When Destiny Takes a Turn for the Worse: William Henry Holmes and, Incidentally, Franz Boas in Chicago, 1892-97

Introduction

William Henry Holmes (1846-1933) opened his twenty-volume autobiographical scrapbook, Random Records of a Lifetime Devoted to Science and Art, with the fond musing that he "was born on the same day with the [Smithsonian] Institution . . . and have come to regard myself as an original predestined member of the family." Predestined or not, he was very nearly a permanent member of that family, spending fifty-eight years (1871-94, and 1897-1932) working in Washington. The only time Holmes was ever officially separated from the Smithsonian was a brief stint that began in 1894 at the end of the World's Columbian Exposition, when he was hired as Curator in the Department of Anthropology at the newly established Field Columbian Museum in Chicago.

Venturing outside of Washington was a bold step for Holmes: for the first time in two dozen years he was not in the employ of one or the other of the various government-sponsored surveys, research bureaus, or museums housed under the broad administrative umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution. But just three years later he was back in Washington, having fled a future at Chicago in which he could only perceive "crudeness, struggle, and uncertainty." Holmes retreated the wiser for having learned something of how anthropology was practiced outside the supportive confines of the Smithsonian, and scarred by the harsh reality of joining a new institution run by businessmen rather than scientists, and which was struggling to gain its feet while relying on patronage and the whims of an unpredictable attending public. Chicago gave Holmes a sour taste of what life was like where there were formidable institutional constraints on individual aspirations. He didn't care for it at all: better to be in Washington, within the safe Smithsonian cocoon, even though one was occasionally buffeted by unpredictable Congressional winds.

Holmes's experience in Chicago is, of course, of biographical interest, but on its face perhaps not much more. It is surely not an analytically privileged case study in the struggles of the emerging professional class of anthropologists in the late nineteenth century, a time when positions were few (and almost entirely restricted to museums), and their occupants often vulnerable to any number of internal and external forces. In fact, Holmes's case may be less interesting (and more the exception) than most, in that unlike many of his peers he enjoyed secure employment in anthropology over his entire career, and was not as financially and institutionally vulnerable as they often were. Indeed, when the Chicago situation soured, it took only a few conversations and a brief flurry of letters before Holmes slid effortlessly back into a position as curator of Anthropology at the U.S. National Museum.

What makes his case more than an interesting biographical excursion is that none of it happened in isolation. In that small community of anthropologists it necessarily had an impact on and consequences for others. When Holmes secured the curatorship at the Field Museum after the Fair, it necessarily meant someone else would not. Indeed, Holmes's hiring displaced the individual temporarily filling the position: a young, poor, and desperately underemployed Franz Boas, who had been employed by Harvard University's Frederic Ward Putnam for the Exposition's own anthropology department, and who had been kept on afterward to help organize the collections for the new Museum. Boas was angling vigorously for the permanent curatorial position. And Putnam, who believed he had no small influence in the matter, was likewise lobbying hard on Boas's behalf. They both had been led to believe Boas would get the appointment. And both of them—but especially Boas—were bitterly disappointed to learn that Holmes (who, of course, already had a job), received the offer instead. It especially rankled Boas to learn this in back-halls gossip, and realize the negotiations and offer had been made right under his nose. Despite repeated assurances that Holmes had not been complicit in any scheming, the episode badly strained their relationship.

There were, of course, reasons Holmes was...