Frederic Ward Putnam

Infobox Scientist
name = Frederic Ward Putnam
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caption = Frederic Ward Putnam
birth_date = 16 April 1839
birth_place = Salem, Massachusetts
death_date = 14 August 1915
death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts
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nationality = American
ethnicity =
field = naturalist and anthropology
work_institutions = Harvard University
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doctoral_advisor = Louis Agassiz
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Frederic Ward Putnam (16 April 1839 - Salem, Massachusetts – 14 August 1915, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American naturalist and anthropologist [Citation
id = PMID:17736009
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17736009
last=Putnam
first=
publication-date=1899 Aug 25
year=1899
title=A PROBLEM IN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY.
volume=10
issue=243
periodical=Science
pages=225-236
doi = 10.1126/science.10.243.225] .

He had little education, but became the student of Louis Agassiz at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University; later he was the curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University from 1874 to 1909. He directed archæological digs across 37 U.S. states and in other countries.

He published "List of the Birds of Essex County" (1856), originated "The Naturalist's Directory" (1865), and was one of the founders of the "American Naturalist" in 1867.

Putnam was appointed the lead curator and head of the anthropology department in 1891 for the World's Columbian Exposition, to be held in Chicago in 1893. He spent much of the two years leading up to the exposition organizing and directing expeditions dispatched to all parts of the Americas and other parts of the world to gather natural history and ethnographic items for the exhibition. As the exposition was drawing to a close, Putnam agitated for a permanent home to be found for the collection of artifacts amassed under his supervision, and late in 1893 what was to become the Field Museum of Natural History was incorporated, opening the following year. Putnam held hopes of becoming the museum's first director, but was unsuccessful. [Alexander (1996), pp.55–56]

In 1898 he was named president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1901 he was president of the American Folklore Society, and in 1905 he was president of the American Anthropological Association. He became a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of many foreign learned societies.

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