Undated portrait of John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt. (NAA INV 02858800, Photo Lot 33, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.) Native American (Tuscarora), Ethnography, Linguistics,Museum Work John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt (1859-1937) JNB Hewitt was an Indigenous anthropologist of mixed ancestry who worked for the Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology for 51 years, devoting his scholarship to preserving …
Kariamu Welsh in the 1970s, when she became a choreographer of Afrocentric dance. Photo provided by estate for Welsh’s obituary. African American, Dance, Ethnography Kariamu Welsh (Asante) (1949-2021) Kariamu Welsh was a contemporary dancer and dance choreographer whose scholarship incorporated African and Diasporic aesthetics, sensibilities, and sensitivities, and was built on the belief that African …
Photo by Joanne Rijmes, photo courtesy Santa Fe Living Treasures Native American (Pueblo), Ethnography Alfonso Ortiz (1939-1997) Dr. Alfonso Ortiz researched his own culture as a native anthropologist and was one of the earliest Native Americans to hold a faculty position in Anthropology. He studied ritual drama, myth, comparative traditional histories, and contemporary Indian Affairs …
Photo by Stan Barouh African American, Foodways, Ethnography, Media Production Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Hon* (1937-2016) Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor was a multimedia performer and culinary griot, specializing in the food and culture traditions of Gullah people. She shared her insights as a journalist on National Public Radio, Public Television, and through numerous magazine articles and books. Vertamae Smart, …
Photographer unknown. Handout photo originally ran 02-06-2007 on SFgate.com African American, Music, Ethnography Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (1937-2018) Composer and music professor Olly Wilson wrote several foundational articles illuminating key structural aesthetic practices commonly found in African derived musics. Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr was born in 1937 to Alma Grace Peoples Wilson, a seamstress and …
Photographer unknown; photo sourced from prabook.com African American, Ethnography, Anthropology John Gwaltney (1928-1998) John Langston Gwaltney was a native anthropologist and folklorist whose scholarship chronicled the everyday lives of marginalized communities. Gwaltney was born in 1928 in Orange, New Jersey, as one of five children, to John Stanley Gwaltney, a merchant seaman, and Mabel Harper …
Pearl Primus, Rock Daniel, 1944, Barbara Morgan Archives African American, Dance, Ethnography, Theater Pearl Eileen Primus (1919-1994) Dr. Pearl Primus was a dancer, choreographer, educator, and anthropologist whose pioneering work not only explored and celebrated African, Caribbean, and African American dance forms and folkways, but also called attention to social issues faced by people of …
Photo from 2007 NEA National Heritage Fellow announcement, photograph by Michael G. Stewart Japanese American, Literature, Activism, Ethnography Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (1917-2007) Violet Kazue de Cristoforo was a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow, recognized as a writer, translator, and editor of poetry, specifically the Japanese forms of haiku and tanka. …
Image from Dozier’s obituary in American Anthropologist, June 1972 Native American (Tewa Pueblo), Ethnography, Anthropology, Linguistics Edward Pasqual Dozier (Eduardo de Pascua Dozier), PhD (1916-1971) Edward P. Dozier is recognized as the first Native American anthropologist to establish a career as an academic anthropologist. As a linguist and anthropologist, he studied Pueblo communities in Arizona …
