Franz Boas

Franz Boas was a German-born American anthropologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the founder of the relativistic, culture-centred school of American anthropology that became dominant in the 20th century. During his tenure at Columbia University in New York City (1899–1942), he developed one of the foremost departments of anthropology in the United States. Boas was a specialist in North American First Nations cultures and languages, but he was, in addition, the organizer of a profession and the great teacher of a number of scientists who developed anthropology in the United States. Boas undertook a year-long scientific expedition to Baffin Island in 1883–84. In 1886, on his way back from a visit to the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw) and other Indigenous tribes of British Columbia (which became a lifelong study), he stopped in New York City and decided to stay. Boas’ first teaching position was at the newly founded Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts) in 1889. Next, he spent a period in Chicago, where he assisted in the preparation of the anthropological exhibitions at the 1893 Columbian Exposition and held a post at the Field Museum of Natural History. In 1896 he became lecturer in physical anthropology and in 1899 professor of anthropology at Columbia University. From 1896 to 1905 he was also curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; in that capacity he directed and edited the reports submitted by the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, an investigation of the relationships between the Indigenous peoples of Siberia and of North America.