Franz Boas was born in Minden, Westphalia, Germany on July 9, 1858. He grew up as the son of a merchant. Being of delicate health as a child, he spent much of his time with books. Already at the age of five he took an interest in the natural sciences–botany, geography, geology, and astronomy. At the Gymnasium (academic high school) in Minden and the Universities of Heidelberg, Bonn, and Kiel, he received the thorough German education of his time in sciences, mathematics, languages, and humanities. In 1881 he earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University in Kiel. After a year of military service, Boas continued his studies in Berlin.

Boas become more and more interested in geography and took part in a yearlong expedition (in 1883-84) from Hamburg to the Arctic. In the Baffin Island region he undertook a careful study of Eskimos. Upon returning to Germany, Boas was made assistant at the Royal Ethnological Museum in Berlin and also instructor of geography at the University of Berlin. His research experience with the Eskimos stirred his interest in human cultural behavior and gave a new direction to his subsequent career. In 1886 he began the first of his many field trips to study the Indians on the British Columbia coast. Over the next forty years Boas and his field investigators collected about half of the American Museum’s 16,750 Northwest Coast artifacts and Boas published more than 5,000 pages on their culture.

Boas was one of the first anthropologists to put a special emphasis on field research–which is, studying a people by living among them. His works described almost every aspect of Kwakiutl culture. They also analyzed their relationships to other Northwest Coast cultures, with which they shared general features of technology and economy, art style, myths and ceremonies. He also taught a Kwakiutl to write phonetic text, which could then be translated. Therefore he was able to document even the songs and dances of the Kwakiutl. Distinguishing between their social and religious dances, he even wrote out the music to their songs with notes and words. In his work he examined any single culture as a whole, including its religion, art, language, as well as the physical characteristics of the people. On this basis he tried to reconstruct the historical events that led to its present structure. Consequently, he argued that diversity of human cultures, languages, etc. are determined primarily by environment, not heredity.

III. A Diary Entry:

After returning from the field in January 1887, Boas made a major decision. He gave up his German career to become an American scientist and citizen. Accepting a position as assistant editor of the magazine Science, he married Marie A. E. Krackowizer and settled in New York. It wasn’t a sudden decision, but rather one that fit into his intellectual development because he was unhappy instructing physical geography in Berlin. It also made sense politically because he could not accept the German State requirement that to hold a scientific position he had to make a declaration of religious affiliation. In New York he found a congenial atmosphere of intellectual, personal, and political freedom.

Over the years Boas was employed as an instructor of anthropology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. From 1888 to 1892 and later became an assistant in anthropology at the Chicago Natural History Museum. In 1896 he lectured in anthropology at Columbia University and was made their first anthropology professor in 1899.

During that time Boas was also curator of anthropology in the American Museum of Natural History (1901-01), president of the American Anthropological Society (1907-08), and president of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1910.

In 1902 he planned the Jesup North Pacific expedition and edited its report (1902). The venture involved six years of fieldwork among the principal tribes on both sides of the Bering Strait. This expedition was to research the possibility of a strong relationship between northern Asian and northwestern Native American cultures. George Hunt was Boas’ principal assistant and collaborator.

Retiring from active teaching at Columbia in 1937, he continued as professor emeritus until his death in New York City on Dec. 21, 1942.

Franz Boas was author of The Mind of Primitive Man (1911, 1938), Anthropology and Modern Life (1928), General Anthropology (1938), Race, Language and Culture (1940), and other books. He also published some 600 papers including monographs, articles, and reviews covering almost the whole range of anthropology. His productiveness was amazing and has rarely been matched. He was honored during his lifetime throughout the scientific world by honorary degrees, by honorary memberships in scientific societies of many countries, by election as president of various associations, and by a Festschrift (volume of Tribute) on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his doctorate. Such a Festschrift usually was awarded to someone nearing retirement and not only 48 years of age.

His personal research contributions alone could have given him an important place in the history of anthropology but he also exerted enormous influence as a teacher. He demanded of himself and his students unswerving devotion to the highest standards of science. He encouraged women to enter the field of anthropology. One of his most famous students was Ruth Benedict, one of the leading American anthropologists of the 20^th Century. Margaret Mead once even dared to comment that Professor Franz Boas was the greatest mind she had ever encountered. Other famous students of Boas were Edward Sapir, Alfred Kroeber, and Leslie Spier.

Not only did Franz Boas have a keen eye for the capabilities of his students, even people such as his secretary, Ruth Bunzel, were inspired by him to study the relationship of an artist to her work while she was on a vacation with that artist friend. When she returned, she found she was deeply interested in anthropology and decided that is was something she could do, but that she'd better get some training. Therefore she gave up her job and went back to school. Many other testimonies show us that he had a profound influence on linguists and folklorists who received part of their training from him too.

Boas was concerned for students who had little money to live on. He rewarded those of them who did good work by giving them grants or appointments and the jobs that were at his disposal went to those that needed them most. But in research he dealt with his students differently. He assigned problems to those who could handle them.

Looking at Franz Boas' life and his accomplishments, we can see why many consider him to be "the father of American Anthropology". His findings challenged the traditional thinking of his time. He helped combat race prejudice and has also demonstrated the importance of the individual. From his research his most important conclusion was that no truly pure race exists and that no race is innately superior to any other.

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