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ALEŠ HRDLICKA. Bibliographic Card File; n.d. .7 cu. ft. List.
Aleš Hrdlicka was born in Humpoletz, Bohemia in 1869, and came to America in 1882. He received an M.D. degree from the New York Eclectic College in 1892 and in 1894 graduated from the New York Homeopathic College. That same year he became an intern in the New York State Hospital for the Insane where he worked for two years before being named Associate in Anthropology at the New York State Pathological Institute. He then spent a year studying medicine and anthropology at the Sorbonne in Paris. Dr. Hrdlicka was Assistant Curator (1903-1910) and Curator (1910-1943) of the Division of Physical Anthropology at the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. He traveled throughout the world on a number of anthropological expeditions to search for the origins of the human race. He was also interested in prehistoric migration and did much research work in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska in an attempt to prove his contention that human life did not exist on the North American Continent in prehistoric times, but that instead man migrated to North America from Asia, through Alaska, at a comparatively late period. In addition to his work, Dr. Hrdlicka was active in a number of anthropological societies. His activities included serving as Secretary of the Committee on Anthropology for the National Research Council, 1917-1918; and serving as President of the American Anthropological Association from 1925 to 1926. He was also the founder, president, and life member of the American Association of Physical Anthropology, as well as a corresponding member of several European anthropological societies. He also wrote and published many articles concerning his research and findings. He died in 1943.
The collection consists of the original and a copy of Dr. Hrdlicka's annotated, bibliographic card file concerning the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The file contains a listing of bibliographic sources for a wide variety of subjects concerning the Aleutians and the Aleut people including: abilities, beliefs, boats, burials, character, climate, culture, dwellings, food, education, graves, infanticide, migrations, music, origin, pre-aleut peoples, settlements, tools, traditions, villages, and wars.
The collection was presented to the UAA Archives & Manuscripts Department by Linda Finn Yarborough in 1980.
HMC-0140