The Bureau of American Ethnology was established in 1879 by an act of Congress to transfer archives, records and materials about the Indians of North America from the Department of the Interior to the Smithsonian Institution. Under its first director, John Wesley Powell, it grew into a research body that organized multi-year projects, sponsored ethnographic, archaeological and linguistic field research, published Annual Reports and Bulletins, and promoted the young discipline of anthropology. It was renamed the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1897 and merged with the Smithsonian Department of Anthropology in 1965. Its staff included early field anthropologists such as James Owen Dorsey, James Mooney and Frank Hamilton Cushing, and it supported collaborators such as Franz Boas.
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Source James Owen Dorsey (Wikipedia)
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Source Bureau of American Ethnology (Wikipedia)Lead, founding, typical regionQuote, Lead, founding, typical region
was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the Department of the Interior to the Smithsonian Institution
Sources
1. Bureau of American Ethnology (Wikipedia)
Lead, purpose
the bureau's visionary founding director, John Wesley Powell, promoted a broader mission: "to organize anthropologic research in America."
Lead, founding
was established in 1879 by an act of Congress
Lead, founding, typical region
was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the Department of the Interior to the Smithsonian Institution
View the SourceJames Owen Dorsey (Wikipedia)
Associated With: James Owen Dorsey, Career, Bureau of American EthnologyQuote, Associated With: James Owen Dorsey, Career, Bureau of American Ethnology
Dorsey returned to Washington to work with the BAE at the Smithsonian as a specialist in Siouan languages
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