Herbert Joseph Spinden (1879–1967) was an American anthropologist, archeologist and art historian who specialized in the study of Native American cultures of the US and Mesoamerica.

Biography

Spinden was born in 1879 in Huron, a small settlement in the

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of No ...

. He later recalled that his early childhood was spent on the edge of civilization where his family lived in a sod hut with oiled paper covering the windows. Later they moved to Tacoma, Washington where he attended public schools. Before starting college he worked on railroad surveys in the Northwest and in 1900, a gold rush drew him to Nome, Alaska. Spinden started Harvard University in 1902 and studied anthropology and archeology. In the summer of 1905 he and a fellow student excavated a

Mandan The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still res ...

village in North Dakota and studied the language and culture of that tribe. They published a paper on the topic in 1906, Spinden's first publication. After receiving an A.B. degree in 1906, he continued his studies at Harvard where he specialized in

Maya art Ancient Maya art is the visual arts of the Maya civilization, an eastern and south-eastern Mesoamerican culture made up of a great number of small kingdoms in present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. Many regional artistic traditions ex ...

under the direction of

Alfred Tozzer Alfred Marston Tozzer (July 4, 1877 – October 5, 1954) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, linguist, and educator. His principal area of interest was Mesoamerican, especially Maya, studies. He was the husband of Margaret Castle Toz ...

. He received a doctorate degree in 1909 after submitting his thesis, ''A Study of Mayan Art'', which has been called a "brilliant analysis of the evolution of styles". He then worked

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

where he undertook archeological studies in Mexico and Central America. While working as an archeologist in Central America he and

Sylvanus G. Morley Sylvanus Griswold Morley (June 7, 1883September 2, 1948) was an American archaeologist and epigrapher who studied the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in the early 20th century. Morley led extensive excavations of the Maya site of Chichen Itza ...

were among the American scientists gathering intelligence for the US Army. He then curated the collection of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, before taking museum positions in Brooklyn and Buffalo. He also did ethnographic studies among the Nez Percé. In 1919 he published a study of Maya calendrics giving a correlation between the Maya calendar and the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

– a correlation which was nonetheless not widely accepted. Spinden's first wife was archaeologist Ellen S. Spinden; they separated in 1938 and eventually divorced. In 1948, Spinden married dancer

Ailes Gilmour Ailes Gilmour (January 27, 1912 – April 16, 1993) was a Japanese American dancer who was one of the young pioneers of the American Modern Dance movement of the 1930s. She was one of the first members of Martha Graham's dance company. Gilmour' ...

. They had a son, Joseph.

Works

*''The Ancient Civilisations of Mexico and Central America'', Handbook no. 3 (New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1922)

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spinden, Herbert J. American archaeologists American Mesoamericanists Mayanists Mesoamerican archaeologists Mesoamerican epigraphers 1879 births 1967 deaths People of the Office of Naval Intelligence World War I spies for the United States Harvard University alumni 20th-century Mesoamericanists People from Huron, South Dakota