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Title: Alfred W. Bowers
Collection Number: 10663
Dates: 1948-1949
Quantity: .25 feet/2r. (#06914, 06946)
Abstract: Consists of a carbon copy of Bowers’ Ph.D. dissertation from the University of Chicago, "A History of the Mandan and Hidatsa" and correspondence with Russell Reid, pertaining to publication by the SHSND and notes and other commentary on the manuscript by George F. Will.
Provenance: The collection was separated from the State Historical Society Superintendent’s Correspondence.
Property Rights: The State Historical Society of North Dakota owns the property rights to this collection.
Copyrights: Copyrights to this collection remain with the donor, publisher, author, or author's heirs. Researchers should consult the 1976 Copyright Act, Public Law 94-553, Title 17, U.S. Code or an archivist at this repository if clarification of copyright requirements is needed.
Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the collection title, collection number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.
Related collections:
10148 Paul Ewald
10190 Will Family
10494 Robert C. Hollow
10898 Eric C. Jacobsen
30203 Historical Society. Superintendent’s Correspondence
30206 Historical Society. Board of Directors, Correspondence
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
The Lewiston Tribune, Aug 8, 1990
MOSCOW Alfred W. Bowers, 89, a retired University of Idaho anthropology professor, died Monday at Gritman Memorial Hospital here of causes related to age.
Bowers pioneered research in archeology and semi-sedentary agricultural communities of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes along the Missouri River and analysis of social, economic, political and religious organizations.
He conducted extensive excavations on archaeological sites near Mobridge, S.D., was active in archeological investigations of untested areas in Idaho and assisted various Indian tribes and the U.S. government in determining tribal lands.
He was born June 1, 1901, at Sanfard, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Dorris Chadbourne and Nellie Killam-Harris Bowers. He came to the United States in 1907 when his parents homesteaded at Killdeer, N.D. He became a naturalized citizen in 1915.
Bowers received his early education in rural North Dakota schools. He received his teacher's certificate from Dickinson State College at Dickinson, N.D., in 1923, a bachelor's degree from Beloit College at Beloit, Wis., in 1928, a master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1929 and a doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 1948.
He married Gladys E. Monson July 16, 1939, at Stanley, N.D.
He was a research assistant at Beliot College from 1929 to 1932 and at the University of Chicago from 1932 to 1934 and from 1946 to 1949. He was a professor of anthropology at the University of Idaho from 1949 until 1967.
Bowers was an anthropologist representing the Coeur d'Alene Indians before the Indian Claims Committee from 1952 to 1953 and for the Arikara, Mandan and Hidatsa before the Indian Claims Committee from 1964 until 1966.
He was a recipient of the Sigma XI award for best published research in 1965 and a member of the American Anthropological Association, Society of American Anthropology and Plains Anthropologist of Idaho. He was the author of ''Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization'' in 1965, a history of the Mandan and Hidatsa in 1948 and contributed articles to field scientific journals.
He was professor and chairman of the department of archeology at Stanislaus State College at Turlock, Calif., from 1967 until 1971. He was listed in the World's Who's Who in Science from Antiquity to the Present.
The University of Idaho dedicated the Alfred W. Bowers Laboratory of Anthropology in 1984.
Survivors include his wife, Gladys at Moscow; a son, Norman Arnold Bowers of Moscow; a daughter, Lois May Chesnut of Lewiston; a sister, Jeanne Lawver of Beloit, Wis.; and three grandchildren.
Masonic graveside services will be Thursday at 9:30 a.m. at the Moscow Cemetery with members of Paradise Lodge No. 17 A.F. & A.M. officiating. A memorial service will be Thursday at 11 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church at Moscow with the Rev. F. Lindsay Moffit officiating.
The family suggests any memorials go to the First Presbyterian Church or the A.W. Bowers Anthropology Lab at UI.
Box / Folder Inventory
Box 1:
1 A History of the Mandan and Hidatsa, a dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Division of the Social Sciences in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Chicago, by Alfred William Bowers
2 Correspondence – Russell Reid 1948-1949
3 George Will’s notes on the Bowers manuscript [1949]
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