# Journal of American Folk-Lore/Volume 13/Issue 48/In Memoriam: Walter James Hoffman

IN MEMORIAM: WALTER JAMES HOFFMAN.
By the death of Dr. W. J. Hoffman, which occurred at Reading, Pa., November 8, 1899, folk-lore in America lost an able and scholarly investigator. He was born May 30, 1846, at Weidasville, Pa. Studying medicine with his father, the late Dr. W. F. Hoffman, of Reading, he followed in his footsteps as a physician. After graduating (in 1866) from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, he devoted himself to the practice of his profession in Reading. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war he was commissioned surgeon in the Seventh Army Corps, and at the close was decorated by the Emperor for distinguished services. In 1871, upon his return to America, Dr. Hoffman was appointed acting assistant surgeon in the U. S. Army, and naturalist to the expedition for the exploration of Arizona, Nevada, etc. From August, 1872, till the spring of 1873, he was post surgeon at Grand River Agency (N. Dak.). After a short service with General Custer and Colonel Stanley he returned to Reading in November, 1873, and resumed the practice of medicine, which he kept up for four years. Late in 1877 he was given charge of the ethnological and mineralogical collections of the U. S. Geological Survey; and in 1879, when the Bureau of Ethnology was created, he was made assistant ethnologist, which position he held for many years, a goodly portion of his time being devoted to field-work among the Mandans, Hidatsa, and Ankara, in 1881; the tribes of California and Nevada, 1882; the Algonkian Indians of Michigan, 1883; the Indian tribes of Vancouver Island, Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada, 1884; the Ojibwa of Minnesota, 1887–1890; the Menomoni of Wisconsin and Ojibwa of Minnesota, 1890–1891. Dr. Hoffman's special studies were largely concerned with sign language, pictography, secret societies, primitive ritual and primitive art, in all of which subjects he contributed notable papers to governmental and other scientific publications. Since his retirement (1895) from the Bureau of Ethnology Dr. Hoffman served as United States consul at Mannheim, Germany, which position he held at his death. The cause of death is stated to be lung disease.
A list of Dr. Hoffman's principal publications having to do with folk-lore subjects, with appreciations of some of them, follows:—
1. Notes on the Migrations of the Dakotas. Proc. Amer. Philol. Assoc., 1877, pp. 15–17.
2. Comparison of Eskimo Pictographs with those of other American Aborigines. Trans. Anthrop. Soc. of Washington, vol. ii. (1883) pp. 128–146.
​3. Ein Beitrag zu dem Studium der Bilderschrift. Das Ausland (Stuttgart u. München), 1883, pp. 646–651, 666–669.
4. Selish Myths. Bull. Essex Inst. (Salem, Mass.), vol. xv. (1884) pp. 23–40.
5. Bird Names of the Selish, Pa Uta, and Shoshoni Indians. Auk (Boston), vol. ii. (1885) pp. 7–10.
6. Pictography and Shamanistic Rites of the Ojibwa. Amer. Anthrop., vol. i. (1888) pp. 209–229.
7. Folk-Lore of the Pennsylvania Germans. I. Journ. Amer. Folk-Lore, vol. i. (1888) pp. 125–135.
8. Folk-Lore of the Pennsylvania Germans. II. Ibid., vol. ii. (1889) pp. 23–35.
9. Folk-Lore of the Pennsylvania Germans. III. Ibid., pp. 191–202.
10. Notes on Ojibwa Folk-Lore. Amer. Anthrop., vol. ii. (1889) pp. 215–223.
11. Grammatical Notes and Vocabulary of the Pennsylvania Germans. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. (Phila.), vol. xxvi. (1889) pp. 187–285.
12. Folk-Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans. Ibid., pp. 329–353.
13. Remarks on Ojibwa Ball-Play. Amer. Anthrop., vol. iii. (1890) pp. 133–135.
14. Mythology of the Menomoni Indians. Ibid., pp. 243–258.
15. Poisoned Arrows. Ibid., vol. iv. (1891) pp. 67–71.
16. Shamanistic Practices. Univ. Med. Mag. (Phila.), vol. iii. (1890–1891) pp. 73–79.
17. Shamanentum bei den Ojibwa und Menomoni. Globus (Braunschweig), vol. lxi. (1892) pp. 92–95.
18. The Midēwiwin, or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa. Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 1891 (Washington, 1892), pp. 143–300. Plates ii.–xxiii. Figs. 1–39.
19. Notes on Pennsylvania German Folk-Medicine. Science (N. Y.), vol. xxi. (1893) p. 355.
20. The Beginnings of Writing. N. Y., 1895.
21. The Menomoni Indians. Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. of Ethnol., 1892–1893 (Washington, 1896), pp. 1–328. With plates i.–xxxvii. Figs. 1–55.
22. The Graphic Art of the Eskimos. Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1895 (Washington, 1897), pp. 739–968. With 82 plates and 154 figures in text.
Dr. Hoffman's German ancestry and residence in Pennsylvania make his studies (Nos. 7-9, 11, 12, 19) of the speech, folk-lore, and ​folk-medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans of particular interest and value. His "Comparison of Eskimo Pictographs with those of other American Aborigines" (No. 2), together with the much more elaborate and extended "Graphic Art of the Eskimo" (No. 22), are scientific studies of the highest importance, the last being a perfect mine of information about and reproduction of aboriginal graphic art. The author's studies of the folk-lore and shamanism of the Ojibwa (Nos. 6, 10, 13) naturally led to the publication of his comprehensive and authoritative account of the "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa (No. 18), perhaps his magnum opus, a work of great research and acumen. A valuable study of the mythology of the Menomonis (No. 14), another Algonkian tribe, was followed by the remarkably complete and connected account of these Indians appearing in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,—the chief part is devoted to folk-lore and mythology. The "Beginnings of Writing," published in 1895, is an excellent study of the development of pictography and the graphic art, chiefly among the aborigines of America.
Besides the works noted above, Dr. Hoffman was also the author of several papers on aboriginal linguistics, archæology, etc. He was an active or an honorary member of many learned societies in America and in Europe.
Alex. F. Chamberlain.