John Otis Brew
Encyclopedia
John Otis Brew, born March 28, 1906, was an American Southwest archaeologist that not only conducted extensive archaeological research, but was also a director at the Peabody Museum
at Harvard University
. Many of his publications are still used today by archaeologists that conduct their work in the American Southwest. J.O. Brew was a titan in the world of archaeology for his attempts to “preserve our archaeological heritage.” On March 19, 1988, John Otis Brew died from congestive heart failure
in Cambridge
, Massachusetts
.
where he earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1928. He then went on to Harvard University
for his graduate studies where he earned a Thaw Fellowship. In 1931 “Jo”, as he was known by his friends and colleagues, finished his residence requirements at Harvard and gained an invitation to join the Peabody Museum’s Claflin-Emerson Expedition for archaeological reconnaissance which was located in northeastern Utah
.
. His work in this location is what he is most known for. His report, The Archaeology of Alkali Ridge, Southeastern Utah, With a Review of the Prehistory of the Mesa Verde Division of the San Juan and Some Observations on Archaeological Systematics, was published in 1946 and “immediately became a landmark in southwestern archaeological literature” . In this particular report Brew recorded such outstanding detail and interpretations of the site that the first three chapters are still used as a fundamental reference today.
in which they excavated a hill fort in County Clare and a lake dwelling in County Meath .
Expedition in northeastern Arizona. This expedition was considered to be Brew’s second major archeological undertaking. During this expedition Brew and his team investigated the Jeddito region on the Hopi Indian Reservation, where, among other things, they discovered a major Franciscan Mission built in the seventeenth century. Because of World War II
most of the reports for the Awatovi Expedition were not published until later, but by 1978 eleven reports started to appear. A “final” report for the Awatovi Expedition has never been written.
in 1941 and the curator of North American archaeology in 1945. Brew also taught, which he thoroughly enjoyed, and made sure his students were actively enjoying the classroom as much as he was. These positions left Brew ample time to pursue his love for archaeological research and never interfered with his work. In 1948 he was appointed director of the Peabody Museum .
In 1945 the Committee for the Recovery of Archaeological Remains, known as CRAR, was formed. The committee was appointed by the Society for American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association and the American Council of Learned Societies and consisted of William S. Webb, A.V. Kidder, Frederick Johnson, and John Otis Brew (as the chairman). CRAR was a successful and very productive organization with J.O. Brew at the head. Brew was applauded for his leadership by Emil Haury in the following quote, “Jo knows his way around Washington, on the Hill and wherever else it counts. His dealings with tough-minded Senators, Representatives, and people in the Bureau of the Budget, have been done with a finesse that has paid off. All one needs to do is…catch the enthusiasm Jo has instilled in them (Federal agency representatives) for an activity that is far from their main line of interest” .
J.O. Brew was also president of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1949 he revealed a humorous side when he wrote to his colleagues stating, “I have been instructed by the last Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology to appoint a committee to determine whether or not we should retain the traditional spelling ‘Archaeology’ or adopt the bob-tailed version ‘Archeology’ in the official name of the society and all its works” . The archaeologists considered Brew’s letter with all seriousness, and voted sixteen to seven in favor of the traditional spelling.
The Peabody Museum celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary on October 8, 1966. The event was celebrated the evening before with approximately four-hundred and fifty graduates, friends, faculty, and staff. IN an essay in the volume 100 Years of Archaeology, Brew notes that it was a festive event in which tobacco was smoked and cocktails were served for the first time inside the halls of the museum. He also organized several lectures that took place over the 1966 academic year that discussed the growth of the five major phases of anthropology from 1866 to 1966. Those phases were: American Archaeology, Old World Prehistory, Biological Anthropology
, Ethnology and Social Anthropology, and Anthropological Linguistics
. The lecturers were Gordon Willey of Harvard University, Glyn Daniel of Cambridge University in England, Sherwood Washburn of the University of California at Berkeley, Fred Eggan of the University of Chicago
, and Floyd Lounsbury of Yale University
. Brew also gave a brief history of the Peabody Museum. All of these activities showed what great enthusiasm Brew had for Harvard University, the Peabody Museum, and the fields of anthropology
and archaeology
.
Brew also became actively involved with the National Park Service
Advisory Board and UNESCO’s International Committee for Monuments, Historic Sites, and Archaeological Excavations, for which he was chairman for a number of years. He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Commission
and the advisory board of Plimoth Plantation
and served as trustee of Fruitlands Museum
in Harvard, Massachusetts
. Late in his life he also served on a board that advised the Tennessee Valley Authority
on archaeological matters.
. He will always be remembered as an intelligent, humorous, and sensitive person who helped to save archaeological sites from being destroyed .
-(1941) Bibliography: Field Methods in Archaeology, Anthropology 15. Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.
-(1943) Applied Anthropology in the Southwest. Applied Anthropology 3:35-40.
-(1946) The Archaeology of Alkali Ridge, Southeastern Utah, With a Review of the Prehistory of the Mesa Verde Division of the San Juan and Some Observations on Archaeological Systematics. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 21. Harvard University, Cambridge.
-(1948) The 1947 Reconnaissance and the Proposed Upper Gila Expedition of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University (with E. B. Danson). El Palacio 55:211-222.
-(1956) The Metal Ages: Copper, Bronze, and Iron. In Man, Culture, and Society, edited by H. L. Shapiro, pp. 111–138. Oxford University Press, New York.
-(1966) Salvage Archaeology: Saving the Past from the Present. The Nation 203:117-120.
-(1968) Introduction. In One Hundred Years ofAnthropology, edited by J. O. Brew, pp. 5–25. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
-(1979) Hopi Prehistory and History to 1850. In Southwest, edited by A. Ortiz, pp. 514–523. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 9, W. G. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World ethnography and...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Many of his publications are still used today by archaeologists that conduct their work in the American Southwest. J.O. Brew was a titan in the world of archaeology for his attempts to “preserve our archaeological heritage.” On March 19, 1988, John Otis Brew died from congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Early life and academic career
From his early beginnings, Brew had an interest in history, but his true love was classical archaeology. Brew received his education at Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
where he earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1928. He then went on to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
for his graduate studies where he earned a Thaw Fellowship. In 1931 “Jo”, as he was known by his friends and colleagues, finished his residence requirements at Harvard and gained an invitation to join the Peabody Museum’s Claflin-Emerson Expedition for archaeological reconnaissance which was located in northeastern Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.
Alkali Ridge Expedition
In 1931, Brew was made director of the Peabody Museum’s Southeastern Utah Expedition to Alkali RidgeAlkali Ridge
Alkali Ridge, also known as Alkali Point, is a set of widely-scattered archaeological remains of the earliest forms of Puebloan architecture, representing a period of transition from scattered, pit-style dwellings to a settled agricultural lifestyle...
. His work in this location is what he is most known for. His report, The Archaeology of Alkali Ridge, Southeastern Utah, With a Review of the Prehistory of the Mesa Verde Division of the San Juan and Some Observations on Archaeological Systematics, was published in 1946 and “immediately became a landmark in southwestern archaeological literature” . In this particular report Brew recorded such outstanding detail and interpretations of the site that the first three chapters are still used as a fundamental reference today.
Harvard Irish Expedition
Brew was introduced to Old World archaeology by Hugh Hencken and Hallam Movius in 1934. He accompanied them on the Harvard Irish MissionHarvard Irish Mission
New article name is Harvard Irish Mission- Introduction :Between the years 1932 and 1936 a team of American academics from Harvard University, Massachusetts, conducted a pioneering anthropological study of Ireland, north and south. The Mission comprised three strands; social anthropology, physical...
in which they excavated a hill fort in County Clare and a lake dwelling in County Meath .
Awatovi Expedition
From the years 1936-1939 Brew directed the Peabody Museum’s AwatoviAwatovi Ruins
Awatovi Ruins is a National Historic Landmark in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, designated in 1964. In 1540, Coronado's men visited this village. What remains are the ruins of a five hundred year old pueblo. There are also ruins from a Spanish mission built in the 17th century...
Expedition in northeastern Arizona. This expedition was considered to be Brew’s second major archeological undertaking. During this expedition Brew and his team investigated the Jeddito region on the Hopi Indian Reservation, where, among other things, they discovered a major Franciscan Mission built in the seventeenth century. Because of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
most of the reports for the Awatovi Expedition were not published until later, but by 1978 eleven reports started to appear. A “final” report for the Awatovi Expedition has never been written.
Upper Gila Expedition
Brew’s third major research program came between 1949-1954 with the Peabody Museum’s Upper Gila Expedition. There he investigated Anasazi-Mogollon contact with the help of colleagues, including Watson Smith and Charles R. McGimsey III, from his work at the Awatovi Expedition. This expedition was originally planned to be carried out in the 1930s with the help of Donald Scott, who was the director of the Peabody Museum at the time. Those who have had the pleasure of working with Brew on archaeological sites have said, “He was remarkably skilled at keeping track of the daily minutiae of field research without losing sight of the major goals of the work” .Archaeological Involvement and the Peabody Museum
Brew was appointed curator of southwestern archaeology at the Peabody MuseumPeabody Museum
The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is among the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, the early paleontologist...
in 1941 and the curator of North American archaeology in 1945. Brew also taught, which he thoroughly enjoyed, and made sure his students were actively enjoying the classroom as much as he was. These positions left Brew ample time to pursue his love for archaeological research and never interfered with his work. In 1948 he was appointed director of the Peabody Museum .
In 1945 the Committee for the Recovery of Archaeological Remains, known as CRAR, was formed. The committee was appointed by the Society for American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association and the American Council of Learned Societies and consisted of William S. Webb, A.V. Kidder, Frederick Johnson, and John Otis Brew (as the chairman). CRAR was a successful and very productive organization with J.O. Brew at the head. Brew was applauded for his leadership by Emil Haury in the following quote, “Jo knows his way around Washington, on the Hill and wherever else it counts. His dealings with tough-minded Senators, Representatives, and people in the Bureau of the Budget, have been done with a finesse that has paid off. All one needs to do is…catch the enthusiasm Jo has instilled in them (Federal agency representatives) for an activity that is far from their main line of interest” .
J.O. Brew was also president of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1949 he revealed a humorous side when he wrote to his colleagues stating, “I have been instructed by the last Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology to appoint a committee to determine whether or not we should retain the traditional spelling ‘Archaeology’ or adopt the bob-tailed version ‘Archeology’ in the official name of the society and all its works” . The archaeologists considered Brew’s letter with all seriousness, and voted sixteen to seven in favor of the traditional spelling.
The Peabody Museum celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary on October 8, 1966. The event was celebrated the evening before with approximately four-hundred and fifty graduates, friends, faculty, and staff. IN an essay in the volume 100 Years of Archaeology, Brew notes that it was a festive event in which tobacco was smoked and cocktails were served for the first time inside the halls of the museum. He also organized several lectures that took place over the 1966 academic year that discussed the growth of the five major phases of anthropology from 1866 to 1966. Those phases were: American Archaeology, Old World Prehistory, Biological Anthropology
Biological anthropology
Biological anthropology is that branch of anthropology that studies the physical development of the human species. It plays an important part in paleoanthropology and in forensic anthropology...
, Ethnology and Social Anthropology, and Anthropological Linguistics
Anthropological linguistics
Anthropological linguistics is the study of the relations between language and culture and the relations between human biology, cognition and language...
. The lecturers were Gordon Willey of Harvard University, Glyn Daniel of Cambridge University in England, Sherwood Washburn of the University of California at Berkeley, Fred Eggan of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, and Floyd Lounsbury of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. Brew also gave a brief history of the Peabody Museum. All of these activities showed what great enthusiasm Brew had for Harvard University, the Peabody Museum, and the fields of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
.
Brew also became actively involved with the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
Advisory Board and UNESCO’s International Committee for Monuments, Historic Sites, and Archaeological Excavations, for which he was chairman for a number of years. He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Commission
Massachusetts Historical Commission
The Massachusetts Historical Commission is a review board for state and federal preservation programs for the United States state of Massachusetts...
and the advisory board of Plimoth Plantation
Plimoth Plantation
Plimoth Plantation is a living museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts that shows the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by English colonists, some of whom later became known as Pilgrims. They were among the first people who emigrated to America to avoid religious...
and served as trustee of Fruitlands Museum
Fruitlands Museum
Fruitlands Museum is a cluster of small historic buildings in Harvard, Massachusetts on the former site of the unsuccessful utopian community Fruitlands...
in Harvard, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Late in his life he also served on a board that advised the Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
on archaeological matters.
Personal life
John Otis Brew married Evelyn Nimmo in 1939 at the Awatovi Expedition site and they had two children, Alan P. Brew and Lindsay E. Brew. Alan followed in his father’s footsteps and became an archaeologist while Lindsay became a lawyer. Brew also enjoyed collecting trolley car memorabilia, which is now permanently housed in the Boston Public LibraryBoston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to...
. He will always be remembered as an intelligent, humorous, and sensitive person who helped to save archaeological sites from being destroyed .
Selected works
Brew, John O.-(1941) Bibliography: Field Methods in Archaeology, Anthropology 15. Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.
-(1943) Applied Anthropology in the Southwest. Applied Anthropology 3:35-40.
-(1946) The Archaeology of Alkali Ridge, Southeastern Utah, With a Review of the Prehistory of the Mesa Verde Division of the San Juan and Some Observations on Archaeological Systematics. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 21. Harvard University, Cambridge.
-(1948) The 1947 Reconnaissance and the Proposed Upper Gila Expedition of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University (with E. B. Danson). El Palacio 55:211-222.
-(1956) The Metal Ages: Copper, Bronze, and Iron. In Man, Culture, and Society, edited by H. L. Shapiro, pp. 111–138. Oxford University Press, New York.
-(1966) Salvage Archaeology: Saving the Past from the Present. The Nation 203:117-120.
-(1968) Introduction. In One Hundred Years ofAnthropology, edited by J. O. Brew, pp. 5–25. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
-(1979) Hopi Prehistory and History to 1850. In Southwest, edited by A. Ortiz, pp. 514–523. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 9, W. G. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.