and Evans), 1949-1954 undated, 1949-1954, undated
Box 1 Folder 40
Columbia University Presss: Early Ancon and Early Supe Culture (Willey and Corbett), 1951, 1954-1955, 1951, 1954-1955
Box 1 Folder 41
Contributions to Anthropology, 1931-1939, 1972, 1931-1939, 1972
Box 1 Folder 42
Contributions to Anthropology, 1942-1947
Box 1 Folder 43
Contributions to Anthropology, 1948-1953 undated, 1948-1953, undated
Box 1 Folder 44
Krickberg, W., translation by Ruth Stout, 1935
Box 1 Folder 45
Publication Problems, 1951-1956 undated, 1951-1956, undated
Box 1 Folder 46
Program for the department of Anthropology, 1954
Box 1 Folder 47
Greenberg, Joseph H. – African Linguistics, 1950-51
Box 1 Folder 48
Spaulding, Albert manuscript – Arzberger Site, South Dakota, 1954-1955
Box 1 Folder 49
Steward, Julian H. manuscript, "Area Studies", undated
Box 1 Folder 50
Unidentified manuscript – American Indian cultures, undated
Box 1 Folder 51
Whitman, William and Marjorie manuscript, 1947 undated, 1947, undated
Subseries I.5: General A-Z, 1933-1976
This series contains correspondence and reports relating to research not described by the previous subseries.
Box 2 Folder 1
Benedict, Ruth – lecture notes, 1947-1948 undated, 1947-1948, undated
Box 2 Folder 2
Boas, Franz – Linguistic Society of America
Box 2 Folder 3
Council for Research in the Humanities, 1933-1936
Box 2 Folder 4
East Harlem Research Project (Foresight Family Health Study), 1955 undated, 1955, undated
Box 2 Folder 5
Harris, Marvin – Indo-American fellowship program, 1976
Box 2 Folder 6
Mead, Margaret – Russian, Soviet study, 1948-1950
Box 2 Folder 7
Rorshach tests, n.d
Box 2 Folder 8
Study of man in the tropics, 1957-1958