Harry L. Shapiro | |
|---|---|
 Shapiro in the 1960s | |
| Born | (1902-03-19)March 19, 1902 |
| Died | January 7, 1990(1990-01-07) (aged 87) |
Harry Lionel Shapiro (March 19, 1902 – January 7, 1990) was an American anthropologist andeugenicist.
Shapiro was born into a Jewish family and was educated inBoston, Massachusetts.
While he was a senior atHarvard he was awarded a graduate fellowship fromYale in 1923 to pursue a genetic study of the descendants of the mutineers ofHMS Bounty. Shapiro was a student ofEarnest Hooton atHarvard University.[1]
After completing his graduate work in 1926 he went to work at theAmerican Museum of Natural History inNew York City, and while there conducted a few field trips. He is also known for his work withFrederick S. Hulse onJapanese migrant studies.[2]
Shapiro was appointed associate curator at the American Museum of Natural History in 1931 and full curator in 1942, the year he succeededClark Wissler as chair of the Department of Anthropology. He remained department chair until 1970. Shapiro concurrently taught atColumbia University as an adjunct Professor of Anthropology from 1938 to 1973.[3]
Shapiro was a founding member of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in 1930 (AAPA) and between 1935 and 1939 served a term as its secretary and subsequently as vice-president (1941–42). He served as president of theAmerican Anthropological Association in 1948, and president of the American Ethnological Society from 1942 to 1943. He was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1949 and served as chairman of the anthropology section from 1953 to 1957. He was president of theAmerican Eugenics Society from 1955 to 1962.[4]Shapiro married Janice Sandler in 1938 and together they had three children, Thomas, Harriet and James.
