Henry Field 



1902 - 1986 



by W. Peyton Fawcett 



Field Museum Librarian 



jl ield Museum learned with deep regret of the death in 

 early January of a long-time friend and former curator, 

 Dr. Henry Field. Dr. Field was a native Chicagoan, born 

 in 1902, and a grandnephew of the Museum's founder, 

 Marshall Field. 



Most of his early life was spent in England where he 

 received his education, first at Eton College and later at 

 Oxford University, from which he received the degrees 

 B.A. (1925), M.A. (1929), and Doctor of Science 

 (1937). "My first desire," Dr. Field has written, "after 

 graduating from Oxford, was to work in a museum, and it 

 had been my dream since childhood to return someday 

 Henry Field (1940s) 



7845! 



ber of expeditions, including the Field Museum-Oxford 

 University Joint Expedition to Kish, Iraq; the Marshall 

 Field Archaeological Expedition to Western Europe; the 

 Marshall Field North Arabian Desert Expeditions; and 

 the Field Museum Archaeological Expeditions to West- 

 ern Europe. These expeditions resulted in important 

 additions to the Museum's collections, three major 

 exhibits, and a number of scientific works published in 

 the Museum's Fieldiana series, including Arabs of Central 

 Iraq, their history, ethnology, and physical characters (1935); 

 Useful plants and drugs of Iran and Iraq (with David Hoop- 

 er, 1937); and Contributions to the Anthropology of Iran 



to Chicago. Both desire and dream were to be realized, 

 for I received an appointment as Assistant Curator of 

 Physical Anthropology, at Field Museum of Natural His- 

 tory." Dr. Field served as assistant curator (later curator) 

 from 1926 to January of 1941. He left the Museum in 

 1941 to become an advisor to President Franklin 

 Roosevelt during World War II. After the war he was 

 engaged in largely private research, but he also held 

 appointments at the Peabody Museum of Harvard Uni- 

 versity and the University of Miami, among others. 



Dr. Field's years at Field Museum were especially 

 productive ones. He was a member, or leader, of a num- 



(two volumes, 1939). The last work was translated into 

 the Persian language (Farsi) and published in Tehran 

 in 1966. 



During his tenure Dr. Field planned and directed 

 two major exhibits, the Hall of Races of Mankind, con- 

 taining 100 sculptures by Malvina Hoffman, and the 

 Hall of Stone Age of the Old World, with eight large 

 dioramas by Frederick Blaschke. He also participated in 

 planning the Hall of Mesopotamian Archaeology. To 

 accompany these exhibits Dr. Field wrote many articles 

 in the Field Museum News, precursor of the present Bulle- 

 tin, and several works in the Popular Series: The Races 



