Fonds 38 - Charles S. Brant fonds

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Charles S. Brant fonds

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  • Textual record
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  • Source of title proper: Title based on the provenance of the fonds

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Fonds

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38

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Physical description

12 cm of textual records and other material

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1919 - 1991)

Biographical history

Charles S. Brant was born in Portland, Oregon in 1919. A life-long anthropologist, Brant began his academic career at Reed College where he obtained a B.A. 1941. In 1943, Brant completed his M.A. requirements at Yale University, where he was also University Scholar from 1941-1943. From 1943-1946 Brant served in the U.S. Army as part of the Medical Administration in India and China. With the support of Wenner-Gren and Fulbright awards, Brant undertook pre-doctoral research in the United States and Burma before completing his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1951.

In the early years of his career, Brant taught at University of Michigan (1947-1948), Colgate University (1951-1952), University of California (1952-1953), and Sarah Lawrence College (1954-1956). Brant was also resident anthropologist at Albert Einstein College from 1956-1957. In 1957, Brant joined Portland State University as Assistant Professor. Brant moved to Canada in 1961 to take the position of Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta, and obtained Canadian citizenship six years later. Brant became head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta in 1963, and also directed the University’s Boreal Institute for Northern Studies from 1964-1967. In 1970, Brant left Alberta for Montreal to join the faculty at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) as professor. Brant spent the last 12 years of his career there, retiring from teaching in 1982.

Brant is best known for his work on the Kiowa Apache through his book Jim Whitewolf: The Life of a Kiowa Apache Indian, originally published in 1969. In addition to his work on North American Native peoples and cultures, Brant had research interests in social organization and change in India and China; social change in Arctic regions (especially as it applied to Canada and Greenland); and in the problems of developing countries. During his career, Brant completed fieldwork in Burma, Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, and in Native American communities in California and Oklahoma.

Brant and his wife Jane were both photographers and life-long social activists. They had two sons. After his retirement in 1982, Brant moved to Gabriola Island, British Columbia. Brant passed away in 1991 at age 71 in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Custodial history

Scope and content

Fonds documents Brant’s pre-doctoral research in Burma. As a Fulbright scholar working with the United States Educational Foundation, Brant submitted quarterly reports to the foundation detailing his arrival and adjustment to life in Burma, as well as his sociological research in the community of Tadagale and other areas of the country. Brant also provided the U.S. Foreign Service with his observations of life in the Shan States, where Brant and his wife first lived when they arrived in Burma in 1949. After returning to the United States in 1950, Brant published articles on the research he completed while in Burma. Records in this series include academic and government reports; articles; Brant’s curriculum vitae; a digitized slide show and 8 mm movie; a grant application; notes; and photographic negatives and prints. It is likely that most of the photographs were taken by Jane Brant, but these are not identified.

Notes area

Physical condition

Photographic prints in file 1-2 were originally glued and taped to sheets of highly-acidic loose-leaf paper. These prints have been removed from the paper, and the original layout of the photographs can be seen in the accompanying photocopies of each page.

Immediate source of acquisition

The records were donated to the MOA Archives by Brant’s son in 2010.

Arrangement

There did not appear to be any order to the material when it came to the archives. Photographs, where numbered, have been organized into a rough chronology. Prints and negatives have been arranged separately. Negatives corresponding to photographic prints in file 1-1 can be found in file 1-6; negatives corresponding to photographic prints in file 1-2 can be found in file 1-7.

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Consult Archivist for details.

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Associated materials

A set of puppets from Burma can also be found in MOA’s museum collection (material unprocessed as of Feb. 2011).

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Physical description

Includes:

  • 1 cm of textual records.
  • 324 photographs : b&w ; 20.3 x 25.4 cm or smaller.
  • 7 contact sheets (43 frames) : b&w ; 6 x 6 cm
  • 92 b&w negatives ; 6 x 6 cm and 35 mm.
  • 2 digital versatile discs.

Of these images, ca. 380 are unique.

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Copied from MemoryBC by Katie Ferrante on 18 November 2015.
File list attached December 8, 2015

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