Erna Gunther

Erna Gunther

Erna Gunther (born November 9, 1896 in New York City , † 1982 in Poulsbo ) was an American anthropologist . She taught at the University of Washington in Seattle . Gunther's work on ethnobotany is considered groundbreaking.

Life

Gunther was born in 1896 as the daughter of the jeweler Casper Gunther, who immigrated from Germany, and his wife Susannah Ehren. In 1919 she earned a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Columbia University with Franz Boas and in 1920 a Master of Arts . After receiving her doctorate, she went to the University of Washington mach Seattle with her husband Leslie Spier in 1921. After a short break, she continued teaching in 1929. After their divorce in 1930 and Spier's departure, Gunther stayed at the university. She became Dean of the Department of Anthropology and in 1930 director of the Washington State Museum (now the Burke Museum ). In 1962 she was responsible for the Northwest American Indian Art exhibit at the Seattle World's Fair . In 1966 she moved to the Chair of Anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks . But after three years she went back to Seattle to the University of Washington.

Her research interests were in the North American Indian tribes, especially the Salish and Makah in the northwest of Washington state .

Spier and Gunther had two sons.

Fonts

• An Analysis of the First Salmon Ceremony , American Anthropologist, Vol. 28, 1926
• Indian Art of ther Pacific Northwest . Exhibition catalog, Mills College Art Gallery, 1945
• Indians of the Northwest Coast . Exhibition catalog, Taylor Museum, 1952
• Ethnobotany of Western Washington: the Knowledge and Use of Indigenous Plants by Native Americans , University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1973

literature

• Donald N. Abbott: The World Is as Sharp as a Knife: An Anthology in Honor of Wilson Duff. British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria
• Jay Miller, Carol M. Eastman: The Tsimshian and Their Neighbors of the North Pacific Coast. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Seattle 1984
• Viola Garfield, Pamela T. Amoss: Erna Gunther (1896–1982) . In: American Anthropologist . 86 (2), pp. 394-399. 1984
• U. Gacs, A. Khan, J. McIntyre, and R. Weinberg: Women Anthropologists . University of Illinois Press, Urbana, pp. 133-139 ( online at Google Books )

Web links

• Oral history Interview with Erna Gunther, 1965 Apr. 23 , Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erna Gunther and the Ethnography of Western Washington ( Memento of the original from August 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , www.washington.edu, accessed February 8, 2017  
2. ↑ Viola E. Garfield and Pamela Amoss wrote in their biography in 1984: Her work is a foundation on which all subsequent ethnobotanical research in the area has been based; the book has been reprinted many times and was re-issued in 1973 with additional material. See also: Ethnobotany of Western Washington ( Memento of the original from August 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ E-Museum @ Minnesota State University, Mankato, Biography of Erna Gunther ( Memento from April 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ History of the University of Washington ( Memento of the original dated February 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , washington.edu, accessed February 8, 2017