Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

ABSTRACT
This essay represents a look at the climate of
Smithsonian science at the time Wedel and Ewers
began their careers at the Smithsonian Institution.
I accepted the invitation to make some appropriate
after-dinner remarks about Jack and
Waldo, the two honorees, with some misgivings.
Both men value their privacy and hence have
maintained a low enough profile in their respective
branches of cultural anthropology as to make
it difficult for a physical anthropologist to say
anything professionally revealing about them. I
decided, therefore, that the most appropriate—
and for those who have come from afar perhaps
the most interesting—thing I could do would be
to reminisce about the climate of science at the
Smithsonian in the 1930s and 1940s, and especially
at the times—10 years apart—when the
honorees first became associated with this venerable
Institution.
Reminiscing, I have read, is an effort of an
elderly person to recapture his or her youth. I will
be 79 years old this year and will have spent 56
of these years at the Smithsonian, so I hope you
will indulge me in a bit of questing for youth. My
aim will be two-fold: first, to rekindle the memories
of some of those present and to bring to the
attention of others certain events influencing the
honorees during the period mentioned; and sec-
T.D. Stewart, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of
Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560.
Reminiscences
T.D. Stewart
40
ond, to throw light on the question: How has the
Smithsonian succeeded in keeping these two men
here so long and enabled them to accomplish so
much? Let's begin with Waldo, the first to arrive.
The 15th of August 1936, is the date of Waldo's
appointment as assistant curator of archeology
(the grade of associate curator had not yet come
into frequent use). Franklin Roosevelt's first term,
with its New Deal, was just ending. Although the
country was recovering from the Great Depression,
unexpected riches descended upon the
Smithsonian during the Government's fiscal year
1937, between 1 July 1936 and 30 June 1937,
which included the date of Waldo's arrival. Secretary
Abbot (1938:1) told about it in his report
for that year:
The most notable event of the year was the establishment
of the new National Gallery of Art as a bureau of the
Smithsonian Institution, the result of the munificent gift of
Andrew W. Mellon of his great art collection and funds
exceeding $10,000,000 for the construction of a suitable
gallery building.
As we know now, this statement underestimates
the true value of the IVTellon gift and fails to
indicate its potential to influence the cultural life
of the Nation's capital. Waldo may not have paid
much attention to the new development, but I
was greatly stirred by it, because I was into art to
the extent of being a member of Herbert Friedmann's
art group that met Friday evenings to
draw, paint, sculpt, or whatever. Friedmann, then
the curator of birds, had made art history his
hobby. This is but one example I could mention
of the stimulation to be gained by association
with members of other Smithsonian departments.
Waldo's apointment was the culmination of a