Junius Bouton Bird

1907-1982

    Junius Bird was an engaging man who lead studies in American archeology for nearly fifty years. Appointed curator of South American Archeology at the American Museum of Natural History in 1931, he worked there studying artifacts for the next 42 years. Focusing upon pre-Columbian textiles, Junius Bird was a master of the early cultures of the Western Hemisphere. He made important discoveries in southern Chile(1938), northern Chile (1943) and at Huaca Prieta on the Peruvian North Coast(1948). In Chile, he found Paleo-Indian and mammalian remains and textile fragments at Huaca Prieta. Bird was a pioneer in the establishment and use of absolute chronologies. Bird set new standards in innovation and excellence. He also gathered a large amount of data and material on ecology and climate. His contributions have been recorded by Gordon Wiley in the Junius Bird Memorial Lecture at the Center for InterAmerican Relations.

    From 1952-1954, Bird served as president of the Institute of Andean Research. In 1961, he was elected president of the Society for American Archaeology.  Bird received several awards for his accomplishments. He was granted the Viking Fund Medal for Archeology in 1956, an honorary D.Sc. by Wesleyan University in 1958 and the Order of "El sol de Peru" from the Government of Peru in 1974. Bird was president of the Institute of Andean Research from 1952 to 1954 and was voted president of the Society for American Archeology in 1961. New York magazine also incorporated him in their list of the 100 "most interesting New Yorkers."

    Bird was curator of South American Archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History for most of his life. The large office he occupied  there is now called the Junius Bird Laboratory of South American Archaeology. He did serious work there but was guests and colleagues were always welcome. He and his wife Peggy knew how to make anthropology into an adventure, whether it was riding in a car powered partly by a sail or using his own version of the dump sifter. His interest in the archaeology of North America led him to conduct some research in Panama in his later years. Junius Bouton Bird died after a short bout of cancer on April 2, 1982, at his home in New York City. Some of his publications are:

Excavations in northern Chile (anthropological papers of the American Museum of History, vol. XXXVIII, pt. IV) (1943)

The Archaeology of Patagonia (1946)

Historic Inhabitants of the North Chilean Coast From Bulletin 113, Handbook of South American Indians (1946)

South American Radiocarbon Dates (1951)

Andean Culture History (1960) with Wendall C. Bennett

References

Photo Reprinted With Permission From the American Anthropological Association, American Anthropologist  87:1,  (March, 1985)

American Anthropologist, New Series Vol. 87, No. 1(Mar.,1985), pp. 120-122.

www.biography.com, (2006)

Written By: Nikki Akins, 2001

Edited By: Lillian Dolentz, 2008