The New International Encyclopædia/Putnam, Frederic Ward

PUTNAM, Frederic Ward (1839—). An American anthropologist, born in Salem, Mass. In 1856 he was curator of ornithology in Essex Institute (Salem), and published a List of the Birds of Essex County; and in the same year he entered Lawrence Scientific School and took a special course under Louis Agassiz, to whom he was assistant until 1864. He was in charge of the Museum of Essex Institute from 1864 to 1867, then superintendent of the East India Marine Society, and afterwards director of the Peabody Academy of Sciences. He was instructor in the School of Natural History on Penikese Island in 1874, and in the same year was appointed assistant in the Kentucky Geological Survey. In 1875 he was made curator of the Peabody Museum of Archæology and Ethnology of Harvard University, and was afterwards appointed Peabody professor of American archæology and ethnology. He was chief of the Department of Ethnology of the World's Columbian Exposition and in 1894 he became curator of anthropology in the American Museum of Natural History of New York City. His researches in American Archæology covered a wide field, including extensive explorations in Ohio, where he was instrumental in having the Great Serpent Mound preserved, and in New Jersey. He originated the Naturalist's Directory in 1865, and was one of the founders of the American Naturalist in 1867, and in 1898 he was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.