Old Americans
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Hrdlička, Aleš, 1869-1943
setName: label: See more items in
content: Aleš Hrdlička papers
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2.08 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1914-1930
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.1974-31, Series 17
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This series includes anthropometric data, personal histories of participants, correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs related to Hrdlička's book The Old Americans. His work at the Pathological Institute had awakened Hrdlička to the lack of anthropological records for "normal" Americans needed for comparative studies. As a remedy, Hrdlička wanted to collect measurements to determine what the "typical" American looked like, specifically to see if there was such a thing as an American subtype of white people. He came to the decision that he would have to find whites whose ancestors had been born in America for four generations back. These were so-called "Old Americans." In addition to producing comparative standards for anthropological work, Hrdlička wanted to determine the physical characteristics of these Old Americans and to find what developmental changes had occurred through mixture. He made several trips to secure data, including to Yale University, the University of Virginia (where Robert Bennett Bean assisted him), Harvard University, and the Tennessee mountains. Hrdlička often divided the information into "Old Americans" and "Not Old Americans." He published the results of his study as The Old Americans in 1925.

See Series 37: Photographs, "Old Americans" for glass negatives of Old Americans at the University of Virginia.