SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
On 11 February 1926, the American School of Prehistoric Research was incorporated in Washington, D.C, with both
Hrdlicka and MacCurdy as trustees, for the purpose of fund raising and for the promotion of their scientific and teaching programs. Regarding the Smithsonian's role in the founding of the corporation, Hrdlicka explained this to Assistant Secretary Wetmore on February 19: "When it came to the question of the connections of the School with the Smithsonian, I told them that after a consultation with you I was not able to make defi- nite promises; I assured the School that the Institution will do
School. In other words, I tried to convey the impression that the Institution could not commit itself in general but that it will be glad to give its benevolent consideration to each request of the School when definitely made."
The 1926 season included work in western and central Eu- rope, with a continuation of excavations in France (MacCurdy,
1927). During the same season, the MacCurdys visited Pales- tine, drawn by news that Neanderthal fossils had been recov- ered there in 1925. As a result of this trip, the school concen- trated its future research activities in Palestine, in joint sponsorship with the British School of Archaeology at Jerusa- lem. In 1927, the American School of Prehistoric Research continued its work in western Europe at Castel-Merle (Figure 24), but unlike previous years the directorship was assigned temporarily to students and several prospecting parties were sent into the field (MacCurdy, 1928).
In 1928, the school conducted brief excavations in Kurdis- tan, Iraq, with the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (Garrod, 1930). At about the same time, the American School turned its focus to Palestine and the famous caves of Mount Carmel, Mugharet et-Tabun, Mugharet es-Skuhl, and Mugharet el-Wad, where excavations were conducted from 1929 to 1934 (MacCurdy, 1934, 1938). During this period, MacCurdy and Hrdlicka were interested primarily in the recovery of Neander- thal fossils, but although many archaeological artifacts were sent to the United States, little attention was given to these as- semblages. While these scholars were training students and leading major archaeological excavations overseas, their other activities (teaching and writing) continued unabated after the start of the Great Depression.
To rally support for the school and to attract students, Mac- Curdy composed an advertisement dated 1 March 1929 for mailing:
Would you not like to become a subscriber to the funds of the American School of Prehistoric Research and thus have a share in solving the prehistoric prob- lems which bear on the when, where and how of human origins? Our School is the only American institution incorporated for the purpose of solving these problems. The ninth summer session will open in Europe in July. For nine years we have been training students to teach the subject, to do field work and to be curators in museums and during the nine years, we have added materially to the prehistoric collections in a number of museums. In addition to our sum- mer training School, we are carrying on expeditions manned in part by the stu- dents we have trained. In order to expand we need not only additional funds for current expenses, but also endowment. Through our present collaboration with the British we have a most valuable permit to excavate in the British mandates of Iraq, Palestine, and Transjordania. Unless we take advantage of the opportu- nities open to us through this permit, it will eventually go to others. We com- pleted a most successful joint expedition in Sulaimani in December, which means additional collections for our museums. This month we begin jointly with the British School of Archaeology at Jerusalem to excavate paves on Mt.
Carmel which have already yielded some remarkable examples of cave art.
And this is only a beginning, a foretaste of what may be expected with suffi- cient support. We need your help and on the other hand we are convinced that whatever amount you may put into this going concern will be money wisely spent on your part.
NUMBER 48 33
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FIGURE 24.—Postcard of Castel-Merle, France. The card was sent to Hrdlicka and is labeled, "Christmas Greet- ings from the MacCurdy's, 1927." MacCurdy and other excavators are shown at the excavation. [Hrdlicka col- lection, National Anthropological Archives, NMNH (no. 96-10871).]
During each season, the American School, acting jointly with the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, con- ducted extensive excavations at the Mount Carmel sites (Mac- Curdy, 1934). Dorothy Garrod, of the British School, directed the excavations for five seasons (1929-1931, 1933, 1934) and Theodore McCown, associated with the American School and a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley, di- rected the 1932 excavations. In May of 1931, McCown discov- ered the first of a series of Neanderthal skeletons in the Mugh- aret es-Skuhl cave, and, in 1932, he was invited to direct the excavations (Kennedy, 1997). These excavations were to be monumental in their findings, uncovering assemblages from the Lower Paleolithic to the Mesolithic (or now Epi-Pale- olithic), including human fossils and significant Middle Pale- olithic assemblages. The excavations were thorough for that period, with relatively well-controlled provenience and fully labeled artifact assemblages (Penniman, 1974). Approximately 100,000 artifacts were recovered from Wadi El-Mughara. Arti- facts were sent to 40 institutions, including 26 museums in the Near East and Europe and 14 museums in the United States, in- cluding the U.S. National Museum (approximately 3700 arti-
facts, or 3.7% of the 100,000 assemblages, which was slightly more than the number supplied to the other 39 institutions).
The recovery of more human fossils was extremely impor- tant, and Hrdlicka, complaining about access, was anxious to review the new specimens, as he wrote to MacCurdy on 5 May
1932: "Happy to read of the discovery in Palestine. I wonder if we could not get the privilege of examining the specimens here in this country. It does not feel good to play seconds to the Eu- ropeans all the time and then perhaps be obliged to do the work over." MacCurdy responded somewhat gingerly to Hrdlicka on 9 May 1932, indicating that the British School had observed proper procedures, and also that Sir Arthur Keith, an anatomist who was already an authority on the subject (e.g., Keith, 1925, 1931), would review the specimens. "Miss Garrod began by sending the remains to Sir Arthur Keith of London, which seemed the proper thing to do. If I attend the Congress in Lon- don August 1-7, where all these remains will be on exhibition, I will discuss this matter with Miss Garrod as well as Sir Arthur Keith."
Recognizing the extreme importance of the presumed Nean-
derthal specimens, Hrdlicka apparently gave up hope of having
the specimens shipped to the United States, and instead, in a
working up the three skeletons after they were brought into suitable condition for examination in London, I might be will- ing, in view of the importance of the matter, to go to London for the work."
MacCurdy presented Hrdlicka's request to the British. At the same time that these letters were exchanged, more human fos- sils were uncovered at Mount Carmel by Theodore McCown, who represented the American School, as described by Mac- Curdy on 7 June 1932:
I have written to Miss Garrod and to Prof. J.L. Myres concerning your willing- ness to go to London in order to work over the human skeletal material found in the four caves by the joint expedition of our School with the British. You will be interested to know that Mr. McCown has found four more skeletons in the same cave, making seven in all during the first two weeks in May, or eight including the child found a year ago.
MacCurdy received a reply from the British School, and on 23 September 1932, he informed Hrdlicka that the request to analyze the specimens was rejected because McCown deserved to be the primary author of the fossil descriptions:
I wrote to Miss Garrod on June 1..., saying that our Trustees thought an Amer- ican specialist should be joint author with Sir. Arthur Keith when it came to studying and publishing the human skeletal remains from the four caves near Mt. Carmel. I suggested your name. Both Miss G[arrod] and Keith feel that so far as the nine Neandertal skeletons are concerned, such an arrangement would be unfair to McCown. Keith finally told Miss G. that he would 'not participate in any arrangement which does not make McCown principal author.' She wrote me to this effect saying she was in complete agreement with Keith. This is a point we can afford to concede so far as the nine Neandertalians are con- cerned. If you have in mind a study of only the Neandertal material the prob- lem would be somewhat simplified provided of course that you agree to let Mc- Cown be nominally the principal author. Keith's contribution and yours could follow McCown's under the same cover, or at least be issued simultaneously.
The big and costly job now is to detach the Neandertalians from their stony ma- trix. This will take many months. McCown is now teaching at Berkeley and does not plan to join Keith in London until next May. He was here with us a day (Aug. 12). We took him to Holyoke to see Chairman Green and tried to make it plain to him, that you also should have an opportunity to study the Ne- andertal remains and write up the results for publication. Both Keith and Miss G. want him to have every opportunity to make the most of his lucky find. So do we; but we feel that our School should have something to say in naming the specialists, where help is needed outside those who actually made the finds.
Donald Scott, Dir.[ector] of the Peabody Museum of Harvard (also a trustee of our School), will be in London the 1st of Nov. He has consented to discuss this matter with Keith and Myres (Miss G. is in Palestine until the end of Dec). If you still want to go to London to study the skeletons, kindly let me know so that I may communicate your decision to Scott before he leaves London. We are assuming that in case you go you would finance the trip yourself.
Hrdlicka responded on 26 September, indicating that this matter was not for personal gain, but was of importance for maintaining the scientific reputation of the American School.
In emphasizing such an approach, Hrdlicka relinquished his personal involvement in examining the fossils, and instead he suggested that McCown and the American School should pro- vide the fossil descriptions and be part of future publications:
I should be happy indeed to undertake the work in question, under such equita- ble arrangements as could be made. This [is] not from any personal ambition, but to safeguard the interests of our School and of American science in general.
tent if some one else, say you or [Ernest] Hooton [professor of physical anthropology, Harvard] would charge himself with this work. But if that were impracticable, then I should stand ready to do whatever might be needed. I have, of course, nothing but the most cordial friendship and admiration for Sir Arthur Keith, and were not other important factors involved, I should be happy to see everything in his hands. With the amount of material it seems to me there may be enough for all. McCown should by all means head the volume with a detailed account of the discovery. And as to the description of the skeletal re- mains, perhaps we could so divide with Sir Arthur that I would undertake the general description of the remains, while he would devote himself to the most interesting and valuable part of the study which will be that of the brain cavities and casts, for which he would have more time at his disposal. Sir Arthur has al- ways been one of my closest and esteemed European friends, so that I am very confident we could work out everything in the closest harmony and with mu- tual helpfulness. It seems to me such an arrangement as here suggested would adequately safeguard, both for the present and for the future...the interests of our School, and of the standing of American Anthropology in general. We do not deserve to appear perpetually in a position of inferiority to our colleagues abroad. The work has been carried on with American money, by an American young scientist, under the auspices of the American School. To give non- Americans the complete right of the report and study on and of the specimens would be a blow and a precedent from which it would be hard to recover, and for which a very serious blame might be incurred.
Reaching a consensus concerning this sensitive research matter, MacCurdy wrote to Hrdlicka, on 10 October 1932, indi- cating that he would contact all parties concerned:
I have your letter of Sept. 26 and am sending copies of it to Chairman Green, Director Scott of Harvard Peabody,... Sir Arthur Keith, and Mr. McCown. I am sure all of them will appreciate your attitude in the matter. I feel quite sure that both Keith and McCown have in mind that McCown also is to make a study of the nine skeletons in addition to a detailed account of the discovery. This is a matter that can no doubt be arranged in a manner satisfactory to all concerned.
Between 1933 and 1937, most of the fossil material was for- warded to the Royal College of Surgeons, London, where Mc- Cown and Sir Arthur Keith conducted their study (Kennedy,
1997). A series of articles about the specimens and the archaeo- logical implications of the discoveries at the caves appeared in the Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research, authored by British and American authors (Garrod, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936, 1937; McCown, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1936; Keith and McCown, 1937; Beggs, 1938). Hrdlicka never published on the fossil specimens, but he did ensure that the American School participated in the research, with McCown as primary or secondary author of several works. Although MacCurdy was a major influence on the joint expedition and was supported vigorously by Hrdlicka, neither man apparently participated in the excavations. The Mount Carmel excavations eventually culminated in monumental works by the joint expedition, in- cluding The Stone Age of Mount Carmel: Excavations at the
Wady El-Mughara (Garrod and Bate, 1937) and The Stone Age of Mount Carmel: The Fossil Human Remains from the Leval- loiso-Mousterian (McCown and Keith, 1939). The discovery of the Mount Carmel hominids provided support for Hrdlicka's (1927) earlier proposition that the Neanderthal phenotype was marked by an expression of morphological variation (Spencer and Smith, 1981). In accordance with the joint agreements, the
NUMBER 48 35 Smithsonian received its annual allotments of Middle Pale-
olithic artifact assemblages from these excavations.
JAMES TOWNSEND RUSSELL, JR.
Career and the Old World Archaeology Fund James Townsend Russell, Jr., enrolled as a student in 1925 with the American School of Prehistoric Research, during its formative years (Figure 25). Russell participated in the first stages of excavation at Sergeac, France, during the 1926 sea- son, and he was named a trustee of the school thereafter. Rus- sell remained in France for several years, working either inde- pendently or with the Abbe Henri Breuil, a well-known French prehistorian. The Russell family had several residences, includ- ing one in France, and upon inheritance of a considerable for- tune from his father's estate, Russell became the sponsor of the Smithsonian's Old World Archaeology Fund. Russell had seri- ous academic interests and was considered a promising young scholar, as well as an important financial supporter of the exca- vations in France. Russell temporarily directed excavations conducted by the school. He also published articles based upon that work (Russell, 1928, 1929) and translated Luquet's (1926) influential book, L 'Art et la Religion des Hommes Fossiles (Luquet, 1930; MacCurdy, 1930).
In addition to Russell's contact with Hrdlicka from his earli- est involvement with the American School, he also contacted the Smithsonian in an effort to secure a position in archaeol- ogy. Assistant Secretary Wetmore responded to Russell's re- quest in a letter dated 18 October 1928:
Following our recent conversation I have discussed our collections in Old World archeology with Dr. Hough, and have examined some of the material personally. At your convenience I should appreciate it if you can come down to talk over your proposal for work on these specimens with Mr. Neil M. Judd who I believe told you will have these materials under his charge when we ef- fect the reorganization planned for the near future.
This meeting resulted in Russell's temporary appointment as an assistant in archaeology in 1928.
Although Hrdlicka secured excavation rights at Sergeac in France, it was Russell who initially had mentioned the possibil- ity that the Archaeological Society of Washington could lease the site for the American School of Prehistoric Research. In a letter to Wetmore, on 3 April 1929, Russell indicated that the funds may be available:
I take the liberty of writing you entirely unofficially and confidentially in re- gard to a matter which I think would be of interest to the Smithsonian Institu- tion. The Archaeological Society of Washington has the funds necessary to buy for excavation a prehistoric site on the southern [sic, northern] slope of the Pyrenees from which it wishes the collections of the United States National Museum to benefit. In order to do as much good as possible it is proposed that the Society cooperate with the American School of Prehistoric Research in Eu- rope in the working of the site.
Wetmore, with Hrdlicka's approval, was apparently enthusi- astic about this proposal, as the lease was quickly granted.
Shortly thereafter, Russell was granted a position as collabora-
FlGURE 25.—James Townsend Russell, Jr., pictured in the Binghamton Press, on 10 August 1932. [In an article entitled, "Tells Tales of Cavemen." The cap- tion to the photograph reads "J. Townsend Russell, who told the Kiwanians today how their acts were influenced by lives of their cavemen ancestors."]
tor in Old World Archaeology. Russell's appointment was ac- knowledged by Wetmore on 17 May 1929:
It is my pleasure to send you herewith designation to the honorary position of collaborator in Old World Archeology, under the Smithsonian Institution. We are greatly pleased to have you associated with us in this capacity. Your inter- est in this work, particularly as regards our collections, is gratifying, and I hope may continue to mutual advantage.
Russell, with his inheritance, established the Old World Ar- chaeology Fund as an endowment. The fund provided support for salaries, exhibit improvements, expenses, and the purchase of collections. Russell also solicited outside funds, as described in Russell's letter to Neil Judd, a Smithsonian anthropologist, on 9 February 1930: "You will be glad to hear that I have se- cured a pledge of five hundred dollars to buy specimens for the Museum collection. It comes from Evelyn Pierpont a rich old lady and old friend of my family." Purchasing collections was a difficult task, however, because of the high cost of objects, as Russell described to Wetmore on 27 June 1930: