Los Angeles County
Biographies
FREDERICK
WEBB HODGE
Dr. Frederick Webb Hodge, director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, is internationally known as one of the foremost ethnologists of his day and as a dependable authority upon the scientific subjects to which he is devoting his career. Doctor Hodge was born in Plymouth, England, October 28, 1864, and is a son of Edwin and Emily (Webb) Hodge, with whom he came to the United States when he was seven years of age. The public schools and a private academy afforded him his early education, which was supplemented by higher courses of study at Columbian University, now known as George Washington University, and by long experience in the field.
When a young man hardly past his majority, Doctor Hodge became actively interested in American archeology and ethnology. In 1884-86, he was connected with the United States Geological Survey, and from 1886 until 1889 he served as secretary of the Hemenway Archeological Expedition which had for its purpose the examination and excavation of early Indian ruins in Arizona and New Mexico. This preliminary experience was of great value to Doctor Hodge when in July, 1889, he became associated with the Bureau of American Ethnology, with which organization he made further and more exhaustive investigations in the states named. In 1897 he climbed the precipitous Enchanted Mesa, near Acoma, New Mexico, where he discovered on the top unmistakable proof of former ancient occupancy. In February, 1901, he became an executive officer in the Smithsonian Institution. In July, 1905, he was again attached to the Bureau of American Ethnology, and because of the reputation as an authority he had by this time attained, he was assigned to give his efforts to the Handbook of American Indians, the first part of which was published in 1907, and the second part in 1910. During the eight years from 1910 until 1918, he was official ethnologist-in-charge of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and following this until the close of 1931 he was affiliated with the Museum of the American Indian in New York. In this connection extensive excavations were made from 1917 to 1923, in the ruins of Hawikuh, one of the so-called Seven Cities of Cibola, near Zuni, New Mexico. Doctor Hodge is now director of the Southwest Museum in the city of Los Angeles.
Doctor Hodge is a member of numerous scientific and historical organizations. He is a founder, a former president, and a member of the council of the American Anthropological Association; ex-president of the Anthropological Society of Washington; member of the National Research Council 1921-23, and 1927-30; trustee of the School of American Research and the Laboratory of Anthropology, at Santa Fe, New Mexico; honorary professor of Anthropology in the University of Southern California; fellow A.A.A.S.(vice president section H in 1916); Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland; American Geographical Society; American Antiquarian Society; American Folk Lore Society; Texas Historical Association; Historical Society of New Mexico; State Historical Society of Missouri; Mississippi Valley Historical Association; Sociེtེ des Amེricanistes de Paris; Sociedad Cientifica Antonio Alzate, Mexico; a founder and advisory editor of the Quivira Society, created for the translation and publication of old Spanish documents relating to the southwest. The honorary degrees of Doctor of Science and Doctor of Laws have been conferred on him by Pomona College and the University of New Mexico respectively.
Doctor Hodge is a member of the Ends of the Earth Club of New York and the University Club of Pasadena.
As a writer on scientific topics, for both books and periodicals, Doctor Hodge has always been considered accurate and thorough and his publications are accepted as authoritative. In 1899 he published “Coronado’s Route from Culiacan to Quivira;” in 1920, “Hawikuh Bonework;” in 1921, “Turquoise Work of Hawikuh;” in 1923, “Circular Kivas near Hawikuh.” His contributions to scientific periodicals and to cyclopedias are numerous. The Doctor edited the “Handbook of the American Indians North of Mexico,” published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1907-1910. In 1907 he edited “Narratives of Cabeza de Vaca and Coronado;” in 1930, “Falconer’s Letters and Notes on the Texas Santa Fe Expedition.” Doctor Hodge was editor of the American Anthropologist in 1899-1910 and 1912-14, of Edward S. Curtis’s “The North American Indian,” in twenty volumes, and many other works. He was annotator, in association with C. F. Lummis, of “Memorial Fray Alonso Benavides, 1630.” Chicago, 1916.
In Washington, D.C., on August 1, 1891, Doctor Hodge was united in marriage to Margaret W. Magill of that city. He was married secondly to Zahrah E. Preble. His residence at present is at 1375 Lida avenue in Pasadena and his office at the Southwest Museum, 4699 Marmion way, in Los Angeles.
Transcribed
11-12-12 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
443-445, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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