David Ives Bushnell Jr.

1875-1941

            Bushnell was born in 1875 in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was on the advisory committee for the Missouri Historical Society, thus he was introduced to archaeology at an early age. Bushnell was interested in various parts of anthropology, archaeology and ethnography. Bushnell also photographed much of what he researched, and many of his pictures were found in his publications. One of his major projects was the Handbook of American Indians. He also put together such projects as Handbook of North American Antiquities East of the Rocky Mountains although it was never published it has been quoted many times since Bushnell started putting it together in 1911.

            Bushnell attended school in St. Louis and then later in Europe. He was an archaeology assistant at the Peabody Museum, located at Harvard University. However, he never actually was a student at Harvard. He held this position at the Museum from 1901-1904. He later was appointed the editor at the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology. He held this position from 1912-1921. Throughout all his years of education he was never formally trained as an anthropologist.

            Bushnell's first expedition was to northern Minnesota were he observed the Chippewa and Ojibwa. While in northern Minnesota he also participated in an excavation at Mille Lac. He later went on to observe salt making in Missouri, and participated in more excavations at Cahokia.  He and his mother then took a trip to Europe were he studied collections and museums holding ethnographic materials from North America. He then went to Switzerland and participated in several more excavations of peat bogs.

            In 1907 he returned to the U.S. with intent on studying the Choctaw. He roamed from Louisiana to Virginia participating in excavations, trying to build material for the Handbook of North American Indians. In Virginia he made many excavations particularly in the James and Rappahannock Valleys. Much of his work in Virginia was published in the Virginia Magazine or written in papers for the Smithsonian Institute.

            His last large project was compiling paintings and representations of Native Americans created before 1875. Bushnell had a large collection and was well prepared to produce a comprehensive collection but he died in 1941 before he could finish it.

            Bushnell brought attention to many things never accounted for before; European collections, excavations, and the use of pictures and paintings. He was responsible for the further change in anthropologic practices.

 

References:

Swanton, John R. "David I. Bushnell Jr." American Anthropologist, n.s., vol. 44 (1942), pp. 104 - 110

“Finding Aid to the Bushnell Collection Photographic Archives.” Biographical Summary http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/photo/bushnell/ 27, Feb 2003

Written by: Robb Kolodziej