Anthropological Publications
The Jesup North Pacific Expedition led by the anthropologist Franz Boas, the first landmark research project of the Division of Anthropology, turned out to be one of the most scientifically important anthropological investigations ever mounted. The Division of Anthropology has been publishing anthropological studies since 1896 when the first such publication appeared in the AMNH Bulletin. The large special reports were published in the Memoirs series. The Anthropological Papers, published since 1907, include some of the great ethnographies of the 20th century, particularly on North American Indians. The Museum has also published, since 1955, the James Arthur Lectures on the Evolution of Human Brain which regularly contain material of anthropological interest. The most important of those were the classic ethnographies of the tribes of the Northwest Coast and Siberia based on the groundbreaking investigations of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition of 1897-1902. These irreplaceable monographs were written by the American, Russian, and German ethnographers who spent years in the field under most difficult conditions studying several tribes of the Northwest Coast and Siberia. This work cannot be duplicated and the resulting monographs will never lose their value to anthropology.