Stewart Culin was born on July 13, 1858 in Philadelphia to John Culin and Mira Barrett Culin. He married Helen Bunker on March 18, 1893. He had no formal education in anthropology but made a large impact on the field through his work with the University of Pennsylvania and the Brooklyn Museum. He was also a founding member of both the American Anthropological Association and the American Folklore Society. Culin's main interests were in games and museum work. He revolutionized the collection of and display of items in museums. He also proved the importance of games in human society through his innovative studies. Culin was also interested in the occult and in fashion, often working with many women's magazines and fashion designers to create displays.
Culin's interest in games in shown in his early works about various games. In these papers he attempted to show how games from different cultures were similar and why they were similar. Early works include numerous articles and papers and an exhibit at the Columbian Exposition. Culin began his career at the University of Pennsylvania in 1892 when he became the Director of the University's Museum of Archaeology and Paleontology. His interest in games continued and he published more papers about games. Topics for these papers are dice games, Italian Marionettes, street games, Chinese gambling games, dominoes and Mancala games from Africa. In 1895 he began a book suggested to him by F. H. Cushing called Korean Games, With Notes on the Corresponding Games at China and Japan. The two prepared to collaborate on a book about arrow games but Cushing died before it could be completed and Culin finished it on his own.
Culin resigned from the University of Pennsylvania in 1903 to take a position as Curator of Ethnology at the Institute of Arts. Culin began a series of expeditions in the United States studying Native Americans of the Northwest cost, California and the Southwest. Culin followed these collecting trips with further expeditions to Asian countries and Eastern Europe. Culin kept meticulous records of the items he collected, recording "the maker, the social position of the seller, the circumstances of purchase, the provenance, the use of the object, and the cultural life of the region." (Lawrence and Wythe) Culin also kept records of his correspondence and letters exchanged with Franz Boas, George Dorsey and F.H. Cushing are also included in Culin's collections.
Culin wanted the museum to be a place for people to study and this is most apparent with his fashion exhibits. He worked with Women's Wear magazine to display contemporary fashion. He also created traveling exhibits and rooms within the museum for designers to come study textiles and design.
References:
http://gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Culin/index.html
Written by: Students in an Introduction to Anthropology Class, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota