Henry Bascom Collins, Jr.: Encyclopedia Arctica 15: Biographies

Henry B(ascom) Collins, Jr., (1899 - ), the leading United States
prehistorian of the Arctic, was born in Geneva, Alabama, April 9, 1899.
He received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Millsaps College in 1922 and
immediately undertook archaeological work, as an assistant of the Pueblo
Bonito Expedition, 1922-24, sponsored by the National Geographic Society.
In 1923, he became an assistant in the Mississippi Department of Archives
and History, and in 1924 joined the Division of Ethnology, U.S. National
Museum, Washington, D.C. Between that year and 1939, when he left the
Museum, he advanced from Aide to Assistant Curator of Ethnology then to Associate Curator.
Meanwhile, in 1925, he received the Master of Arts degree at George Washington
University, Washington, D.C. In 1940, he was given an honorary Doctorate of
Science by Millsaps College.

Collins' first publications were in Physical Anthropology although
very early he indicated his special interest in the excavation of cultural
as well as skeletal remains. He has continued to make measurements and
observations of living people in field work wherever possible, but studies
of artifacts, geological and faunal remains, and any other evidence that can
help reconstruct history have characterized his work throughout his career.
His clear conception of objective and his close adherence to it have made
possible his large contribution to current understanding of Eskimo history.

Collins' early field work for the Smithsonian Institution, parent
organization of the National Museum, was done in Louisiana and Mississippi
(1925, 1926) but in 1927 he turned to Alaska. At the suggestion of Ale s š
Hrdli c č ka of the Smithsonian Institution, who had made an anthropological
exploratory trip through central and northwest Alaska, Dale Stewart, physical
anthropologist, and Henry Collins went to Alaska. They visited Kanakanak,
Kulukak, Togiak, and Mumtrak in the Bristol Bay and Goodnews Bay areas;
Tununak on Nelson Island; Nash Harbor and several other village sites on
Nunivak Island; Hooper Bay, and St. Michael (summer, 1927). Their physical
anthropological data, principal contribution of the expedition, were included
in Dr. Hrdli c č ka's publication on Alaska in the 46th Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology. (See Ale s š Hrdli c č ka biography.)

Field work on Punuk Island and at Bering Strait in the summer of 1928,
in which Collins was assisted by H. E. Manca, was much more fruitful archaeo–
logically. Diamond Jenness, during studies at Bering Strait in 1926, had
been given by the Eskimos some very old ivory specimens that he recognized
as of a distinctive early-Eskimo culture — a "Bering Sea culture" — and
had excavated what proved to be Punuk and Thule as well as modern Eskimo
cultural remains. Dr. Hrdli c č ka, on the basis of these discoveries and of
reports regarding St. Lawrence Island, designated Punuk Island, at the eastern
end of St. Lawrence, as a promising prehistoric site. Collins, after his
archaeological work there in 1928, was able to characterize the "Punuk"
as a separate prehistoric Eskimo culture; moreover, he could state the
stratigraphy (i.e., cultural development) within the Punuk Period and some–
thing of its relationships to other periods in Eskimo history. Exploratory
excavations were made at Cape Kialegak on the St. Lawrence mainland near
Punuk and on the Alaska mainland in the region of Cape Prince of Wales.

EA-Biog. Lantis: Henry B. Collins, Jr.

As the former showed old remains but the latter did not, he planned further
excavation at Kialegak.

In his first monograph, "Prehistoric Art of the Alaskan Eskimo" (1929),
Collins stated clearly — using the evidence of art styles and harpoon heads —
the view of Eskimo prehistory that he has never had to abandon. It has only
been made more exact and expanded in geographic and time range. Although at
that time there was still some confusion of Birnirk culture and what has since
been named Old Bering Sea culture (i.e., confusion as to just what was the
oldest Eskimo culture), an Asiatic origin was stated definitely, nevertheless:
"The enormous and practically unknown stretch of coast from Indian Point
northward to East Cape and thence westward to the Kolyma seems the most
likely region in which to search for the beginning of the ancient Bering
Sea culture, ...." (p. 47). He also stated for the first time the hypothesis
that there had been a return movement into north Alaska from Canada of people
with a Thule culture, after it had spread from Alaska far eastward (p. 43).

In 1929, assisted by G. Herman Brandt, Collins excavated sites at
Cape Kialegak, St. Lawrence Island. Still no stratum of pure Old Bering
Sea culture was found although isolated specimens of it were excavated in
Punuk material. After a reconnaissance of Gambell, northwest tip of the
island, he proceeded to Nome, Point Hope, Kivalina, Lütke Harbor (Siberia),
Little Diomede Island, inland on Seward Peninsula to the upper Kougaruk
River, to Kowieruk and Akivinuk in the Teller region, finally to Koyuk and
Cape Denbigh. Perforated weight-stones of undetermined age were examined at
the Kougaruk location. At Point Hope he excavated partially a cemetery
not previously known to present-day Eskimos (without encountering Ipiutak
specimens, however) and at Denbigh excavated the oldest cultural remains
thus far found around Norton Sound. At several places he bought typical
decorated ivory objects of the Old Bering Sea culture, showing graceful

EA-Biog. Lantis: Henry B. Collins, Jr.

curvilinear designs, and knew that a site of adequate antiquity to belong
to that culture period would be found.

The next year he found it at the Hillside site near Gambell. Of the
four known village sites and the one previously unknown, excavated by him
and James A. Ford, three provided the chronology needed: the Hillside site
was pure Old Bering Sea, built and abandoned within this culture period;
Miyowagh contained Old Bering Sea overlaid by Punuk remains; the Ievoghiyoq
site was purely Punuk. Besides the usual collecting and measuring en route
to and from St. Lawrence Island, Collins made also foot and hand prints of
60 St. Lawrence Islanders. But the season's big accomplishment was the
stratigraphic evidence regarding Eskimo history and geological evidence of
the Tertiary flora on St. Lawrence, including sequoia.

Collins was not engaged exclusively in Alaska studies. He directed
Smithsonian Institution expeditions to Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana
for a season of each year, 1926-1929 inclusive, and his work in the National
Museum was carried on also. In the latter work, which required meeting the
public to answer questions regarding cultural objects from all parts of the
world and all periods, to accept gifts for the Museum and arrange exhibits,
Dr. Collins showed his customary tact.

He did not return to Alaska in 1931 but at his suggestion Moreau B.
Chambers continued the archaeological work at Gambell, while James A. Ford
went to Point Barrow, remaining abouta year. In 1931 Henry Collins married
Miss Carolyn Walker of Fitchburg, Mass., and in 1938 a daughter, Judith Ann,
was born.

After his 1930 work, several questions regarding Eskimo prehistoric
relationships could be answered authoritatively. For example, T. Mathiassen
in 1929 had classified certain Old Bering Sea specimens as belonging to the

EA-Biog. Lantis: Henry B. Collins, Jr.

Thule culture, an error that could be corrected when the full cultural
complex known as "Old Bering Sea" was seen in Collins' work. (He first
used this exact title in the 1930 annual report of field work by the
Smithsonian Institution.) The preparation of his largest work, "Archeology
of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska" (1937), was started in 1931 and completed
in 1935. In 1936, he received for it the gold medal of the Royal Academy of
Sciences and Letters of Denmark and a prize of 1,000 crowns, in an interna–
tional competition of papers submitted in answer to the question, "What are
the origins of the oldest Eskimo culture?"

This monograph presented ( 1 ) a characterization of each culture period
of the Bering Strait area, as a distinctive cultural complex, ( 2 ) develop–
mental changes of specific implements, ( 3 ) cultural relations from locality
to locality, and ( 4 ) an outline of the cultural history of the entire area
of north Bering Sea and Alaskan arctic coast, with some suggestions regard–
ing that of the Aleutians, northeast Siberia, and other [ ] areas.

Interesting hypotheses, some of which had been presented previously,
were included in the monograph. For example, in an article in the Geographical
Review , 1932 ("Prehistoric Eskimo Culture on St. Lawrence Island"), Collins
had suggested that "the Punuk art with its deeply and evenly incised lines
and mechanically perfect circles could have been produced by none other than
metal tools" but that this art should be dated many years before the 1600's
and 1700's when Russian metal tools were received via the Chukchi of north–
east Siberia. He cited quotations from the Chinese by Berthold Laufer to
show that at least some of the people in eastern Siberia used iron early in
the Christian era.

As early as 1928 he had called attention to the ancient check-stamp–
decorated pottery found on Nunivak and St. Lawrence islands and at Norton

EA-Biog. Lantis: Henry B. Collins, Jr.

Sound. In the monograph, other examples of check-stamp technique from
Japan, southeast China, and even farther south were cited, as well as one
from Kola Bay in northern Russia (pp. 349-350).

In considering the implied question regarding diffusion of separate
elements of culture, apart from the migrations of peoples bearing distinctive
cultures, Collins sensibly considered each on its own merits instead of trying
to fit it into a hypothetical system of culture stages ( kulturkreise ). This
freedom in accepting implications of relationship, given by the geographic
distribution of artifacts, led him to suggest that there had been contacts
between Aleuts and Kamchadal before the Russian conquest. Moreover, not all
the cultural impetus had come from the supposedly higher cultural development
on the west side of the Pacific. He suggested that the Kamchadal use of stone
lamps was an imitation of Aleut practice in using stone lamps in stead of pottery
ones (p. 348). This was presented in more specific and organized form in an
article in the American Anthropologist in 1937. Robert Heizer, in a more
recent study of use of aconite poison by North Pacific peoples, had given
further evidence of cultural connections via the Aleutians. At a time when
anthropologists generally doubted such relationships, assuming Bering Strait
to be the only avenue of contact between Asia and America, Collins' assumption
was courageous.

The ethnological technique of tracing single elements of culture over
wide areas, in order to reconstruct prehistoric cultural relationships, must
be used with caution. Recently there has been a reaction against comparison
from region to region of implements, ornaments, structures, etc., separately,
on the basis of form alone without reference to ecological, economic, functional
context. Collins rightly has doubted the validity of theories based on
similarity of form when function is unknown or when similarities are too simple

EA-Biog. Lantis: Henry B. Collins, Jr.

and generalized or too widespread to demonstrate specific relationship.
This is shown in his most recent paper, on "The Origin and Angiquity of
the Eskimo," Not yet published (1948). (In physiological studies also,
he has not neglected the importance of total function, i.e., environment,
as against heredity and form, for example, in "Caries and Crowding in the
Teeth of the Living Alaskan Eskimo.") On the other hand, he demonstrated
that the type of material used in an object does not necessarily determine
its form, for example, in wooden houses, which may be either circular or
rectangular to suit local styles ("Archeology of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska,"
pp. 284-285). If any adverse criticism is to be made - it is most applicable
to Collins' earlier work - it is that, even though materials and functions
were not neglected, there was still perhaps too great emphasis on cultural
forms alone. Yet the hundred pages of careful comparative (distributional)
analysis of culture traits contain very few instances of too easy assumption
of past cultural relationships based on present structural details, as in the
case of roof and draft-hole of the Eskimo kashim and of the southwestern
United States kiva (p. 257).

These are small points in a work that is, as one reviewer has said,
"a model of scholarly exactness and illuminating interpretation" (F. deLaguna,
in American Anthropologist , 40:no. 2, pp. 302-304, 1938). The discussion of
house types is an especially good illustration of these qualities. Although
not all items are thus fully treated, there is similar comparative study
of harpoon heads, women's knives, needlecases, lamps, and cooking pots, armor,
bows, and other artifacts. Hence, for the student, the monograph is a valuable
reference book on the material culture of the Eskimos far beyond St. Lawrence
Island.

As an honest scholar, Collins has changed his opinion on a few points
since writing that volume, to conform to more recent evidence. He no longer
believes, for example, that the Dorset culture of the eastern American Arctic
was originally an Indian culture, later Eskimoized. Also, after ceramic
laboratory demonstration independently by Donald Horton and F. R. Matson,
he recognizes that the black color of west Alaskan pottery is due to poor
firing, to coating of the vessels with oil, or other factors rather than due
to a black clay. This is a technical point not very important to the problem
on which Collins has kept his attention unwaveringly for 20 years: the origin
and antiquity of the Eskimos.

To get further evidence on it, in 1936 Collins went to the most likely
location, Bering Strait. He was accompanied by James A. Ford and Harrison
Prindle, the expedition being sponsored by the National Geographic Society
and Smithsonian Institution. After a short stay at Wales, Ford went on to
Kotzebue Sound, Wainwright, and Barrow. Collins discovered near Wales a pure
late Birnirk site, the first known site outside the Barrow region of this
culture preceding Thule culture. At Wales itself, he excavated the Thule
site identified by Jenness in 1926 and at the bottom, 9 feet deep, found
remains of Birnirk occupation. Birnirk specimens were first found at Barrow
in 1912 by V. Stefansson (reported on by Clark Wissler) and later found also
by Van Valin. In 1929, T. Mathiassen named the culture "Birnirk" and classed
it as late Thule. J. Alden Mason wrote up the Van Valin collection at the
Pennsylvania University Museum to the same effect. Meanwhile, Collins in
"Prehistoric Art of the Alaskan Eskimo" (1929) designated Birnirk as older
than Thule (pp. 40-42) and further discussed the question in "Eskimo Archaeology
and Somatology" (1934). The 1936 excavations thus provided the first exact
stratigraphy validating hypotheses formulated several years previously.

The Diomede and Wales discoveries were not included in the large 1937
monograph, completed earlier, but in "Outline of Eskimo Prehistory" (1940).
In 1937-39, Collins completed the study, begun in the St. Lawrence book, of
relationships of all the Eskimo cultures considered as complete complexes rather
than by their separate elements. In this, he considered especially Eskimo
relationship to Asiatic cultures. In 1940 paper accomplished, to most readers'
satisfaction, two things: ( 1 ) it refuted the theory of American origin of
Eskimo culture and ( 2 ) explained how the latter could have [ ] from Asia.
Collins has presented the problem as follows: "....if we postulate an origin
for Eskimo culture anywhere in America we are faced immediately with the
difficulty that the basic features of the oldest known Eskimo cultures are
much more Asiatic, or Eurasiatic, than American."

He had early joined the "Asiatic origin" group. The older American
anthropologists and some later ones accepted, on the other hand, the theory
of American origin: Boas, Murdoch, Wissler, Stefansson, Shapiro, and others;
the leading Europeans in this group were Rink, Steensby, and Birket-Smith.
Believing in an Asiatic origin were the anatomists and physical anthropologists:
Fürst, Hansen, Hrdli c č ka, and Hooton. Sapir and other linguistic scholars
thought the Alaskan dialects were more archaic than those to the east and sought
language relationships in Asia instead of Canada. And several ethnologists,
Thalbitzer, Hatt, Bogoras, Kroeber, Mathiassen, Jenness, and Zolotarev,
believed that the distinguishing basic features of Eskimo culture, as well
as the Eskimo people themselves, had come from northeast Asia. None, however,
had particularized a possible locale of origin, as Collins now did, viz.,
Lake Baikal area and the rivers flowing from it to the Arctic Sea. Whereas
he talked in terms of the Kolyma early in his career, now the area of origin
was pushed west to the Yenisei River, possibly to the Ob (p. 587).

Within Eskimo prehistory in America, the Dorset culture was the most
puzzling. In 1934, Collins first had predicted that Dorset would be found
to be the basic culture in Greenland, and in 1940, in the "Outline of Eskimo
Prehistory," stated this more definitely. (He agreed with Jenness that
Dorset was not a phase of Thule and thus disagreed with Mathiassen who had
suggested that it was (pp. 568-569.) He suggested that Solberg's Stone
Age Culture in Greenland was a mixture of Dorset and Later Thule. In 1936,
Holtved found Dorset remains in the Polar Eskimo area, northwest Greenland,
underlying a Thule stratum (published in 1944).

By 1942, when his "Eskimo Archaeology and Its Bearing on the Problem
of Man's Antiquity in America" was published, Collins had had time to study
more carefully A. P. Okladnikov's 1938 paper on the prehistory of the Lake
Baikal region. This substantiated Collins' theory stated tentatively in
1940, since the oldest and second oldest periods (Neolithic) in the Baikal
area are most like the ancient Eskimo as seen in Ipiutak and Old Bering Sea
cultures. While later cultural development in the Baikal area proceeded in
a new direction, the early culture or early bearers of it moved down the
rivers to the coast and then eastward, developing sea-mammal hunting as they
progressed.

Meanwhile, in 1939 Collins left the National Museum to become Senior
Ethnologist in the Bureau of American Ethnology, of the Smithsonian Institution.
From 1940 onward, he wrote alone or in collaboration with others various
pamphlets for the general public and the Armed Services, dealing chiefly
with the Bering Sea area. In 1943-44, he was Assistant Director and in
1944-46, Director of the Ethnogeographic Board, a wartime agency sponsored
jointly by the American Council of Learned Societies, Social Science Council,
National Research Council, and Smithsonian Institution. Collins' principal
duty was to supervise preparation of more than 50 booklets on foreign areas,
for the Armed Services.

He is one of the founders and ardent workers of the Arctic Institute
of North America and has been on its Board of Governors since its beginning
in 1944. In 1947 he was Vice-chairman and in 1948 Chairman of the Board.
He has been chairman of the Institute's Bibliography and Roster Projects
since their inception in 1947. He is a member of the National Research
Council's Committee on International Cooperation in Anthropology (1948):
of the American Polar Society and various professional societies in Anthro–
pology and Geography; and is included in American Men of Science.

Collins has been generous and helpful to younger workers. Desiring
to concentrate on archaeology and physical anthropology, he has offered
his ethnological material to others writing about St. Lawrence Island,
Nunivak Island, or other localities. He has also generously acknowledged
his own indebtedness to Diamond Jenness. While Collins has felt that he
had to disagree occasionally, on scientific points, with his colleague
Ale s š Hrdli c č ka and with Rainey, Birket-Smith, and others, he has done it
without rancor and with tact. For the whole field of Eskimo antiquity,
he has set a high standard of meticulous research and of sound judgment in
drawing conclusions from it.

PUBLICATIONS BY HENRY B. COLLINS, JR.

"The Eskimo of Western Alaska," Explor. and Field Work of the Smith. Inst.
in 1927, pp. 149-156.

"Check-stamped Pottery from Alaska," Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci., Vol. 18, No. 9,
pp.254-256, 1928.

"The Ancient Eskimo Culture of Northwestern Alaska," Explor. and Field-Work
of Smith. Inst. in 1928, pp. 141-150.

"Prehistoric Art of the Alaskan Eskimo," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections,
Vol. 81, No. 14, pp. 1-52, 1929.

"Prehistoric Eskimo Culture in Alaska," Explor. and Field-Work of Smith Inst.
in 1929, pp. 147-156.

"Ancient Culture of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska," Explor. and Field-Work of
Smith. Inst. in 1930, pp. 135-144.

"Archaeological Investigations in Northern Alaska," Explor. and Field-Work of
the Smith. Inst. in 1931, pp. 103-112.

"

"Caries and Crowding in the Teeth of the Living Alaskan Eskimo," Amer. Journ.
Phys. Anthro., Vol.16, No. 4, pp. 451-462, 1932.

"Prehistoric Eskimo Culture on St. Lawrence Island," The Geographical Review,
Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 107-119, 1932.

"Archeological Investigations at Point Barrow, Alaska," Explor. and Field-Work
Smith. Inst. in 1932, pp. 45-48.

"An Ancient Eskimo 'Golden Age' Revealed," Illustrated London News, Vol. 182,
No. 4910, pp. 760-761, May 27, 1935.

"Eskimo Archeology and Somatology," American Anthropologist, Vol. 36, No. 2,
pp. 309-313, April-June, 1934.

"Archeology of the Bering Sea Region," Proceedings of the Fifth Pacific
Science Congress, Vol. 4, pp. 2825-2839, 1934.

"Archeology of the Bering Sea Region" (a revision of the above paper), Smith–
sonian Annual Report for 1933, pp. 453-468, 1935.

"Archeological Excavations at Bering Strait," Explor. and Field-Work of the
Smith. Inst. in 1936, pp. 63-68.

"Culture Migrations and Contacts in the Bering Sea Region," Amer. Anthro.,
Vol. 39, No. 3 (Pt. I), pp. 375-384, 1937.

"Archeology of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska," Smith.Misc.Coll., Vol.96, No.1,
1937.

"Exploring Frozen Fragments of American History," National Geographic
Magazine, Vol. 75, No. 5, pp. 633-656, May 1939.

"Bering in the Far North," The World is Yours, Vol.1, No.39, pp. 3-9, July 1,
1940.

"Outline of Eskimo Prehistory," Smith. Misc. Coll., Vol. 100, pp. 533-592,
1940.

"Prehistoric Eskimo Harpoon Heads from Bering Strait," Jour. Wash. Acad.Sci.,
Vol. 31, No. 7, pp. 318-324, 1941.

(With George H. Griffiths) "The Eskimos," Teachers's Handbook, Erpi Classroom
Films, Inc., pp. 12-18, 1942.

"Eskimo Archeology and Its Bearing on the Problem of Man's Antiquity in
America," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 86,
No. 2, pp. 220-235, 1943.

"The Arctic," in: Survival on Land and Sea, Publications Branch, Office of
Naval Intelligence, pp. 132-168, 1943.

(With Austin H. Clark and E. G. Walker) "The Aleutian Islands" Their People
and Natural History," Smithsonian Institution War Background Studies
No. 21, 1945.

"Anthropology During the War. Scandinavia." Amer. Anthro., Vol.48, No.1,
pp. 141-144, [ ] 1946.

"Problems of Arctic Anthropology," The Arctic Institute of North America, Bull.
No. 1, pp. 48-57, 1946.

"Wilderness Exploration and Alaska's Purchase," The Living Wilderness, Vol.11,
No. 19, pp. 17-18, 1946.

"The Origin and Antiquity of the Eskimos" (to be included in a book on the
Arctic), The Arctic Institute of North America.

Reviews and Other Items

"Inugsuk, a Mediaeval Eskimo Settlement in West Greenland" and "Ancient
Eskimo Settlements in the Kangamiut Area," by Therkel Mathiassen,
Meddel. om Gronland, Vol. 77, 1930, and Bd. 91, 1931, in Ameri.
Anthro., Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 118-124, 1934.

"The Anthropometry of the Western and Copper Eskimos, based on Data of
Vilhjalmur Stefansson," by Carl C. Seltzer, Human Biology, Sept. 1933,
in Amer. Jour. Phys. Anthro., Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 488-490, 1934.

"The Archeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska," by Frederica de Laguna, The
University Museum, Univ.of Penn. Press, 1934, in Amer. Anthro.,
Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 341-342, 1935.

(Abstract) "On the Origin and Relationships of the Old Bering Sea Culture,"
Congress International des Sciences Anthropolgie et Ethnologie,
Copenhagen, Compte Rendu, pp. 297-298, 1939.

"Archeological Excavations at Kukulik, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska," by
Otto William Geist and Froelich G. Rainey, Misc. Fubls. Univer. of
Alaska, Vol. 2, 1936 (1937), in Amer. Anthro., Vol. 41, No.3,
pp. 479-481, 1939.

(Obituary) "Ale s š Hrdli c č ka," in Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci., Vol. 34, No.2, 1944.

"The Anthropology of Kodiak Island" and "The Aleutian and Commander Islands
and their Inhabitants," by Ale s š Hrdli c č ka, Wistar Inst. of Anat. and Biol.
1944, 1945, in Amer. Jour. Phys. Anthro., Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 355-361,
1945.

"The Aleutian and Commander Islands and their Inhabitants," by Ale s š Hrdli c č ka,
in U.S. Quart. Book List, Vol. 1, No.3, p. 20, Sept. 1945.

"An Artist Sees Alaska," by Henry Varnum Poor, in U.S. Quart. Book List, Vol. 2,
No. 2, pp. 98-99, June 1946.

"The Flying North," by Jean Potter, in U.S. Quart. Book List, Vol. 3, No. 4,
Dec. 1947.

"Bridge to Russia, Those Amazing Aleutians," by Morgan Murray, in U.S. Quart.
Book List, Vol. 3, No. 4, Dec. 1947.

Margaret Lantis