Rubie Watson appointed first incumbent

Alumnus and Professor Emeritus William White Howells '30, PhD '34, and Muriel Seabury Howells have endowed the directorship of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Rubie S. Watson has been appointed the first Howells Director. (See related article.)

"I am enormously grateful to Professor and Mrs. Howells for their generosity in endowing the directorship of the Peabody Museum, whose affiliated faculty over the past century have made monumental contributions to anthropology, both through their research and through their training of young anthropologists," said Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles. "With this endowment, we shall be able in perpetuity to attract outstanding scholars to guide the Museum. How fitting that Harvard can thus honor one of its own most distinguished anthropologists, William W. Howells."

Since its founding in 1866, the Peabody Museum has ranked as a leader in advancing the field of anthropology. According to David Pilbeam, who served as the Museum's director from 1990 until 1996 and is now curator of paleoanthropology and Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, the faculty affiliated with the Peabody and the Department of Anthropology have made -- and continue to make -- significant contributions to our understanding of human evolution and humanity.

"Early anthropologists such as Alfred Tozzer, Roland B. Dixon, and Earnest Hooton used the Museum's collections extensively for their research, and continually strengthened the collections with items found on their own expeditions," explained Pilbeam.

"Equally important, they trained generations of graduate students who then left Harvard, established departments of anthropology in universities around the country, and successively made their own contributions to the field.

"The research findings of the scientists affiliated with the Peabody have in many instances been influential and

groundbreaking," commented Pilbeam. "Not the least of these were those of Professor William W. Howells," he added.

Anthropologists, archaeologists distinguished Museum

Pilbeam noted that Howells's work has included the study of human evolution and human population history, as well as human genetics and human adaptation. "He covered almost the entire field, from human paleontology through to human biology."

Howells's principal teacher and mentor, Earnest Hooton, sought to identify different components of populations. In one project, for example, he excavated hundreds of Native American physical remains from Pecos Pueblos and brought them to the Peabody for study and research. (They are now being repatriated.) Hooton is perhaps best known for training a generation of physical anthropologists who, in pursuing their careers across the country, defined the discipline.

"Hooton's students, including Howells, honored him by strengthening the discipline," said C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, the Peabody Museum's director from 1977 to 1990 and Stephen Phillips Professor of Archaeology and Ethnology. "They made physical anthropology more scientific by incorporating statistical, demographic, and genetic models."

Howells and two of his contemporaries, the late Hallam L. Movius Jr. and Hugh O. Hencken, formed what Lamberg-Karlovsky called "the triumvirate that really distinguished the Peabody Museum."

Movius is widely regarded as the most distinguished paleolithic archaeologist of his generation for not only his pioneering research on human evolution, in particular the early cultures of South Asia and Southeast Asia, but also his monumental work at Les Eyzies, France. Lamberg-Karlovsky said: "Movius laid the foundation for modern archaeologists by introducing techniques and methodologies that are used today."

Hencken, the preeminent European prehistorian of his time, excavated in Ireland and Italy. He is credited with defining the Irish Neolithic and Bronze ages, and identifying the nature and origin of the Etruscans.

Longtime admiration for the Peabody

Howells said his "admiration and affection" for the Peabody began when he was a college sophomore in 1927. He had found the summer reading list for his planned English literature concentration uninspiring, and so chose anthropology as his undergraduate -- and ultimately life -- focus. "I was captured for good by the essential appeal and viewpoint, both intellectual and aesthetic, of anthropology as a whole," he said. Howells earned an S.B. in 1930 and a doctorate in anthropology in 1934.

In a career spanning seven decades, Howells served as president of the American Anthropological Association and editor of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Among the numerous awards and honors bestowed on him are the Charles Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1992 and the Distinguished Service Award in 1978 from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. The Société d'Anthropologie de Paris gave him the Broca Prix du Centenaire in 1980. He has been elected to academic societies around the world, including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The American Anthropological Association's Biological Section again honored Howells in 1993 by establishing the William White Howells Prize to recognize scholars who make outstanding contributions in biological anthropology.

As professor emeritus and an honorary curator of physical anthropology at the Museum, Howells continues to be involved in the field. He keeps current on the latest research and findings as colleagues from around the world send their notes, reports, and papers to his home in Maine.

After leaving graduate school, Howells joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in 1939 where he remained until 1954, except for the World War II period, during which he served in Naval Intelligence in Washington, D.C. In 1954, the Howells family returned to New England, and Howells served as professor of anthropology at Harvard for 20 years.

Howells's devotion to the University stems partly from family ties. His grandfather, the novelist William Dean Howells, received an honorary degree from Harvard in 1867. His father, John Mead Howells, was a member of the Class of 1891; his late brother, John N. M. Howells, graduated from the College in 1934; and his son, William Dean Howells II, is a member of the Class of 1954. Howells's daughter, Muriel Gurdon Metz graduated from Bryn Mawr College.

In the summers and on sabbaticals, the Howellses traveled widely, measuring skulls as part of a long-term project to understand human variation and population relationships. Muriel Howells accompanied her husband on nearly every trip and always helped him compile the voluminous lists of cranial measurements.

Howells's statistical analyses of skull measurements showed relationships that, until the application of modern genetic techniques, were not otherwise visible among different peoples. In this way, his career has contributed to clarifying the origins of humanity, a subject he treats in his latest book, Getting Here: The Story of Human Evolution, first published in 1992 and revised last year.

Howells's work is widely recognized as influential. "He has always played a major role in discussions about the origins of modern humans," said Pilbeam. "He has consistently provided a sane, lucid, and balanced view."

Howells conveys enthusiasm not only about his research activities but also his experiences in front of the classroom. Introduction to Anthropology -- once Anthro 1A and B -- was his favorite course to teach.

"We hope that the endowed directorship at the Peabody will enable Harvard to appoint the best possible directors," concluded Howells. He expressed hope that the Museum will continue to strengthen the field of anthropology as the discipline changes ever more quickly. "My association with the Museum has been one of the great, good turns of fortune in my life. We are happy to have the opportunity to help sustain its activities into the future."