Fitzugh

Staff

William W. Fitzhugh, Director

Dr. WILLIAM W. FITZHUGH, Director of the Arctic Studies Center and Curator in the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, is a specialist in circumpolar anthropology and archeology who has spent more than twenty-five years studying and publishing on arctic peoples and cultures in northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia, and Scandinavia. His archeological and environmental research has focussed on the prehistory and paleoecology of northeastern North America, especially on the problem of Eskimo and Indian cultural development across the forest-tundra boundary in Labrador. Broader aspects of his research feature the evolution of northern maritime adaptations, cross-cultural comparative studies, and acculturation processes in the North. He has conducted field work in all areas of the arctic, including Russia, except Greenland.

Recent research efforts have been directed at archeological and historical studies of the Martin Frobisher AD 1576-78 voyages and their impact on Inuit cultures of Southeastern Baffin Island, Canada and exploration of the culture history of the Russian Arctic, especially of the lower Ob River and Yamal Peninsula region of Western Siberia where oil development and economic and culture change threatens the traditional lifeways of a remarkably well-preserved reindeer herding people, the Nenets.

As curator of the National Museum of Natural History collections, Fitzhugh has produced two international exhibitions, Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimos and Crossroads of Continents: Native Cultures of Siberia and Alaska, and is currently preparing another major exhibition, Kamuy: Spirit of the Ainu -- Art and Culture of Japan's Northern Native People. His public and educational activities include the production of films, including the NOVA specials, Mysteries of the Lost Red Paint People and Norse America. He served as Chairman of the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology from 1975-80, is a Board Member of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, an Advisor to the Arctic Research Commission, and holds various other administrative and advisory posts.

Position

Director, Arctic Studies Center (since 1988)
Curator, Department of Anthropology (since 1970)
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian, Institution
Washington, D. C. 20560
(202) 357-2682 (fax: 202-357-2684)
email: fitzhugh@ic.si.edu

Education

BA Dartmouth College (1964), Anthropology
MA Harvard University (1967), Anthropology
PhD Harvard University (1970), Anthropology

PhD thesis: Environmental Archaeology and Cultural Systems in Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 16, 1972.

Employment

1970-75 Associate Curator, Department of Anthropology, NMNH/Smithsonian

1975-80 Chairman, Department of Anthropology, NMNH/Smithsonian

1980- Curator, Department of Anthropology, NMNH/Smithsonian

1988- Director, Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center

Fellowships and Awards

1966-67 Harvard University Graduate Fellowship

1966-67 NSF Graduate Traineeship

1970 Fulbright Fellowship (not accepted due to Smithsonian position offer)

1984 Casebook Award (INUA exhibit design)

1988 Robert L. Stigler Lecturer, Univ. of Arkansas 1988

1988 Secrets of the Lost Red Paint People (NOVA film) American Film Festival, 2nd prize; Cine-Golden Eagle, Council on International non-Theatrical Events.

1996 Viking America (NOVA film) European version, Spofford Films, Honorable mention at Keil Archeological film Festival.

Editorial

Program and Abstracts, (39th Annual Meeting Soc. Am. Archaeology, 1974)

Maritime/Moorehead conference proceedings (Arctic Anthropology 12(2), 1978)

Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations of the Circumpolar Zone. 1975

Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo 1982

Arctic and Alpine Research (editorial board 1983--94)

Man in the Northeast (editorial board 1985-93)

Cultures in Contact 1985

Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska 1988

Anthropology of the North Pacific Rim 1994

American Anthr. Assoc. Arch. Division Monograph, general editor 1992-95

Administration

1975-80 Chairman, Department of Anthropology, NMNH/Smithsonian

1988- Director, Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center

Major Museum Activities

1970 Exhibit: Deerfield River Prehistory (NE Power Pavillion, Rowe, Vermont)

1974 Permanent NMNH Exhibit: Ice Ages Mammals and the Emergence of Man (National Museum of Natural History, Hall 6)

1975 Smithsonian Castle Exhibit: Labrador Archaeology and Environmental Studies

1982-84 Special traveling exhibition: Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo, National traveling exhibition, Smithsonian Institution and Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit Service.

1983-86 Traveling Exhibition: Inua (above) mini-exhibit prepared jointly with the Alaska State Museum touring to Native villages in Alaska, Canada and Greenland

1987-88 Film: Secrets of the Lost Red Paint People, Nova/Spofford Films; Fitzhugh, Advisor

1988-90 Traveling Exhibition: Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo, curated by Susan Rowley. Arts America European tour.

1988-92 Special Travelling Exhibition: Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska, International joint exhibit with Soviet Union, opened at Smithsonian Institution September, 1988, travelled in North America and Canada

1993-96 Crossroads Alaska/Siberia, curated by V. Chaussonnet. 15 venue Alaska tour, 1993-95.

1996- Traveling exhibition: Crossroads Siberia: Native Cultures of Alaska and Siberia. Seven venues in Russian Far East, Nov. 96- January 1999.

Selected Publications

1972 Environmental archaeology and cultural systems in Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, 16. Washington: Government Printing Office. (245 pp., plus maps, illus., tables, plates).

---- The Eastern Archaic: commentary and northern perspective. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 42(4):1-19.

---- Ground Slates in the Scandinavian Younger Stone Age with reference to circumpolar Maritime adaptations. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 40:45-58.

---- Hound Pond 4: A Charles Complex site in northern Groswater Bay Labrador. Man in the Northeast 7:87-103.

1975 A comparative approach to northern maritime adaptations. In: W. Fitzhugh (ed.): Prehistoric maritime adaptations of the circumpolar zone, pp. 339-386. International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Symposium volume. The Hague: Mouton.

---- A Maritime Archaic sequence from Hamilton Inlet, Labrador. Arctic Anthropology 12(2):117-138.

---- Editor: Prehistoric maritime adaptations of the circumpolar zone. International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Symposium volume. The Hague: Mouton. (405 pp.)

---- Editor: Papers from a symposium on Moorehead and Maritime Archaic Problems, with introduction. Arctic Anthropology 12(2). 300 pp.

1976 Environmental factors in the evolution of Dorset culture: a marginal proposal for Hudson Bay. In: M. Maxwell (ed): "Pre-Dorset--Dorset Problems," Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, 31:139-149.

---- Outlines of Paleo-Eskimo occupations of the Labrador Coast. In: M. Maxwell (ed.): Pre-Dorset-Dorset Problems, Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, 31:103-118.

---- Tribute to explorer lost in Labrador. Smithsonian Magazine, Dec. 1976 (as told to Jane Scholl).

---- Indian and Eskimo/Inuit settlement history in Labrador: an archaeological view. In: Our Footprints are Everywhere, Carol Brice Bennett (ed.), pp 1-41. Labrador Inuit Association.

---- Population movement and culture change on the central Labrador coast. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 288:481-497.

---- Maritime Archaic cultures of the central and northern Labrador Coast. Arctic Anthropology 15(2):61-95.

---- Winter Cove 4 and the Point Revenge occupation of the Central Labrador Coast. Arctic Anthropology 15(2):146-174.

---- Utilization of soapstone in Labrador by Indians, Eskimos, and Norse. Nature 271 (5642):237-239. (with Ralph Allen, K. K. Allen and C.G. Holland.)

1979 Les modes d'adaptation bases sur le caribou dans les regions centrale et septentrionale du Labrador. In: Le Dossier Caribou, F. Trudel (ed.), Recherches Amerindiennes au Quebec 9(1-2):55-70.

1980 A review of Paleo-Eskimo culture history in southern Labrador and Newfoundland. Etudes/Inuit/Studies 4(1-2):21-31.

---- Preliminary report on the Torngat Archaeological Project. Arctic 33(3):585-606.

---- In Quest of Dorset subsistence strategies: 1980 excavations at Okak-1 and 'No-Name' Island, Labrador. In: Archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador 1980, edited by Jane Thomson, Annual Report No. 1, pp. 48-57. Newfoundland Museum, Historic Resources Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. (co-authored with Bryan Hood and Douglas Sutton).

---- Smithsonian Archeological Surveys, Central and Northern Labrador, 1980. In: Archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador 1980, edited by Jane Thomson, Annual Report No. 1, pp. 26-47. Newfoundland Museum, Historic Resources Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

---- A prehistoric caribou fence from Williams Harbour, northern Labrador. In: Megaliths to Medicine Wheels: Boulder Structures in Archaeology, Archaeological Association,Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, pp. 187-206.

---- The Smithsonian's Alaska Connection: 19th Century Explorers and Anthropologists," The Alaska Journal: A 1981 Collection, pp. 193-208 (co-authored with Ruth Selig).

1982 The carbon-14 dating of an iron bloom associated with the voyages of Sir Martin Frobisher. Advances in Chemistry. Nuclear and chemical dating techinques: interpreting the environmental record, edited by Lloyd Curran. American Chemical Society Symposium Series 176:441-451. (with Edward Sayre, Garman Harbottle, Raymond Stoenner, Wilcomb Washburn, and Jacquelin Olin).

---- Inua: spirit world of the Bering Sea Eskimo. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 296 pp. (with Susan A. Kaplan)

---- Smithsonian surveys in central and southern Labrador in 1981. In: Archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador 1981, edited by Jane Thomson and Callum Thomson, Annual Report No. 2, pp. 32-54. Division of Historic resources, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

1983 Archaeological surveys in the Strait of Belle Isle. In: Archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador 1982, edited by Jane Sproull Thomson and Callum Thomson, Annual Report no. 3, pp. 118-132. Historic Resources Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

---- Art of the Bering Sea: where magic ruled. National Geographic Magazine 163(2):198-205. (with Susan Kaplan)

---- Inua: spirit world of the Bering Sea Eskimo. Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Cataloue, 33 pages. (with Susan Kaplan)

--- Reprint: Eskimo about Bering Strait, by Edward W. Nelson, with Introduction and Appendices by William Fitzhugh, p. 5-106. Classics of Smithsonian Anthropology. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

---- The utilization of rare earth element concentrations for the characterization of Soapstone Quarries. Archaeometry 25(2):186-195. (with M. Rogers, R. Allen, and C. Nagle).

1984 Images from the past: thoughts on Bering Sea Eskimo art and culture. Expedition 26(2):24-39.

---- The use of rare earth element analysis to study the utilization and procurement of soapstone along the Labrador Coast. In: Archaeological Chemistry III, American Chemical Society, Lambert (ed.), pp. 3-18. (with R. Allen, H. Hamroush, and C. Nagle)

---- Residence pattern development in the Labrador Maritime Archaic: longhouse models and 1983 surveys. In: Archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador 1983, edited by Jane Sproull Thomson and Callum Thomson. Annual Report no. 4, pp. 6-47. Historic Resources Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

---- Paleo-Eskimo cultures of Greenland. In: Handbook of North American Indians. Volume 5: Arctic. Edited by David Damas, pp. 528-539. Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Government Printing Office.

---- Pioneers of Labrador. Them Days 10(2):4-28. Them Days Ltd. Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador.

---- Vegetation history and culture change in Labrador prehistory. Journal of Arctic and Alpine Research 17(4):357-370. (with Henry Lamb)

1985 Cultures in contact: the European impact on Native cultural institutions in Eastern North America, A.D. 1000-1800. Edited by William W. Fitzhugh. Anthropological Society of Washington Series. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

---- Early Contacts North of Newfoundland before A.D. 1600: a Review. In: Cultures in contact: the European impact on Native cultural institutions in Eastern North America, A.D. 1000-1800, edited by William W. Fitzhugh. Pp. 23-43. Anthropological Society of Washington Series. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

---- The Nulliak pendants and their relation to spiritual traditions in Northeast prehistory. Arctic Anthropology 22(2):87-109.

l986 Maritime Archaic field studies in central Labrador and notes on Northwest Corners. In: Archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador 1985, edited by Callum Thomson, Annual Report No. 6, pp. 54-65. Historic Resources Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

---- Paleo-Eskimo traditions of Newfoundland and Labrador: a reappraisal. In: Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Newfoundland, Labrador and Ungava. Memorial University of Newfoundland, Reports in Archaeology, pp. 161-167. (with James A. Tuck, Jr.)

---- Smithsonian Institution. In: Arctic Research of the United States 2:74-79. Washington: Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee.

l987 Archaeological ethnicity and the prehistory of Labrador. In Ethnicity and culture, edited by A. Auger, M.F. Glass, S. MacEachern, and P. McCartney. Chacmool Archaeological Association, University of Calgary, pp. 141-153. Calgary.

1988 Persistence and change in art and ideology in Western Alaskan cultures. In: The Late prehistoric development of Alaska's Native peoples. Alaska Anthropological Association Monograph 4, pp. 81-105. Aurora Press.

---- Reprint: Ethnological results of the Point Barrow Expedition, by John Murdoch. Introduction and Appendices by William Fitzhugh, pp. ix-cxxiv. Classics in Smithsonian Anthropology. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

---- Crossroads of Continents: Culture of Siberia and Alaska. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. (editor/author, with Aron Crowell).

---- Smithsonian Institution. In: Arctic Research of the United States 2:74-77. Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. Washington.

1989 Archaeological reconnaissance of the Seal Lake region, interior Labrador. In: Archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador 1986, edited by Callum Thomson and Jane Sproull Thomson. Annual Report no. 7, pp. 114-163. Historic Resource Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. (with Moira McCaffrey and Stephen Loring)

---- Hamilton Inlet and Cartwright reconnaissance. In: Archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador 1986, edited by Callum Thomson and Jane Sproull Thomson. Annual report No. 7, pp. 164-180. Historic Resources Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

---- People and health. United States arctic research plan biennial revision: 1990-1991. Arctic Research of the United States, pp. 40-46. Washington: Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. (committee chair report)

1990 Smithsonian Institution. In: Arctic research of the United States 4:100-103. Washington: Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee.

---- Late deglaciation of the central Labrador coast and its implications for the age of glacial Lakes Naskaupi and McLean and for prehistory. Quaternary Research 34:296-305. (with Peter U. Clark)

1991 Shorelines and prehistory: an investigation of method. Chapter 9 in: Shorelines and Prehistory, edited by Lucy Johnson. Pp. 189-213. Telford/CRC Press. (with Peter U. Clark).

---- Archeology of the Frobisher Voyages and European-Inuit contact: 1991 field and research report. Meta Incognita Project. 10 October l991. Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

---- Archeology of the Frobisher Voyages. William W. Fitzhugh and Jacqueline Olin (editors). 288 pp. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

---- Archeology of Kodlunarn Island. In: Archeology of the Frobisher Voyages, edited by William W. Fitzhugh and Jacqueline Olin, pp. 59-98. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

---- Field surveys in outer Frobisher Bay. In: Archeology of the Frobisher Voyages. Edited by W. Fitzhugh and J. Olin, pp. 99-136. Washington: Smithsonian Press.

---- Martin Frobisher's base camp on Kodlunarn Island: a two-year time capsule in the history of technology. In: The Meta Incognita field project: contributions to field studies, edited by S. Alsford, Mercury Series Directorate Paper 6:55-80. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization. (with R. Auger and M. Blackburn)

---- Archeology of the Frobisher voyages and European-Inuit contact: overview and 1991 field report. In: Meta Incognita...(above), pp. 89-139.

---- Preliminary report on excavations at Kuyait (KfDf-2) and Kamaiyuk (KfDe-5), Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, N.W.T. In: Meta Incognita...(above), pp. 176-198. (with Lynda Gullason and Anne Henshaw)

--- Art and iconography in the hunting ritual of North Pacific peoples. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Abashiri Symposium. Pp. 1-13. Abashiri: Abashiri Museum of Northern Peoples.

1994 Anthropology of the North Pacific Rim. Edited by William W. Fitzhugh and Valerie Chaussonnet. 368 pp. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

--- Crossroads of Continents: Review and Prospect. In: Anthropology of the North Pacific Rim, edited by William W. Fitzhugh and Valerie Chaussonnet, pp. 27-52. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

--- Staffe Island 1 and the northern Labrador Dorset-Thule succession. In: Threads of arctic prehistory: papers in Honour of William E. Taylor, Jr., edited by David Morrison and Jean-Luc Pilon. Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper 149, Mercury Series, pp. 239-268. Ottawa: National Museum of Civilization.

--- Preliminary field report for 1994: "Living Yamal" project and Archeological Survey of the Siberian Arctic. Arctic Studies Center Report Series. 51 pp. National Museum of Natural History. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

--- Smithsonian Institution: Arctic Studies Center. Arctic Research of the United States 8:104-115. Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. Washington.

1995 Preface. Pp. 6-7 in: Crossroads Alaska: Native Cultures of Alaska and Siberia, edited by V. Chaussonnet. Smithsonian Institution. National Museum of Natural History. Washington: Arctic Studies Center.

--- Ancestral times. In: Crossroads Alaska/Siberia, edited by V. Chaussonnet, pp. 36-47. Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Arctic Studies Center.

--- Material evidence from the Frobisher voyages: Anglo-Inuit contact in the North American Arctic in the late Sixteenth Century. In: Trade and Discovery: the Scientific Study of Artifacts from Post-Medieval Europe and Beyond, edited by Duncan R. Hook and David Gaimster. British Museum Occasional Paper 109, pp. 13-28. London. (with R. Auger, L. Gullason, and A. Henshaw)

1996 Early contact and acculturation in the north: Native America and the global system. In: Cultural Transfer, America and Europe: 500 years of Interculturation, edited by Laurier Turgeon, Denys Delage, and Real Ouellet. Pp. 94-104. Laval: Les Presses de l'Universite Laval. 1996.

--- Ambassadors in sealskins: exhibiting Eskimos at the Smithsonian. In: Exhibiting Cultures, edited by Amy Henderson and Adrienne Kaeppler. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

---- Smithsonian Institution. In: United States Arctic Research 10:100-106. Interagency Arctic Research and Policy Committee. National Science Foundation. 1996. 15 pp. (with Stephen Loring and Aron Crowell)

--- Jesup II: anthropological research in the North Pacific. Polar Notes IV:41-62. Hanover: John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding.

Articles About W. Fitzhugh work

Dartmouth Down the Danube. National Geographic Magazine, July 1964.

Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo. Smithsonian Magazine, May 1982:50-59 (Michael Olmert)

Art of the Bering Sea: where magic ruled, by William Fitzhugh and Susan Kaplan. National Geographic Society 163(2):198-205.

Where Arctic Cultures Intersect [Crossroads Exhibition]. Smithsonian Magazine, October 1988, pp. 42-57 (by Edward Parks, Rosamond Purcell).

Hot on the cold trail of Sir Martin Frobisher. Smithsonian Magazine, Jan. 1993.

Films Produced

Mysteries of the Lost Red Paint Culture -- 1988 European TV and NOVA broadcasts

Viking America -- 1994 European TV and 1995 NOVA broadcasts, with Spofford Films

Baffin Field Notes -- with A. Henshaw, Ted Timreck, Spofford Films.

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