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William Henry Holmes | |
|---|---|
 Holmes in 1918 | |
| Born | (1846-12-01)December 1, 1846 Harrison County, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | April 20, 1933(1933-04-20) (aged 86) Royal Oak, Michigan, U.S. |
| Resting place | Rock Creek Cemetery Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Known for | Scientific Illustration of the American West; Role in Controversy over the Antiquity of Man in the Americas |
| Spouse | Kate Clifton Osgood Holmes (m. 1883)[1] |
| Awards | Loubat Prize(1898, 1923) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Anthropology, Archaeology, Art, Scientific Illustration, Cartography, Curator, Geology |
| Institutions | Smithsonian Institution,Field Museum of Natural History |
William Henry Holmes (December 1, 1846 – April 20, 1933), known asW. H. Holmes, was an Americanexplorer,anthropologist,archaeologist,artist,scientific illustrator,cartographer,mountain climber,geologist andmuseum curator and director.
William Henry Holmes was born on a farm nearCadiz, inHarrison County, Ohio, to Joseph and Mary Heberling Holmes on December 1, 1846.[2] One of his forebears was the Rev.Obadiah Holmes, who emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts in 1638.[3] William Henry Holmes graduated from the McNeely Normal School, Hopedale, Ohio in 1870 and afterward briefly taught drawing, painting, natural history, and geology at the school.[4][5] In 1889 the school awarded him an honorary A.B. (Bachelor of Arts) degree.[6] Later, in 1918, Holmes received an honorary Doctor of Science degree fromThe George Washington University, Washington, D.C. for his work and achievements.[7]
In 1871, he went to Washington, D.C., to study art underTheodore Kaufmann.[8] His talent soon came to the attention of the scientists at the Smithsonian Institution, notablyFielding Bradford Meek, and Holmes was employed drawing and sketching fossil shells and shells of live mollusks.[9] In 1872, Holmes became an artist/topographer with the government survey ofFerdinand Vandeveer Hayden,[10] replacingThomas Moran.[11] His first trip out West was to the newly establishedYellowstone National Park.[12] During the 1870s, Holmes gained a national reputation as a scientific illustrator, cartographer, pioneering archaeologist, and geologist.[13] His work on thelaccolith influencedGrove Karl Gilbert's own work on the same.[14] In the field, Holmes worked closely with the photographerWilliam H. Jackson and back in Washington he helped produce Hayden's great achievement, theGeological and Geographical Atlas of Colorado, And Portions of Adjacent Territory (1877, 1881).[15]
After theHayden Survey was absorbed into theU.S. Geological Survey in 1879, Holmes went toMunich, Germany, to further his art studies underFrank Duveneck and to take lessons in "museum making" from Adolphe B. Meyer of Dresden's Anthropology Museum. On Holmes's return to the U.S., he was hired by the Geological Survey and assigned toClarence Dutton as a geologist and illustrator. Holmes illustrated the atlas for Dutton'sTertiary History of the Grand Canyon District (1882); his triptych panorama of the Grand Canyon from Point Sublime is a masterpiece of American scientific illustration. He was also a noted mountain climber, and a peak inYellowstone National Park —Mount Holmes — was named in his honor. In 1875, Holmes began studying the remains of theAncestral Pueblo culture in theSan Juan River region ofUtah. His models of ancient Indian ruins were a sensation at theCentennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia. Holmes became particularly interested in prehistoricpottery andshell art, producing the published works of "Art in Shell of the American Indians (1883)" and "Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos (1886)". He expanded these studies to includetextiles, and he became well known as an expert in both ancient and existing arts produced byNative Americans of the Southwest. In 1889 he discovered and reportedIndian petroglyphs in central West Virginia.
Holmes left theGeological Survey in 1889 to become an archaeologist with theSmithsonian Institution'sBureau of American Ethnology. He left Washington temporarily, from 1894 to 1897, to serve as curator of anthropology at the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago, during which time he led an expedition to Mexico.[16] He returned to the Smithsonian in 1897 to serve as head curator of anthropology at the U.S. National Museum. From 1902 to 1909 he served as Chief (i.e. director) of the Bureau of American Ethnology, succeedingJohn Wesley Powell. During this period he studied theEtowah Indian Mounds of theMississippian culture inGeorgia, and in 1903, he published hisSynthesis of Pottery. In 1905, Holmes was elected a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Society.[17] In 1910, he became chairman of the Division of Anthropology of the U.S. National Museum. In 1920, Holmes became the director ofNational Gallery of Art (now theSmithsonian American Art Museum), where he assembled exhibits of Indian arts from the Northwest Coast. He published many works on archæological and anthropological subjects. He edited geological publications, includingHayden'sAtlas of Colorado and the eleventh and twelfth reports of theGeological Survey. His books include: "Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities" (1919).
In 1899, he was elected as a member to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[18]
Holmes lived with his son in Royal Oak, Michigan, upon his retirement in 1932 from the position of Director of the National Gallery of Art.[19] He died April 20, 1933.[20]
In the year of his death, a memorial exhibition of ninety-two of Holmes' artworks was held at theCorcoran Gallery of Art.[21] As a teacher, his pupils includedSusan Brown Chase.[22]
Of Holmes's many contributions and accomplishments, he is probably best known for the role he played in the controversy over the antiquity of humans in the Americas. Holmes insisted that claims for the early presence of humans should be subjected to the most rigorous testing. His position on this matter had a healthy and conservative influence on what is one of the most fundamental questions in American archaeology.[citation needed] There are two mountain summits named in his honor:Mount Holmes in Yellowstone National Park, andMount Holmes in the Henry Mountains of Utah.
Published and unpublished writings by Holmes include:
The foundation of the (UCLA Institute of Archaeology) Field Museum's reputation as a place where serious science is practiced was laid by Allison V. Armour and William Henry Holmes in 1895, a little more than a year after the Museum was established. Looking back after a career of almost 60 years as an anthropologist, and having twice been honored as the outstanding practitioner in the field, Holmes described the trip to Mexico (the only expedition he led during his brief tenure as the Museum's first Curator of Anthropology) as "one of the most gratifying and important events of my life." It was also one of the most important events in the history of anthropology at the Museum.
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