Samuel Foster Haven

Summary

Samuel Forster Haven (May 28, 1806 – September 5, 1881)[1] was an American archeologist and anthropologist.

Samuel Foster Haven
BornMay 28, 1806 Edit this on Wikidata
Dedham Edit this on Wikidata
DiedSeptember 5, 1881 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 75)
Worcester Edit this on Wikidata
Alma mater
Occupation
OrganizationAmerican Antiquarian Society
Signature

Biography edit

Haven was born to Judge Samuel and Betsy Haven in Dedham, Massachusetts on May 28, 1806.[2][3] He took a degree from Amherst College, then studied law at Harvard Law School, and then commenced a legal practice in Dedham and Lowell, Massachusetts.[1]

Haven had a keen interest in the history of New England before the Revolution, and began publishing papers in 1836. His interest then turned towards the archeology of the Americas.

In September 1837 he was appointed librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, located in Worcester, Massachusetts. He began his duties as librarian in April 1838, and in October of that same year, he was elected a member of the society.[4] Haven became one of the society's longest serving librarians from 1838 to 1881, and also served on its board of councilors from 1855 to 1881.[5] Haven was particularly interested in research of the indigenous people of North America, including those referred to as the Mound Builders.[6]

He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1865.[7]

The Smithsonian Institution commissioned Haven to write a consolidation of then current archeological knowledge.[8] The Institution published Haven's Archaeology of the United States in 1855.[9] It was his only book. The result of his travels and studies, it proposed an ancient origin of the native peoples of the Americas and of their migration from Siberia.

Haven died in Worcester on September 5, 1881.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Wilson, James; Fiske, John, eds. (1888). Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography. Vol. 3. D. Appleton and Company. p. 118.
  2. ^ Pierce, Frederick Clifton (1899). Foster Genealogy. Press o W.B. Conkey Company. p. 938. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Recent Deaths". Boston Evening Transcript. September 7, 1881. p. 4. Retrieved March 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 1812–1849 (p. 344, 356). (1912). Worcester, MA. [1]
  5. ^ Dunbar, B. (1987). Members and Officers of the American Antiquarian Society. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society.
  6. ^ Gura, P. (2012). The American Antiquarian Society, 1812–2012 : A bicentennial history. Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society.
  7. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  8. ^ Murray, Tim (2007). Milestones in archaeology. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-186-1. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  9. ^ "Public Archeology in the United States—Timeline 1784–1905". National Park Service. United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved March 7, 2012.