Franz Boas Anthropometric Data and Early Field Notebooks

Mss.B.B61.5

Date: Circa 1883-1912 | Size: 3.0 Linear feet

Special Request | On-site Photography Request
Collections Home | APS Home

Abstract

Anthropometric data from various Native American groups, language materials from the Northwest Coast and Mexico, typescripts of papers, a diary of a field trip to Baffin Island (N.W.T.), Canada, and genealogical data

Background note

Born in Minden, Germany, on July 8, 1858, the anthropologist Franz Boas was the son of the merchant Meier Boas and his wife, Sophie Meyer. Raised in the radical and tradition of German Judaism, Franz's youth was steeped in politically liberal beliefs and a largely secular outlook that he carried with him from university through his emigration to the United States.

At the universities of Heidelberg and Bonn, Boas studied physics and geography before completing a doctorate in physical geography at Kiel in 1881. Intending on testing then-current theories of environmental determinism, he signed on to an anthropological expedition to Baffin Island in 1883-1884, expecting that he would document the close adaptative fit of Central Eskimo cultures to their extreme climate. His experiences in the arctic, however, led him to the contrary conclusion: that social traditions, not environmental, exerted a dominant influence over human societies, and from this point onward, he was led to pursue the cultural over than physical dimensions of humanity.

Although he returned to Berlin after the expedition, Boas emigrated to the United States in 1885 to assume an editorial position with the journal Science, hoping to use it as a stepping-stone to an academic appointment. In 1886, he embarked upon a second major field excursion into what would become his most famous ethnographic project, working among the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw) Indians of the Northwest Coast, after which he secured his first academic position in 1889, at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. After three years at Clark and a failed appointment at the Field Museum in Chicago in 1892 (during which he played a part in organizing the anthropological exhibits for the Columbian World's Fair), Boas moved to New York City.

The restless activity of Boas's early years slowed in New York. Hired by the American Museum of Natural History (1895-1905), which became the recipient of the amazingly rich anthropological collections he accumulated on the Northwest Coast, Boas began to teach classes at Columbia University in 1896, where three years later he was appointed Professor of Anthropology. For the next 37 years, Boas ruled the anthropological roost at Columbia, accruing unprecedented power in his discipline, wielding grants, recommendations, and appointments with remarkable dexterity, and collecting about him a remarkable group of younger scholars as students and colleagues.

Distancing himself from some of the main currents of contemporary anthropological thought in the United States, and particularly from the evolutionist assumptions that riddled the discipline, Boas championed an anthropology that viewed human cultures as shaped more by historical "tradition" than biological propensity. Claiming to resist any overarching, synthetic theories of human relations, and particularly evolutionary theories of sociocultural development, Boas laid the theoretical groundwork for what became modern cultural relativism. In the process, he helped to clarify the demarcation between the concepts of culture and race and its expression in the divergence of the four fields in anthropology -- linguistics, ethnography, physical anthropology, and archaeology.

Boas's relatively few forays into physical anthropology included a pioneering anthropometric study in 1910-1911, demonstrating that the alleged mental and physical inferiority of immigrants disappeared statistically by the second generation. Opposed to immigration quotas and disdainful of the claims to science used to justify them, Boas was a consistent, strident opponent of racial determinism in intellect or behavior. A committed, politically active Socialist, he was frequently an outspoken critic of American policy. During the First World War, he spoke out against the treatment of German Americans and "enemy aliens" -- to the point of putting himself at risk -- and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany proved an even greater crusade. Despite his age, Boas took an active role in the anti-fascist struggle in the United States and was involved with numerous committees to assist refugee scholars. He was equally ardent in his efforts to criticize racial and ethnic bigotry in the United States.

As a mentor, Boas had a reputation of being directive, at times overbearing, and at the same time of doing too little to prepare his students for the rigors of fieldwork. The extraordinary number of students coming out of Columbia under his care, however, has arguably done as much to extend the Boasian approach than Boas's own writing. Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Elsie Clews Parsons, Alfred Kroeber, Frank Speck, Edward Sapir, Zora Neale Hurston, Ella Deloria, Melville Herskovits, Leslie Spier, Paul Radin, and Ashley Montagu are all students of Boas. Many continued in the same intellectual stream, some diverged, yet all bore traces of Boas's influence. He left a mark as well on the institutions of the discipline, as one of the founders of the American Anthropological Association and of the International Journal of American Linguistics.

Scope and content

The Series also includes a small number of essays by Boas, including his "Darwin in relation to anthropology."

Digital objects note

This collection contains digital materials that are available in the APS Digital Library. Links to these materials are provided with context in the inventory of this finding aid. A general listing of digital objects may also be found here.

Collection Information

Physical description

3.0 lin. feet

Provenance

Gift of Northwestern University Library, 1979 (accession number 1979-1592ms).

Preferred citation

Cite as: Franz Boas field notebooks and anthropometric data, American Philosophical Society.

Related material

The American Council of Learned Societies Committee on Native American Languages, Franz Boas Collection of Materials for American Linguistics ( Mss 497.3.B63c ) is a large collection of primary materials on Native American languages assembled, in part, under Boas's supervision, and including a large quantity of material written by Boas himself.

Boas appears as a correspondent in numerous APS collections, and in addition to its rich collections for the history of anthropology, the library houses the papers of several of Boas's former students and proteges, including Frank Speck ( Mss. Ms. Coll. 126 ), Elsie Clews Parsons ( Mss. Ms. Coll. 29 ), John Alden Mason ( Mss. B M384 ), Paul Radin ( Mss. 497.3 R114 ), and Ashley Montagu ( Mss. Ms. Coll. 109 ).

The APS also houses a microfilm (372.3, reel 1) of original materials in the Office of Anthropology Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., relating to Boas's trips to Baffin Island (N.W.T.) and British Columbia, during which he studied and collected cultural materials, 1885-1909.

The papers of Boas's son Ernst Boas ( Mss. Ms. Coll. 10 ) are housed at the APS. A physician, Ernst Boas shared his father's liberal political outlook and activist social views.

Other Franz Boas Collections

	Franz Boas Papers, 1862-1942 (Mss B B61)	View Collection
	Franz Boas Professional Papers, ca. 1860-1942 (Mss B B61p)	View Collection
	Boas Family Papers, 1862-1942 (Mss B B61f)	View Collection
	Boas-Rukeyser Collection, 1869-1940 (Mss B B61ru)	View Collection
	United States Federal Bureau of Investigation Files, 1939-1950 (Mss B B61f.1)	View Collection

Bibliography

Rohner, Ronald P., ed., The Ethnography of Franz Boas: Letters and Diaries of Franz Boas, Written on the Northwest Coast from 1886 to 1931 (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago, 1969). Call no.: B B61e.r

Stocking, George, ed., The Shaping of American Anthropology, 1883-1911: A Franz Boas Reader (N.Y.: Basic Books, 1974). Call no.: 572.081 B63s

Cole, Douglas, Franz Boas: The Early Years, 1859-1906 (Seattle: Univ. of Washington, 1999).

Boas, Franz, The Mind of Primitive Man (N.Y.: MacMillan, 1911). Call no.: 572 B63m

Boas, Franz, Ethnology of the Kwakiutl (Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office, 1921). Call no.: 572.97 B63e

Boas, Franz, Primitive Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1927). Call no.: 571.7 B63p

Boas, Franz, ed., General Anthropology (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1938). Call no.: 572 B63g.r

Boas, Franz, Race, Language and Culture (N.Y.: MacMillan, 1940). Call no.: 572.081 B63r

Indexing Terms

Genre(s)

Diaries.
Notebooks

Geographic Name(s)

Baffin Island (N.W.T.)

Personal Name(s)

Boas, Franz, 1858-1942
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882

Subject(s)

Anthropology -- Research -- United States
Anthropometry -- Research.
Chatino language
Indians of Mexico -- Languages
Indians of North America -- Anthropometry
Indians of North America -- Northwest Territories -- Languages
Pochutec language

Detailed Inventory


Anthropometric datasheets			Box 1-5	Request Series
Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
1: Winnebago Reservation, Nebraska	Summer 1892		Box 1	Request File
Recorded at Winnebago Reservation, Nebraska. Data for Ho-Chunk (Winnebago). Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
2: Kamloops School and other locations; British Columbia and Washington	Summer 1897	3 folders	Box 1	Request File
Recorded at Kamloops School and other locations, British Columbia and Washington. Data for St'at'imc (Lillooet), Heiltsuk (Bella Bella), Salish, Nlaka'pamux (Thompson), and others. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
3: Lincoln Institute, Philadelphia	Summer 1892		Box 1	Request File
Recorded at Lincoln Institute, Philadelphia. Data for Oglala Lakota, Cheyenne, Omaha, and others. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
4: Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and other locations	Summer 1892	2 folders	Box 1	Request File
Recorded at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and other locations. Data for Cherokee. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
5: Santee, Yankton, etc.	Summer 1892		Box 2	Request File
Data for Santee, Yankton, and Teton Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
6: Ontario	Summer 1892	6 folders	Box 2	Request File
Recorded at various locations in Ontario. Data for Mississagua, Chippewa, Oneida, Munsee, Ottawa, etc. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
7: Crow Agency, Montana	Summer 1892	2 folders	Box 3	Request File
Recorded at Crow Agency, Montana. Data for Apsáalooke (Crow). Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
8: Cheyenne River Agency, South Dakota	Summer 1891		Box 3	Request File
Recorded at Cheyenne River Agency, S.D. Data for Lakota primarily. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
9: White Earth Agency, Leech Lake, and Pine Point, Minnesota	Summer 1892	2 folders	Box 3	Request File
Recorded at White Earth Agency, Leech lake, and Pine Point, Minn. Data for Chippewa, etc. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
10: Anadarko, Fort Sill, and Grantham Springs, Indian Territory (Oklahoma)	Circa 1892	3 folders	Box 3	Request File
Recorded at Anadarko, Fort Sill, and Grantham Springs, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Data for Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, and others. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
11: Omaha Government School, Nebraska	Circa 1891-1892		Box 4	Request File
Recorded at Omaha Government School, Nebraska. Data for Omaha. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
12: Saskatchewan and Manitoba	Summer 1891	3 folders	Box 4	Request File
Recorded at various locations in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Data for Ojibwe, Cree, Saulteaux, etc. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
13: Stonewall and Tishimingo, Indian Territory (Oklahoma)	Summer 1891	2 folders	Box 4	Request File
Recorded at Stonewall and Tishimingo, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Data for Chickasaw. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.
14: Kamloops, Lytton, and other locations in British Columbia; and, Spokane, Washington	Summer 1892	4 folders	Box 4-5	Request File
Recorded at Kamloops, Lytton, and other locations in British Columbia, Spokane, Washington. Data for Nlaka'pamux, Secwepemc, and several others. Restrictions on Access: Restrictions on Access: Reproduction of these materials, including Reading Room photography, is restricted due to privacy concerns, pending consultation with communities related to individuals listed. Please consult the Curator of Indigenous Materials for more information.

Boas, Franz, 1858-1942. Miscellaneous notes				Request Series
Boas, Franz, 1858-1942. Inuit word lists and proper names	Circa 1882-1883	1 folder	Box 5	Request File
Boas, Franz, 1858-1942. Relation of Darwin to Anthropology	n.d.	1 folder	Box 5	Request File
General physical description: 1 folder Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:169555
Boas, Franz, 1858-1942. Science in Nazi Germany	1936		Box 5	Request File
Boas, Franz, 1858-1942. Spanish Elements in Modern Nahuatl	After 1925, undated	1 folder	Box 5	Request File
Folder included disparate linguistic materials from the Northwest Coast, including for Coastal Salish (re: a religious prophet), Puyallup, Tsimshian. These were identified in 2023 as part of Ethel Aginsky's "Puyallup Texts" (ACLS Collection, Mss.497.3.B63c, item S2e.1) and moved into that collection. General physical description: 1 folder
Boas, Franz, 1858-1942. Theory of Correlations	n.d.	1 folder	Box 5	Request File
Boas, Franz, 1858-1942. Was sind Rassen?	n.d.	6p.	Box 5	Request File
TMs. In German. General physical description: 6p. Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:320213
Miscellaneous	n.d.		Box 5	Request File
Includes Boas Family genealogical information (1920s?), forms for anthropometric surveys, stereograph of cranium of male Aleut; two silver prints of Amazonian Indians, etc.

Notebooks			Box 6	Request Subseries
Related material: Other Boas field notebooks and related materials from his 1883-1884 Baffinland trip can be found in the Franz Boas Professional Papers (Mss.B.B61p).
Baffinland diary	1883 July 16-1884 January	Black cloth binding	Box 6	Request File
Sketches General physical description: Black cloth binding
Baffinland notebook	1883-1884	Black cloth binding	Box 6	Request File
Sketches General physical description: Black cloth binding
Items removed from Baffinland Notebook	1883-1884		Box 5	Request File
Field notes 1886 #1	1886 September 18-October 3	Brown lea.	Box 6	Request File
This is the first of four field notebooks Boas used on his first trip to British Columbia in 1886. This notebook covers September 18 to October 3, 1886. Includes vocabularies, texts, notes in German shorthand, and some sketches, relating to Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw (Kwagu'ł, ʼNa̱mǥis, Tłatła̱siḵwa̱la), Tsimshian, Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Oowekeeno (Wuikinuxv, "Wikano"), Tlingit, and Bella Bella (Heiltsuk) peoples. Recorded in part at Victoria, Nahwitti ("Newettee," Xwa̱mdasbeʼ), and elsewhere on Vancouver Island. This notebook contains Boas's very first notes on visiting Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw communities. General physical description: Brown lea. Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:166995
Field notes 1886 #2	1886 November	Disbound.	Box 6 Use Reader Copy, Box 5	Request File
Includes vocabularies, texts, shorthand notes for Comox (Coast Salish), Lequiltoq (Lekwiltok), Sisia'atl (Shishalh, Sechelt). General physical description: Disbound. Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:263752
Field notes 1886 #2. Reader Copy	1886 November		Box 5	Request File
Field notes 1886 #3	1886 October 26-November	Disbound	Box 6	Request File
Includes vocabularies, texts, shorthand notes for Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Tlingit, Cowichan, Nitinat (Ditidaht), Comox, Pentlatch (Coast Salish), Lequiltoq (Lekwiltok), Sisia'atl (Shishalh, Sechelt), and Tsimshian. native American Images note; Sketches General physical description: Disbound Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:263932
Field notes 1886 #4	1886 November-December 16	Black paper	Box 6	Request File
Includes vocabularies, texts, shorthand notes for Coast Salish peoples, including Pentlatch, Comox, Eeqswem, Nanaimo (Snuneymuxw), and Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh). Native American Images note: Sketches General physical description: Black paper Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:319165
Field notes 1888 #1	1888 May 31-June	Black cloth binding	Box 6	Request File
Includes vocabularies, texts, shorthand notes for Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh), Tsimshian, Nisgah (Nisga'a), Haida, Coast Salish anthropometric measurements, Stikine Tlingit (Shtaxʼhéen Ḵwáan, previously misidentified as Tahltan), Kwak'wala (Kwakwaka'wakw), Tlingit, Heiltsuk. Native American Images note: Sketches General physical description: Black cloth binding Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:245618
Field notes 1888 #2	1888 June-July 24	Black cloth binding	Box 6	Request File
Includes vocabularies, texts, shorthand notes for Heiltsuk, Tlingit, Haida, Cowichan (Coast Salish), "Aht," Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth), Ntlakapamuk (Nlaka'pamux), Kootenai (Kutenai, Ktunaxa). Native American Images note: Sketches. General physical description: Black cloth binding Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:344134
Field notes 1889 #1	1889 July 24	Black cloth binding, 351p.	Box 6	Request File
Part of BAAS survey, including linguistic data on Songish (Songhees, Lekwungen, Lkwungen), Alberni (Nuu-chah-nulth, Hupacasath, Tseshaht), Bella Coola (Nuxalk), and Bella Bella (Heiltsuk). Native American Images note: Sketches General physical description: Black cloth binding, 351p. Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:248670
Field notes 1889 #2	[1889]	Black cloth binding, 373p.	Box 6	Request File
Part of BAAS survey, including linguistic data on Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Rivers Inlet (Oowekeeno, Wuikinuxv), Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth). Native American Images note: Sketches General physical description: Black cloth binding, 373p. Access digital object: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:241034
Field notes, 1909-1912 #1, Pochutla and Chatino	1909-1912	Red paper binding	Box 6	Request File
Listas de palabras, incluidos los nombres de los hablantes de los que se suscitó, por "Pochulta" (Pochuctec), y chatino. "[Santiago] Yeitepec" aparece en una lista de palabras chatino, por lo que el lenguaje específico posilbe es, posiblemente, Chatino de la Zona Alta Occidental. (130 páginas) Textos folclóricos y canciones en español. El origen de estas historias, como si son traducciones de cuentos indígenas, no se da. (65 páginas) Notas sobre variantes del zapoteco. (2 páginas) Word lists, including names of speakers from whom they were elicited, for "Pochulta" (Pochuctec), and Chatino. "[Santiago] Yeitepec" is listed in one Chatino word list, so the specific language may be Western Highlands Chatino. (130 pages) Folkloristic texts and songs in Spanish. The origin of these stories, such as if they are translations of indigenous stories, is not given. (65 pages) Notes on varieties of Zapotec. (2 pages) Native American Images note: Sketches General physical description: Red paper binding Other Descriptive Information: Identification as Pochutla and Chatino made by Brian Carpenter, July 2016. Other Descriptive Information: Boas published about this Pochutla fieldwork in his article "El Dialecto Mexicano de Pochutla," International Journal of American Linguistics 1 (1917): 9-44. Access digital object: http://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:141696