Roland A. Steiner

Roland A. Steiner (ca. 1840 - January 12, 1906) was a physician, planter, folklorist, and amateur archaeologist who resided in Georgia for most of his life. His archaeological pursuits in Georgia are his most prominent lifetime achievement.

Roland was born to Dr. Henry Hagner Steiner, a physician, and Susannah Steiner sometime between 1839 and 1842. He fought at Richmond and Chancellorsville, Virginia during the Civil War as a private with Company C of the 48th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia. Roland graduated from the Medical College in Richmond, Virginia during the spring of 1864. In 1870, Roland married Willhelmine J. Taylor, who was one of the wealthiest women in Georgia.

During the latter half of the 19th century and into the early part of the 20th century, Roland collected a massive quantity of prehistoric artifacts from areas throughout Georgia; including Mound C at the Etowah Mound site near Cartersville, Georgia and sites in Burke, Columbia, Floyd, Hancock, and several other counties. He became a member of the Georgia Historical Society on July 7, 1886, the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1899 and the Society of American Folklore in the same year.

In his lifetime, Roland collected more than 100,000 Native American relics from Georgia and South Carolina. Throughout the 1890s and early part of the 1910s, Steiner sent approximately 78,000 artifacts including copper axes, copper headdresses, conch shell cups and gorgets, pearl beads, pottery vessels, pottery statuettes, and other artifacts made of polished and chipped stone to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. His private collection at the Smithsonian is the largest private collection in the museum. Steiner also has collection of artifacts located at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, New York and the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Roland died on January 12, 1906 in Augusta, Georgia of an illness that had begun two weeks earlier.

References

* Elliott, Daniel T. 2007 "The Roland Steiner Project: Introductory Background and Correspondence" (in preparation). LAMAR Institute Publication Series, Report No. 59, Savannah.
* Steiner, Roland A. 1901a "A Religious Rite of Negroes in Georgia." "The Journal of American Folklore" 14(54):172.
* Steiner, Roland A. 1901b "Observations on the Practice of Conjuring in Georgia." "The Journal of American Folklore" 14(54):173-180.