Dr. Franz Boas (1858-1942)

Dr. Franz Boas (1858-1942). The Father of American Anthropology. , The Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Columbia University arrived in the United States from his native Germany in 1887. In 1896 Dr. Boas became the first professor of anthropology at Columbia University, where he founded the first department of anthropology in the United States and remained for 43 years, mentoring a generation of American anthropology scholars, including Margaret Mead. , Upon his arrival in the United States, Dr. Boas married Marie Krackowizer (1861-1929) in New York City. Marie's father was Ernst Krackowizer (1822-1875), an Austrian immigrant, prominent New York City surgeon and a founder of the German hospital in New York (today's Lenox Hill Hospital). The Krackowizers owned a country home called Greenmont in Sing Sing (Ossining) from 1869 to 1879, located on the corner of North Highland and Van Cortlandt avenues. , Franz Boas established the practice of cultural anthropology, emphasizing the use of fieldwork and observation to understand each culture's unique development. A prolific writer authoring more than 600 papers, his primary focus was race. In his book The Mind of Primitive Man (1911), Boas flatly rejected the 19th-century position of Eurocentric superiority, which was based on evolutionary theory and which judged all non-European cultures by European standards. , Dr. Boas's New York Times obituary stated that he worked “on behalf of intellectual freedom and democratic equality, in opposition to the dictatorships of Europe.” Boas resided in New Jersey, and died of a heart attack at Columbia at the age of 84. He and his wife are laid to rest in the Krackowizer family plot at Dale, and memorials to two of their children are close by.