Philip Phillips (archaeologist)
Philip Phillips (August 11, 1900 – December 11, 1994) was an influential archaeologist in the United States during the 20th century.
Early life
[edit]Phillips was born in Buffalo, New York on August 11, 1900. He was the son of Bradley H. Phillips and Ruth (née Harnden) Phillips.[1]
After attending public schools in Buffalo, he entered Williams College in 1918, graduating in 1922.[1] Although his first graduate work was in architecture, he later received a doctorate from Harvard University under advisor Alfred Marston Tozzer.[1]
Career
[edit]Phillips first archaeological experiences were on Iroquois sites, but he specialized in the Mississippian culture, especially its Lower Mississippi Valley incarnation.[1]
In 1937, he was appointed assistant curator of Southeastern Archaeology at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard. In 1949, he became its curator; and remained an honorary curator from his 1967 retirement until his death.[1]
His professional collaborations with James A. Ford, James Bennett Griffin, and Gordon Willey have become some of the standard works of American archaeology.[1]
Personal life
[edit]In June 1922, shortly after graduating from Williams, Phillips was married in Buffalo to his "childhood sweetheart" Ruth Wilma Schoellkopf (1899–1961), a daughter of industrialist Jacob F. Schoellkopf Jr.[2] Together, they were the parents of:
- Bradley Sawyer Phillips (1929–1991), who married the poet Violet Ranney Lang (1924–1956) in 1955; she died a year later of Hodgkin's disease at age 32.[3]
In 1942, the Phillips resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2][4] Phillips died at his home in Bolton, Massachusetts on December 11, 1994.[5][6] His professional obituary, including a summary of his life's accomplishments, was written by his lifelong colleague and collaborator Gordon R. Willey. It was published in 1996 by the Society for American Archaeology."[1]
Legacy
[edit]Phillips had restored the Whitcomb Inn and Farm, the oldest house in Bolton, and had donated land to preserve for public use in the town.[7]
Published works
[edit]Phillips' published works include:
- Brain, Jeffrey P. and Philip Phillips. 1996. Shell Gorgets: Styles of the Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric Southeast. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Phillips, Philip. 1970. Archaeological Survey in the Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, 1949-1955. Peabody Museum Papers, vol. 60. Harvard University, Cambridge.[8]
- Phillips, Philip and J. A. Brown. 1975-83. Pre-Columbian Shell Engravings from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma. (6 volumes) Cambridge, Peabody Museum Press.
- Phillips, Philip and J. A. Brown. 1984. Pre-Columbian Shell Engravings from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma. (2-volume softbound edition) Cambridge, Peabody Museum Press.[9]
- Phillips, Philip, James A. Ford, and James B. Griffin. 1951. Archaeological Survey in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, 1940-1947. Peabody Museum Papers, vol. 25. Harvard University, Cambridge.
- Willey, Gordon R. and Philip Phillips. 1958. Method and Theory in American Archaeology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 2001 pbk edition, with a new foreword by Gordon R. Willey and an introduction by the editors R. Lee Lyman and Michael J. O'Brien. University of Alabama Press. 2001-02-14. ISBN 9780817310882.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g Willey, Gordon R. (January 1996). "Philip Phillips 1900–1994". American Antiquity. 61 (1): 39–43. doi:10.1017/S0002731600049970. ISSN 0002-7316. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
- ^ a b Philip Phillips; James A. Ford; James Alfred Ford; James B. Griffin; Stephen Williams (2003). Archaeological Survey in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley 1940-1947. The University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817350222. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ^ Theroux, Alexander (14 February 2011). The Strange Case of Edward Gorey. Fantagraphics Books. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-60699-384-2.
- ^ "Schoellkopf Will Leaves $50,000 to Boy Scouts" (PDF). Lockport N.Y. - Union-Sun & Journal. September 16, 1942. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ^ PHILIP PHILLIPS, PROMINENT ARCHAEOLOGIST" Dec. 13, 1994 The Buffalo News https://buffalonews.com/news/philip-phillips-prominent-archaeologist/article_4a57ff67-0f6b-534a-8c0f-98218390187e.html Dec 13, 1994
- ^ Willey, Gordon R. Obituary: Philip Phillips 1900-1994. American Antiquity, Vol. 61, No. 1. (Jan., 1996), pp. 39–43.
- ^ "NRHP nomination for Whitcomb Inn and Farm". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
- ^ Haag, William G. (April 1972). "Book Review: Archaeological Survey in the Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, 1949-1955 by Philip Phillips". Science. 176 (4032): 272. Bibcode:1972Sci...176..272P. doi:10.1126/science.176.4032.272.
- ^ Knight, Vernon James (1985). "Book Review: Pre-Columbian Shell Engravings from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma by Phillips and Brown". Southeastern Archaeology. 4 (2): 152.
