Aleš Hrdlička

Aleš Hrdlička (March 30, 1869 – September 5, 1943) was an important figure in the development of anthropology, specifically physical anthropology, in the United States. His extensive writings not only catalogued his findings, but also provided physical evidence in support of his thesis that all human beings have a common origin. Hrdlička was one of the early proponents of the now controversial theory that Native American people came from Asia, across what is now called the Bering Strait. Hrdlička had no understanding of genetics, or of the future contribution it would make to his field. He gathered his evidence from an intensive study of bones. Nevertheless, he was one of the first scientists to propose that all races had a common origin in the Old World.

Life

Aleš Hrdlička was born in Humpolec, Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) into a family of cabinet-makers. He spent his childhood in his native city where he finished elementary and middle school. When he was 13, his family emigrated to the U.S. and settled in New York. Aleš worked together with his father in the tobacco factory until he was 19 years old.

In 1888, he fell seriously ill with typhoid fever. It was during that time Hrdlička met Dr. M. Rosenblueth, a physician and a former rabbi. This meeting changed his life forever. Upon recovery, with the help of Dr. Rosenblueth, Hrdlička entered and graduated from the Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York. In 1894, he received a research position in the newly founded State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane, at Middletown, New York. It was there that he developed his interest in anthropometry, the study of measuring the human body, which he further specialized in Paris, under Leon Manouvrier. Upon his return to New York in 1896, Hrdlička married Marie S. Dieudonnee.

In 1898, Hrdlicka visited Mexico to begin his research on the indigenous peoples there: the Tarahumares, the Huichols, and the Tephuanes. In 1903, the new department of physical anthropology was opened at the National Museum in Washington, DC. Today it is known as the Smithsonian museum. Aleš Hrdlička became the first curator of the department, a post he held until his retirement in 1941. Hrdlička founded the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 1918, and in 1928, following his initiative, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists was organized and established. He was a significant contributor to the development of physical anthropology in the Czech Republic, where under the “Aleš and Marie Hrdlička Foundation,” he established the Chair in Anthropology at the Charles University in Prague.

Hrdlička had no children. His first wife, Marie, died in 1918. He married again in 1920, again with no children. Aleš Hrdlička died in Washington, DC, on September 5, 1943.

Work

Aleš Hrdlička is one of the most fruitful scholars in the history of anthropology. Since his graduation from the New York Homeopathic Medical College in 1894, he produced, without a break, an average of eight papers every year until his death. All together there are more than 350 items in his bibliography. Hrdlička’s restless spirit and the desire for discovery brought him to compile one of the most complete collections of human bone material in the world. His collection of craniological material is described in detail in the six-volume Catalogues of Human Crania in the U. S. National Museum (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1931, 1942).

His appointment to the National Museum in 1903 started the phase in Hrdlička’s life that he is the most famous for—physical anthropology. He studied the origin and evolution of the human species in general, and particularly the problem of the origin of Native Americans. In the period from 1910 to 1924, Hrdlička conducted numerous studies on over 1,000 subjects to support his idea of the origin of American people. In his books Physical Anthropology (1919), followed by Anthropometry (1920) and Old Americans (1925), Hrdlička claimed that the first Americans immigrated across the Bering Strait from the Asian continent. His proposal was based on the fact that in the Americas there were no apes from which man could evolve. Hrdlička organized several expeditions to Alaska, Kodiak Island, the Aleutian Islands, and the Commander Islands to collect evidence to support his idea.

According to Hrdlička, all the races had a common origin—in the Old World—and had spread gradually across the globe. In 1927, Hrdlička published his article The Neanderthal Phase of Man where he elaborated on this thesis. Hrdlička’s devotion to physical anthropology culminated in 1918 with his founding of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, which he edited until his retirement in 1942.

Legacy

In the world related to physical anthropology, Hrdlička was definitely an authoritative voice. He greatly contributed toward our understanding of the prehistory of man in Europe, Asia, and America. Hrdlička was one of the first scientists to propose the common origin of all the races. He was also one of the first to hypothesize how the races spread across the globe. His theory remains accepted and supported by modern data. His theory of the migration of Native Americans from Siberia to Alaska won him an international reputation, and is still accepted as one of the many origins of American people. In many respects, Hrdlička can be considered the father of physical anthropology in the United States, and one of the greatest contributors to the development of anthropology in the world.

Hrdlička remains remembered both in the United States and in Europe. In World War II, the United States liberty ship, SS Ales Hrdlicka, was named in his honor. Numerous museums in the Czech Republic carry Hrdlička's name, one of the most famous of which is in Prague—the Hrdlička Museum of Man.

Bibliography

Hrdlicka, A. 1904. Directions for collecting information and specimens for physical anthropology. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Hrdlicka, A. 1905. Brain weight in vertebrates. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1906. Brains and brain preservatives. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Hrdlicka, A. 1906. Contribution to the physical anthropology of California: based on collections in the Department of Anthropology of the University of California and in the U.S. National museum. Berkeley, CA: University Press.
Hrdlicka, A. 1907. Skeletal remains suggesting or attributed to early man in North America. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. ISBN 0781240336
Hrdlicka, A. 1908. Physiological and medical observations among the Indians of Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Hrdlicka, A. 1909. Tuberculosis among certain Indian tribes of the United States. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. ISBN 0781240425
Hrdlicka, A. 1910. Contribution to the anthropology of central and Smith sound Eskimo. New York: Trustees.
Hrdlicka, A. 1911. Some results of recent anthropological exploration in Peru (with four plates). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1912. The natives of Kharga Oasis, Egypt. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1912. Remains in eastern Asia of the race that peopled America (with three plates). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1912. Early Man in South America (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletins). Reprint Services Corporation. ISBN 0781240522
Hrdlicka, A. 1914. Anthropological work in Peru, in 1913, with notes on the pathology of the ancient Peruvians (with twenty-six plates). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1916. The most ancient skeletal remains of man. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Hrdlicka, A. 1916. Physical anthropology of the Lenape or Delawares, and of the eastern Indians in general. New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. ISBN 078124062X
Hrdlicka, A. 1918. Recent discoveries attributed to early man in America. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. ISBN 0781240662
Hrdlicka, A. 1919. Physical anthropology; its scope and aims; its history and present status in the United States. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology.
Hrdlicka, A. 1919. The races of Russia (with 1 map). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1920. Anthropometry. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology.
Hrdlicka, A. 1922. The anthropology of Florida. Deland, FL: Society.
Hrdlicka, A. 1924. Catalogue of human crania in the United States National Museum collections. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Hrdlicka, A. 1925. The Old Americans. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Company.
Hrdlicka, A. 1925. The origin and antiquity of the American Indian. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Hrdlicka, A. 1927. Anthropology of the American Negro: historical notes. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute Press.
Hrdlicka, A. 1927. The Neanderthal phase of man. London: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
Hrdlicka, A. 1929. Bibliography of Dr. Ales Hrdlicka [1892–1928]. Prague: Imp. V. & A. Janata, N. Bydzov.
Hrdlicka, A. 1930. Anthropological survey in Alaska. Washington, DC.
Hrdlicka, A. 1930. The skeletal remains of early man. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1931. Children who run on all fours, and other animal-like behaviors in the human child. New York: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill.
Hrdlicka, A. 1934. The hypotrochanteric fossa of the femur (with 14 plates). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1935. Ear exostoses (with five plates). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1935. Melanesians and Australians and the peopling of America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0781243378
Hrdlicka, A. 1937. Biographical memoir of George Sumner Huntington, 1861–1927. Washington, DC: The National Academy of Sciences.
Hrdlicka, A. 1939. Practical anthropometry. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology. ISBN 0404033725
Hrdlicka, A. 1940. Observations and measurements on the members of the National academy of sciences. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Hrdlicka, A. 1940. Ritual ablation of front teeth in Siberia and America (with five plates). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1941. Diseases of and artifacts on skulls and bones from Kodiak island. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1941. Exploration of mummy caves in the Aleutian Islands. Lancaster, PA: Science Press.
Hrdlicka, A. 1942. Catalog of human crania in the United States National Museum collections: Eskimo in general. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1942. The peoples of the Soviet Union. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Hrdlicka, A. 1943. Alaska diary, 1926-1931. Lancaster, PA: Jaques Cattell Press.
Hrdlicka, A. 1944. The anthropology of Kodiak island. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology. ISBN 0404116531
Hrdlicka, A. 1944. Catalog of human crania in the United States National Museum collections. Non-Eskimo people of the northwest coast, Alaska, and Siberia. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum.
Hrdlicka, A. 1970. Contribution to the physical anthropology of California. Berkeley: University Press.
Hrdlicka, A. 1989. The Aleutian and Commander islands and their inhabitants. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology.
Hrdlicka, A., C.N. Fenner, F.E. Wright, W.H. Holmes, and B. Willis. 1912. Early man in South America. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Hrdlicka, A., C.F. Merbs, N.R. Christensen, R.A. Tyson, and E.S.D. Alcauskas. 1980. Catalogue of the Hrdlicka paleopathology collection. San Diego: San Diego Museum of Man.

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