William Henry Holmes

Infobox Scientist
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caption =William Henry Holmes, c.1918
birth_date = December 1, 1846
birth_place = Harrison County, Ohio
death_date = April 20, 1933
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nationality = United States
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field = anthropology
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William Henry Holmes (December 1, 1846 – April 20, 1933) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, geologist and museum director.

Born in Harrison County, Ohio, Holmes graduated from McNeely Normal College in 1870 and briefly went into teaching. In 1872 he became an artist with the F. V. Hayden survey. After it was absorbed into the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879, he was assigned to work as a geologist in the southwestern United States. He contributed pioneering reports on the terrain and geologic phenomena of Yellowstone Park, and completed early geological reconnaissance work in Colorado. As an artist, he was responsible for illustrative material in an atlas of the Grand Canyon. Holmes was a noted mountain climber, and peaks in Yellowstone Park and the Henry Mts. of Utah were later named in his honor. In 1875, Holmes began studying the remains of the Anasazi culture in the San Juan River region of Utah. He became particularly interested in prehistoric pottery and shell art, producing published works including "Art in Shell of the American Indians" (1883)" and "Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos (1886)". He expanded these studies into textiles, and became well known as an expert in both ancient and existing arts produced by Native Americans of the Southwest.

Grand Canyon by Holmes, published in Clarence E. Dutton, "The Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District" (1882), sheet XV.

Holmes left the Geological Survey in 1889 to become an archaeologist with the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology. He left Washington temporarily, from 1894 to 1897, to serve as curator of anthropology at the Field Columbian Museum. He returned to the Smithsonian in 1897 to serve as head curator of anthropology at the U.S. National Museum. From 1902 to 1909 he served as Chief (i.e. director) of the Bureau of American Ethnology, where he worked directly under Cyrus Thomas; during this period he studied the Etowah Indian Mounds of the Mississippian culture in Georgia, and in 1903, he published his "Synthesis of Pottery". In 1910, he became chairman of the Division of Anthropology of the U.S. National Museum. In 1920, Holmes became the director of National Gallery of Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum), where he assembled exhibits of Indian arts from the Northwest Coast. He published many works on archæological and anthropological subjects. He edited geological publications including Hayden's "Atlas of Colorado" and the eleventh and twelfth reports of the Geological Survey. His books include: "Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities" (1919).

Published works

Published works by Holmes include:
* Natural History of Flaked Stone Implements. In "Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthropology", edited by C. S. Wake, pp. 120-139. Schulte, Chicago, Il. (1894)
* "Archaeological Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico" (1895)
* Stone Implements of the Potomac-Chesapeake Tidewater Province. In "Bureau of American Ethnology Annual Report", pp. 13-152. vol. 15. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. (1897)
* "Random Records of a Lifetime, 1846-1931: Cullings, largely personal, from the scrap heap of three score years and ten, devoted to science, literature and art." 1932. Description: 21 v. in 22. illus. (mounted, part col.) clippings, letters. 27 cm. Held in the American Art Portrait Gallery Rare Book Collection.

References

: cite book |author=aut|Gleach, Frederic W. |authorlink=Frederic W. Gleach|year=2002 |chapter=William Henry Holmes, 1909–1910|editor=Regna Darnell and Frederic W. Gleach (eds.) |title=Celebrating a Century of the American Anthropological Association: Presidential Portraits |location=Arlington, VA |publisher=American Anthropological Association; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press |pages=pp.13–15|isbn=0-8032-1720-X |oclc=49225637 : cite journal |author=aut|Hough, Walter |authorlink=Walter Hough|year=1933 |month=October-December |title=William Henry Holmes |journal=American Anthropologist New Series |url=http://www.aaanet.org/sections/gad/history/067Holmesobit.pdf |format=PDF online reproduction at the AAA |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=pp.752–764|location=Arlington, VA |publisher=American Anthropological Association and affiliated societies |doi= 10.1525/aa.1933.35.4.02a00110|issn=0002-7294 |oclc=1479294: cite book |author=aut|Swanton, John R. |authorlink=John R. Swanton|year=1936|chapter=Biographical Memoir of William Henry Holmes, 1846–1933 |chapterurl=http://books.nap.edu/html/biomems/wholmes.pdf |format=PDF online facsimile at the NAS |editor=|title=Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, nowrap|vol. 17 - Tenth Memoir |edition=Presented to the Academy at the Autumn meeting, 1935. |others=Bibliography compiled by Ella Leary|location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |id=ISSN|0077-2933 |isbn= |oclc=37424036: cite journal |author=aut|Willey, Gordon R. |authorlink=Gordon Willey |year=1994 |month=Spring |title= [Review of] "The Archaeology of William Henry Holmes" by David J. Meltzer; Robert C. Dunnell |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |url= |format= |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=pp.119–123|location=Boston, MA |publisher=Association for Field Archaeology, Boston University |doi= 10.2307/530250|issn=0093-4690 |oclc=8560818

External links

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* [http://academic.reed.edu/uxmal/galleries/thumbnails/drawings/Drawings-Holmes.htm Holmes' 1895 "Monuments of Yucatan"] , at Reed College website