Robert Barlow was born in Leavenworth, Kansas on May 18, 1918. Robert’s College career began at the Kansas City Art Institute and later he transferred to San Francisco Junior College. After this he decided to head south of the boarder and entered Escuela de Antropologia of the Instituto Nacional de Ciecias Biologicas. This is where he first obtained an interest in Mexican Anthropology. He studied the field of Mexican Prehistory under Wigberto Jimenez Moreno. Robert returned to the U.S. in 1938 and received his B.A. at University of California in Berkley in 1942.
Robert’s professional career began as a teaching assistant of Geography at Universidad Nacional Autonoma. From this experience he was able to become a research assistant in Anthropology at Berkeley, a position he held from 1942 to 1943. Robert’s first teaching position was at Escula Nacional de Antropolgia were he taught Nahuatl. He also taught in the Instituto de Historia at Universidad Nacional Autonoma. Robert was never published but was working on a journal devoted to publications of documents in the Mexican native language. His final position was with the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Division of Historical Research in which he was an associate in the study of the Yucatan Maya.
Robert Barlow possessed a deep understanding of languages, in particular
classical Nahuatl. Robert is probably best remembered for his love of research
especially research of Mexico’s past. He also recorded many documents and
languages from Mexico’s past. For his accomplishments he received membership
to the Rockefeller Foundation in 1944. He was also a member of the Guggenheim
Foundation from 1946 to 1948.
Robert died in Azcapotzalco, Mexico on January 2nd 1951. His passing was
defiantly felt at the time as is clear in this quote by Norman McQuown
in the American Anthropology Journal. “Never robust in health, sensitive
to the world about him to a uncommon degree, unable to devote himself blindly
and exclusively to his love of knowledge for it’s sake alone, he succumbed
to the mal du siecle which in one way or another has touched us all. His
place will not soon be filled.” (AA vol.53 p. 543) .
References
McQuown Norman, Biography: Robert Hamilton Barlow, American Anthropology, Vol. 53 No. 4
pg 543, 1951
Ferguson William M. Maya Ruins in Central America in Color,
University on New Mexico Press, Albuquerque NM, 1984
Written By: Joel Juen, 2003