Record Unit 9521

Interview 1: January 10, 1975

Covers his youth, education and early career, c. 1901-1931, including: his youth and education at Delta, Pennsylvania; college years at George Washington University; employment as a temporary aide in the Division of Physical Anthropology, USNM, 1924-1927; influence of John L. and Mary A. Baer; first field trip to Alaska in 1927; medical training at Johns Hopkins University, 1927-1931; duties as aide to Hrdlicka in the USNM, 1924-31.

Transcript, pp. 1-24, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 2: January 17, 1975

Discusses his career as Curator in the Division of Physical Anthropology and Director of NMNH, c. 1931-1966, including: reminiscences of his supervisor, Ales Hrdlicka, especially his personality, administrative style, research techniques and relations with other curators; reminiscences of his other colleagues, including Walter Hough, William Henry Holmes and his paintings, Neil M. Judd, Herbert W. Krieger, Waldo T. Wedel, and Frank M. Setzler's selection as Head Curator and activities on the Arnhem Land Expedition; his selection as Director of NMNH in 1963; Leonard Carmichael's role as Secretary, especially his use of a chain of command and his interviews of curatorial candidates; S. Dillon Ripley's considerably different administrative style; establishment of the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology in 1964; his retirement from administrative duties and appointment as Senior Scientist in 1966.

Transcript, pp. 25-48, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 3: January 24, 1975

Includes reminiscences of colleagues, the BAE\Department of Anthropology merger, wings to the Natural History Building, and the Exhibits Modernization Program, c. 1922-1975, including: reminiscences of Matthew Williams Stirling, especially his career as a Curator in the Division of Ethnology, USNM, his field work on the pygmies of New Guinea, and his marriage to Marion Illig; reminiscences of colleagues, including Winslow M. Walker, John R. Swanton and other BAE staff members; background to the BAE/Department of Anthropology merger; formation of the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology under a succession of Chairmen, including Richard B. Woodbury and Sol Tax, 1964; construction of the wings to the NHB in the 1960s; the Exhibits Modernization Program in the 1950s, notably Stewart's own Hall of Physical Anthropology.

Transcript, pp. 49-73, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 4: January 31, 1975

Covers his years as aide and Assistant Curator, affiliation with professional societies, research, the Senate of Scientists and the position of Smithsonian anthropologists within the profession, c. 1927-1968, including: his duties as aide and Assistant Curator to Hrdlicka, 1924-1939; Hrdlicka's role in the founding of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists from sections of the American Anthropological Association, American Association of Anatomists and American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1928-1930; Hrdlicka's founding and editorship of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Stewart's succession as editor, 1943-1948, and the publication agreement with the Wistar Institute; his early research papers; publicity for science by Tom Henry of the Washington Star; his role in the formation of the Senate of Scientists of the NMNH in 1963; seminar on mass disasters he conducted for the U.S. Army in 1968; Smithsonian's role in supporting professional societies; relative position of Smithsonian anthropologists in the anthropological profession.

Transcript, pp. 74-96, of audio recording, 1 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 5: February 7, 1975

Focuses on Smithsonian administration, museum social life, and the neighborhood around the NHB, c. 1927-1960, including: Smithsonian administrators and administrative practices, including the Division of Correspondence and Documents headed by Herbert S. Bryant, and its evolution into the Office of the Registrar under Helena M. Weiss; procedures for accessioning and cataloging specimens; Hrdlicka's informal role as Smithsonian medical officer; USNM budget procedures; the Anthropology Processing Laboratory; specimen storage and space problems in the NHB; roles of USNM directors William deC. Ravenel and Alexander Wetmore; socializing among Smithsonian staff, especially Charles G. Abbot, Leonhard Stejneger, Mrs. Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., the Truman Michaelsons and Neil M. Judd; the effect of staff migration to the suburbs on museum social life; changes in the neighborhood surrounding the NHB; the administrative roles of Harry W. and Nicholas W. Dorsey and Thomas F. Clark; personnel practices; his work on a grievance committee concerning African American guards in the 1950s.

Transcript, pp. 97-125, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 6: February 12, 1975

Covers the role of USNM curators, his own career ladder, and identification of war dead, c. 1927-1975, including: the role of curators in the USNM, the inherent tension between research, curatorial, exhibits and public outreach duties, and the qualities needed to be an all-around curator; his work on identification of war dead from North Korea for the U.S. Army; his own career ladder from temporary aide to Assistant Secretary for Science; salary rates for curatorial staff and the need to compete with universities after the 1950s; and evaluation of the curatorial strengths and weaknesses of his colleagues, emphasizing the importance of curatorial duties to research and exhibits work.

Transcript, pp. 126-153, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 7: February 26, 1975

Discusses his research philosophy and techniques, as well as forensic work done for the FBI, c. 1931-1975, including: the close relationship between curation of specimens and research; his scientific methods for determining the age of skeletons; his techniques for developing research questions from museum collections; forensic work done by the curators of physical anthropology for the FBI, first by Hrdlicka, then Stewart, and later J. Lawrence Angel, with reminiscences of important cases.

Transcript, pp. 154-179, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 8: March 7, 1975

Reviews the history of the Division of Physical Anthropology and the medical duties of the curators of physical anthropology, and begins a discussion of his Shanidar Neanderthal work, c. 1900-1975, including: history of the Division of Physical Anthropology, especially Hrdlicka's appointment as Assistant Curator in 1903, the return of human skeletal material from the Army Medical Museum, Hrdlicka's development of the skeletal collections and the Catalogue of Human Crania in the United States National Museum compiled by Hrdlicka; Hrdlicka's and Stewart's roles as medical officers for the Institution, especially care of Arthur H. Howell, Florence E. Meier Chase and Herbert G. Deignan; Stewart's connections with the medical community, especially the Washington Academy of Medicine and the Board of Medical Examiners of the District of Columbia; development of staff service offices for medical care, travel, contracts and grants, and special events since the 1960s; and begins a discussion of his work on Shanidar Cave, Iraq, Neanderthal skeletons discovered by Ralph S. Solecki in the 1950s.

Transcript, pp. 180-203, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 9: March 21, 1975

Continues his discussion of the Shanidar Cave work, c. 1953-1964, including: his 1957 trip to Iraq to reconstruct the Shanidar I skeleton and skull; hypotheses concerning origins of malformations in the skeletal material; his 1960 return to the Iraq museum, after the 1958 revolution, to reconstruct Shanidar II and trip to Shanidar Cave to excavate Shanidar IV; his 1962 trip to reconstruct Shanidar IV and VI, when he was joined by Juan C. Munizaga and the James V. Taylors; his observations of Iraqi attitudes towards the finds and relationships with the foreigners; his 1964 visit to attend the opening of the new Iraq Museum building.

Transcript, pp. 204-230, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 10: March 28, 1975

Completes his discussion of the Shanidar Cave work and covers his excavations of local ossuaries, c. 1930-1975, including; carbon-14 dating of the Shanidar specimens; reconstruction of Shanidar III by Stewart and Erik Trinkhaus of Harvard; excavations of ossuaries (Algonquin Indian burials) in the Potomac Tidewater region, beginning with assistance to Judge William J. Graham at the Warehouse Point site in Port Tobacco, Maryland; 1936 salvage dig at the site of Bolling Air Force Base; Alice L. L. Ferguson's discoveries in the 1930s at Piscataway, Maryland; work at the Potomac Creek, Virginia, site, first by local students Howard A. MacCord and Carl P. Manson, continuation of the digs by Judge Graham, 1935-1937, and Stewart's systematic excavations from 1939-1940; finds from the Bernward Juhle site at Nanjemoy, Maryland, in 1953 and 1971; recent digs along the George Washington Memorial Parkway by faculty and students from American University; and the opportunistic nature of research at the Smithsonian and the relative lack of interest in local sites.

Transcript, pp. 231-256, of audio recording, 1.0 hour

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 11: May 14, 1975

Focuses on his role in administration, c. 1960-1966, including: Head Curator of the Department of Anthropology, 1961-1962; Director of NMNH, 1962-1965; Acting Assistant Secretary for Science, 1964-1965; planning for construction of the wings to the NHB, 1958-1965; the later phase of exhibits modernization, especially in the Hall of Physical Anthropology, Old World Archeology and Life in the Sea, 1960s; changes in administration when Ripley succeeded Carmichael as Secretary in 1964; Carmichael's role in selection of the professional staff; Ripley's part in the establishment of the Office of Ecology, 1965; selection of Richard S. Cowan as Assistant Director of NMNH; the Smithson Bicentennial in 1965; establishment of Senior Scientist positions in the NMNH to free older curators from administrative tasks; the BAE/Department of Anthropology merger into the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology, 1964; formation of the Smithsonian Research Foundation after cut-off of funds from the National Science Foundation; museum relationship to the new Office of Oceanography and Limnology.

Transcript, pp. 257-285, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 12: May 22, 1975

Continues the discussion of his role in administration, c. 1963-1969, including: relations between NMNH and the Castle; negotiations with the FBI concerning the Donald T. Squires; acquisition of the Belmont Conference Center, 1964 Smithsonian's part in the formation of the Chesapeake Research Consortium; demolition of the Army Medical Museum to make way for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 1966-1969; budget planning; establishment of the program offices and their relation to NMNH; creation of the Center for the Study of Man and plans for a Museum of Man; split of anthropological collections between the National Museum of History and Technology and NMNH; and formation of the NMNH Senate of Scientists in 1963 to address problem areas such as the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.

Transcript, pp. 286-312, of audio recording, 1.0 hour.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.0 hour

Interview 13: September 25, 1986

Covers Stewart's research from 1975-1986, his hobby of painting portraits, and international travel, c. 1924-1986, including: revision of his research on the Potomac Creek site, begun in the 1940s and completed in the 1980s; reminiscences of Turkey Tayak, a.k.a. Phillip Proctor, a Wesort folk doctor; views concerning Captain John Smith's landing along the Potomac; reconstruction of the Midland, Texas, Pleistocene skull in the 1950s; reminiscences of controversies concerning the Melbourne, Florida, skull; reconstruction of the Wadi Kubbaniya skeleton from Egypt in the 1980s; interest in painting as a hobby and formation of a Smithsonian Art Club; symposium in honor of Stewart's seventy-fifth birthday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in 1976; reminiscences of Stewart's international travel, especially to the Taung Diamond Jubilee International Symposium in South Africa in 1985.

Transcript, pp. 313-341, of audio recording, 1.5 hours.

Recording of Interview: Total Recording Time: 1.5 hours