Stephen C. Simms as a Collector 



Of North American Indian Material Culture 



fy JAMES W. VANSTONE 



Curator of North American Archaeology and Ethnology 



Among early curators associated with the Depart- 

 ment of Anthropology, the research of Stephen 

 Chapman Simms was typical. Although not a trained 

 anthropologist, he undertook considerable fieldwork 

 and confronted many of the problems faced by North 

 American ethnographers, particularly those associated 

 with museums, at the turn of the century. This was a 

 time when newly established museums were building 

 their basic collections, and for a museum curator the 

 collection of material objects took precedence over all 

 other aspects of ethnographic research. 



Stephen C. Simms joined the staff of Field Colum- 

 bian Museum (later to be called Field Museum of Natural 

 History) in 1894, during the institution's first year, as 

 assistant curator of Industrial Arts. In 1898, he was 

 appointed assistant curator of Ethnology and was a staff 

 member of the Department of Anthropology for 14 

 years. The N.W. Harris Public School Extension, fore- 

 runner of the Museum's Department of Education, was 

 established in 1912 and Simms was appointed curator of 

 the new department. In 1928, he was selected by the 

 Board of Trustees to be director of the Museum, a posi- 

 tion which he held at the time of his death on January 

 28, 1937. 



At the time of Simms's appointment to the Depart- 

 ment of Anthropology, George A. Dorsey was the cura- 

 tor in charge, having joined the Museum staff in 1896. 

 He was to hold that position for 20 years and exerted a 

 major influence on the development of the department 

 and its collections. During his first 10 years at the 

 Museum, Dorsey concentrated on building the North 

 American Indian collections. He accomplished this 

 through a series of expeditions and collecting trips, 

 which he undertook himself or entrusted to various assis- 

 tant curators, of which Simms was the first. In those 

 days, the curator of a scientific department at Field Co- 

 lumbian Museum had complete charge of all departmen- 

 tal activities. Assistant curators did not simply decide on 



Stephen C. Simms shown when he was serving as director of Field 

 Museum. 66207-A 



their own when or where to do fieldwork; they were "dis- 

 patched" by the curator. 



Simms appears to have made his first field trip for 

 the Museum to the Iroquois on the Six Nations Reserve 

 in Ontario during the fall of 1900. In early January 1901 , 

 he was sent to Arizona for three months to collect pri- 

 marily among Athapaskan-speaking peoples who were 

 not previously represented in the department's collec- 

 tions. With this field trip begins a correspondence be- 

 tween Simms and Dorsey which clearly demonstrates 

 the views held by the latter with reference to the collect- 



