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Ashley Montagu Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University

Overview of the Collection

Creator: Montagu, Ashley, 1905-1999
Title: Ashley Montagu Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1929-1987
Quantity: 19 linear ft.
Abstract: Papers of the American anthropologist. Collection contains book manuscripts (1943-1967); published and printed material (1929-1967), including articles by and about Montagu; book reviews.
Language: Majority in English, a few items in French, Italian, possibly Portuguese.
Repository: Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2010
https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

Ashley Montagu (1905-1999) was a British anthropologist and social biologist, perhaps best known for his critical analysis of the question of race.

Montague Francis Ashley Montagu was born Israel Ehrenberg in London, England on June 28, 1905. He studied at the University of London (1922-1925) and the University of Florence (1928-1929). He came to the United States in 1930, received his Ph.D. in 1937 from Columbia, and was naturalized in 1940.

Montagu's first professional position was as a Research Associate at the British Museum of Natural History (1926-1927). Over his career he was Assistant Professor of Anatomy at New York University (1931-1938), Associate Professor of Anatomy at the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital (1939-1949), Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University (1949-1955), Regents Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1962); and lecturer at Princeton University (1978-1983). Montagu and his wife, Marjorie Helen Peakes, had three children.

Montagu was deeply interested in applying the findings of the social and biological sciences to the improvement of the human condition; Marcus Goldstein of Tel Aviv University remembered him for his "fearless and blunt attack on works and issues that he felt were scientifically wrong, and perhaps more important, were or could be socially harmful." (quoted in Steven Harnad's article "Ashley Montagu: Anthropologist And Social Biologist"). He wrote more than 50 books and many more articles related to the field of anthropology and social biology. Among his best-known books are Coming Into Being Among the Australian Aborigines (1937), Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (1942), The Natural Superiority of Women (1953), The Elephant Man (1971), Race and IQ (1975), The Nature of Human Aggression (1976), and The Dehumanization of Man (1983). He was the producer, author and director of the film "One World or None" (1946).

The deepest defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become. -- Ashley Montagu

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Ashley Montagu Papers include correspondence, subject files, manuscripts, and published material.

Correspondence consists of two incoming letters.

Subject files consists of one photograph of Ashley Montagu signed by the photographer, Editta Sherman, and assorted other photographs, including one of Montagu with Albert Einstein.

Manuscripts includes those of books by Montagu ( Human Heredity; The Biosocial Nature of Man; Anthropology: An Introduction to the Study of Man), and essays (Mothering; What is a Child; and The Role of the Social Sciences), books edited by Montagu ( The Concept of Race; Culture and the Evolution of Man: and Genetic Mechanisms in Human Disease), a discussion series with Virgilia Peterson on "The Nature of Human Nature," and manuscripts of others (Isadore Rubin, Sexual Life After Sixty).

Published material includes bulletins, journals, a news release, magazine articles, pamphlets, programs and reprints containing articles, speeches or book reviews by Montagu or material about him or his activities.

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Arrangement of the Collection

Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by sender. Montagu's manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by type and within that alphabetically by title. Manuscripts of others are arranged alphabetically by author and one unsigned manuscript appears at the end of the series. Published material is subdivided alphabetically by type; within that, magazine articles are arranged chronologically while reprints are arranged alphabetically by title.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Montagu, Ashley, 1905-1999.

Subjects

Anthropologists -- United States.
Anthropology.
British Americans.
Physical anthropology.

Genres and Forms

Articles.
Book reviews.
Clippings (information artifacts)
Manuscripts for publication.
Photographs.

Occupations

Anthropologists.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Ashley Montagu Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Photographs, except for Sherman one, gift of American Philosophical Society, 2010.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: --
Date: Feb 1968
Revision history: 23 Jul 2009 - converted to EAD, boxes renumbered (MRC); 12 Jan 2010 - photographs added (MRC); 26 Oct 2012 - extent revised (MBD)

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Inventory

Correspondence
Box 1 Incoming 1953, 1963
Subject files
Oversize 1 Photographs
Manuscripts
Books
The American way of Life
Box 2 Corrected typescript undated
Box 2 Galley proofs undated (2 folders)
Box 3 Galley proofs pp. 81-85 undated
Anthropology: An Introduction to the Study of Man
Box 3 Corrected typescripts undated (2 folders)
Box 3 Carbon copy with corrections pp. 1-28 undated
Box 3 List of illustrations undated - corrected copy (Xerox)
Box 3 Corrected copy, pp. 1-19 undated - xerox
The Biosocial Nature of Man
Box 3 Corrected typescript undated
Box 3 Carbon copy, p. 24-98 undated
The Cultured Man
Box 3 Page proofs pp. 1-287 undated
Box 4 Page proofs pp. 1-288 undated
Design for Happiness
Box 4 Typescript copy pp. 1-120 undated
Box 4 Carbon copy pp. 1-125 undated
The Direction of Human Development
Box 4 Page proofs pp. 1-204 undated
Box 5 Page proofs pp. 205-404 undated
Box 5 Page proofs pp. 1-402 undated (2 folders)
Genetic Mechanisms in Human Disease
Box 5 Page proofs pp. 1-231 undated
Box 6 Page proofs pp. 232-462 undated
Box 6 Fragments undated
Human Heredity, revised paperback edition
Box 6 Work sheets pp. 15-255 undated (3 folders)
Box 7 Work sheets pp. 256-349 undated (2 folders)
Box 7 Captions for figures 1-11 undated - corrected typescript
Box 7 Index undated - corrected typescript
Box 7 Galley proofs pp 1-196 undated
Box 8 Galley proofs pp. 197-432 undated
The Human Revolution
Box 8 Work sheets undated
Box 8 Corrected typescript pp. 1-83 undated
Box 9 Corrected carbon copy undated
Box 9 Xerox copy pp. 1-158 undated
Box 9 Illustrations (figures 1-31) 1965 - corrected xerox copy
Box 9 Fragments undated - printed copies with corrections
Box 9 Queries to author undated
Box 9 Master proof April 22, 1965
Box 10 Master proof May 29, 1965
Box 10 Printed copy, marked undated
Box 10 Printed copies undated
Box 10 Xerox copy (complete) undated
Box 10 Comments by unidentified critic Jan. 21, 1964
The Humanization of Man
Box 10 Corrected typescript and work sheets pp. 1-121 undated
Box 11 Corrected typescript and work sheets pp. 122-290 undated
Box 11 Printer's proof April 10-11, 1962
Box 11 Printer's proof May 14-16, 1962
Box 11 Galley proof undated
The Idea of Race
Box 12 Work sheets pp. 1-281 undated (2 folders)
Box 12 Galley proofs, author's set, pp. 1-71 1965
An Introduction to Physical Anthropology (co-author C.L. Brace)
Box 12 Page proofs for second edition pp. 1-252
Box 13 Page proofs for second edition pp. 253-524 undated
Box 13 Page proofs for second edition pp. 1-560 undated (3 folders)
Box 13 Fragments with corrections undated
Box 14 Fragments with corrections undated
Life Before Birth
Box 14 Corrected typescript pp. 1-301 undated (2 folders)
Box 14 Complete carbon copy with corrections undated
Box 14 Galley proofs undated
Box 15 Galley proofs undated (2 folders)
Box 15 Man and His Works undated - corrected typescript pp. 1-101
Man in Process
Box 15 Galley proofs, author's set undated
Box 15 Page proofs with corrections undated
Man's Evolution: An Introduction to Physical Anthropology (co-author C.L. Brace)
Box 16 Corrected carbon pp. 1-273 undated
Box 16 Galley proofs pp. 1-81 undated
Box 16 Page proofs pp. 1-343 undated
Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (4th edition)
Box 16 Corrected page proofs pp. 1-163 undated
Box 17 Corrected page proofs pp. 164-353 undated
Box 17 The Myth of Race undated - carbon copy
On Being Human
Box 17 Duplicate proof with corrections Feb. 17, 1950
Box 17 Galley proofs for new edition 1966
Physical Anthropology
Box 17 Galley proofs: pp. 69-227 undated
Box 18 With corrections undated
Box 18 Fragments undated (2 folders)
Prenatal Influences
Box 18 Corrected printed copy pp. 1-128 undated
Box 19 Work sheets pp. 129-538 undated (3 folders)
Box 19 Galley proofs pp. 179-206 undated
Box 20 Galley proofs with corrections undated (2 folders)
The Prevalence of Nonsense (co-author Edward Darling)
Box 21 Galley proofs undated
Box 21 Page proofs with corrections undated
Box 21 Printer's proofs, with corrections undated (2 folders)
Books edited by Ashley Montagu
The Concept of Race
Box 21 Work sheets pp. 1-81 undated
Box 22 Work sheets pp. 82-209 and captions undated
Box 22 Work sheets pp. 9-123 undated
Box 22 Galley proofs pp. 1-263 undated (2 folders)
Box 23 Culture and the Evolution of Man undated - galley proofs (2 folders)
Box 23 Genetic Mechanisms in Human Disease undated - galley proofs
The Human Dialogue (co-editor Floyd W. Matson)
Box 24 Galley proofs undated (2 folders)
Box 25 Galley proofs undated - 1 set is marked up (2 folders)
Discussion series
Box 25 "The Nature of Human Nature" with Virgilia Peterson undated - typescript copies of discussions 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10
Essays
Box 26 Mothering Jan. 28, 1963 - holograph
Box 26 Mothering, Class and the Adult Personality undated - holograph
Box 26 Reflection on Violence in America Nov. 26, 1963 - holograph
Box 26 The Role of the Social Sciences Feb. 1, 1964 - holograph
Box 26 The Social and the Cultural Feb. 9, 1943 - holograph
Box 26 The Socio-Biology of Love and the Process of Socialization undated - holograph
Box 26 What is a Child 1963 - holograph May 31,
Box 26 Untitled Oct. 30, 1966 - holograph
Box 26 Untitled Feb. 16, 1967 - holograph
Unidentified
Book
Box 26 Work sheets
Box 26 Corrected typescript undated
Box 26 Xerox copy of page proofs pp. 20-198 undated
Box 27 Page proofs pp. 1-347 (with corrections) undated
Box 27 Galley proofs undated
Box 27 Fragments and notes 1945-1962 undated - holograph and typescript
Manuscripts of others
Box 28 Berndt, Ronald and Catherine H. "Sexual Behavior in Western Arnhem Land" parts 1 and 2 1948 (2 folders)
Box 28 Birket-Smith, Kaj "The Paths of Culture" undated - galley proofs, complete set
Box 29 Greenblatt, Dr. Robert B., M.D. "The Hirsute Female" undated - galley proofs
Box 29 Pounds, Dr. Norman J.G. "Global Geography and Man's Great Problems" undated - incomplete tentative manuscript (printed copy) for review
Box 29 Rubin, Isadore "Sexual Life After Sixty" undated - galley proofs
Box 29 International Graphics Society "Life and Its Marvels: Plant, Animal, Human" undated - dummy copy (not bound and with corrections)
Published material
Bulletins
Box 30 Academy of Medicine of New Jersey, Vol. 10, No. 2 June 1964 (2 copies) - contains a speech by Ashley Montagu
Journals - contain articles by Montagu
Box 30 American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Vol. XVIII, No. 2 Oct. - Dec. 1933
Box 30 ISIS, Vo. 37, Nos. 107 and 108 May 1947
Box 30 Journal of Existential Psychiatry, Vol. I, No. 4 Winter-Spring, 1961
News releases
Box 30 UNESCO Report on Race by Ashley Montagu July 18, 1950
Magazines
Box 30 Articles about Ashley Montagu 1956-1967, undated (2 folders)
Box 30 Articles by Ashley Montagu 1956
Box 30 Article fragments 1956
Pamphlets by Ashley Montagu
Box 30 Ernst Cassirer
Box 30 Race and Other Kindred Delusions
Programs of symposia and conferences - Montagu was a member or participant
Box 30 The Future of Man 1959
Box 30 New England Conference on Human Nutrition 1956
Box 30 The Next Hundred Years 1957
Reprints
Box 31 A 1933-1960
The African Origins of the American Negro and His Ethnic Composition (3 copies) Jan. 1944
Aging of the Skull Jan.- March 1938
Alěs Hrdlička, 1869-1943 Jan.- March 1944
Anthropological Significance of the Musculus Pyramidalis and Its Variability in Man Oct. - Dec. 1939
The Anthropological Significance of the Pterion in the Primates Oct. - Dec. 1933
Anthropology and Genetics (3 copies) May 1945
Anthropology and World History 1949
Anthropology in Medicine 1947
Anthropology: Physical Methods 1950
Art, Curriculum, and Culture April 1954
Artificial Thickening of Bone and the Piltdown Skull July 1960
Box 31 B-D 1929-1966
The Barcombe Mills Cranial Remains 1951
Behavior As Viewed in the Behavioral Sciences and by American Education May 1959
Biological Basis of Cooperation 1955
Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) 3 copies 1942
The Buttocks and Natural Selection Oct. 1966
A Case of Familial Inheritance of Oblique Inguinal Hernia Oct. 1942
A Case of Pseudo-Alveolar Ultraprognatism Aug. 1932
Cassirer on Mythological Thinking 1949
The Chatelperron Skull 1952
Climate and Reproduction 1939
The Concept of Race in the Human Species in the Light of Genetics 1941
A Consideration of the Concept of Race 1950
Constitutional and Prenatal Factors in Infant and Child Health 1950
Contributions of Anthropology to Psychosomatic Medicine June 1956
Cultural Determinance of Sexual Status (2 copies)
The Dentition of Identical Twins with Particular Reference to an Identical Pathological Condition, Dec. 1933
Description of Three Instruments for Use in Orthodontic and Cephalometric Investigations, With Some Remarks on Map Construction Dec. 1931
The Determination of the Naso-frontal Suture and the Nasion in the Living April 1937
The Discovery of a new Anthropoid Ape in South America (2 copies) Sept. 1929
Dislocation of the Femur Upon the Acetabular Notch in a Pre-Roman Briton (2 copies) Jan. 1931
Box 31 E-H 1938-1961
The Earliest Account of the Association of Human Artifacts with Fossil Mammals in North America (2 copies) Apr. 1942
The Earliest Account of the Association of Human Artifacts with Fossil Mammals in N. America May 1944
Four on War April 1943
Le Fragment Cranien De Bury St. Edmunds 1949
The Future of the Australian Aborigines 1938
Human Nature and Religion 1961
The Human Organism 1949
The Human Organism and Reproduction, Heredity, and Growth (2 copies) 1952
Human Values and Family Policy 1948
Box 31 I-N 1931-1959
Ignorance of Physiological Maternity in Australia 1941
Ignorance of Physiological Paternity in Secular Knowledge and Orthodox Belief Among the Australian Aborigines 1940
Infertility of the Unmarried in Primitive Societies 1937
Infibulation and Defibulation in the Old and New Worlds 1945
Intelligence of Northern Negroes and Southern Whites in the First World War 1945
Karl Pearson and the Historical Method in Ethnology 1943
Knowledge of the Ancients Regarding the Ape 1941
The Location of the Nasion in the Living 1935
Man - and Human Nature 1955
The Medio-Frontal Suture and the Problem of Metopism in the Primates 1937
Mr. Simple on Racial Equality 1945
The Myth of Blood 1943
The Natural History of the Human Teeth, by John Hunter: A Study 1935
Natural Selection and the Mental Capacities of Mankind (2 copies) 1947
Natural Selection and the Origin and Evolution of Weeping in Man 1959
The Nature of Race Relations (2 copies) 1947
Neoteny and the Evolution of the Human Mind undated
Nescience, Science and Psycho-Analysis (3 copies)
Nota su un tipo raro di pterion nel Gorilla 1931
A Note on an Anomalous Iliac Muscular Bundle Associated with an Anomalous Femoral Nerve 1943
Box 32 O-R 1931-1954
On a Post-Frontal and Orbital Elements in a Young Gorilla Skull 1931
On the Origin of the Domestication of the Dog 1942
On the Phrase "Ethnic Group" in Anthropology (3 copies) 1945
On the Relation Between Body Size, Waking Activity, and the Origin of Social Life in the Primates 1944
The Origin and Nature of Social Life and the Biological Basis of Cooperation (2 copies) 1948
The Origin of Subincision in Australia (2 copies) 1938
Origins of the American Negro (3 copies) 1944
Ph.D. Thesis Regulations 1939
The Physical Characters of African and Other Non-American Negroids (3 copies) 1945
Physiology and the Origins of the Menstrual Prohibitions 1940
Physiological Paternity in Australia 1937
The Piltdown Mandible and Cranium 1951
The Piltdown Nasal Turbinate and Bone Implement: Some Questions (2 copies) 1954
The Premaxilla in Man 1936
Race, Caste and Scientific Method (3 copies) 1941
Racial Intelligence (2 copies) Jan. 1948
Racism, The Bomb and the World's People (2 copies) 1946
Racism, Religion and Anthropology 1947
A Rare Case of Osteomalacia With Severe Caries of the Maxillary Canine Teeth in a Captive Baboon 1935
A Reconsideration of the Galley Hill Skeleton 1949 Reproduction, Heredity, and Growth 1949
Box 32 S-Y 1939-1955
Scientific Invention and Social Consciousness 1939
Seventeenth Century Account of Burial Customs Among the Indians of South Carolina 1940
Sex Order of Birth and Personality 1948
The Significance of the Premaxillary Diestema in Pithecanthropus Robustus 1944
The Significance of the Variability of the Upper Lateral Incisor Teeth in Man (2 copies) 1940
The Skillful Skull 1943
The Social Function of Science (2 copies) undated
Social Instincts April 1950
Sociometric Methods in Anthropology Feb. 1945
Some Psychodynamic Factors in Race Prejudice 1949
A Spurious Portrait of Robert Hooke (1653-1703) 1941
Tennyson's Prediction of the Invention, Use and Misuse of the Aeroplane 1943
Theognis, Darwin, and Social Selection 1947
Time Binding and the Concept of Culture (3 copies) 1953
A Unique Development of the Premaxilla in the Gorilla (2 copies) 1942
United Nations Economic and Security Council, Statement by Experts on Problems of Race 1951
Vesalius and the Galenists 1955
A Yankee Doctor in England in 1859 (2 copies) 1943
Box 32 Book reviews 1938-1950, undated
The Biology of the Negro by Julian Herman Lewis, 1942
Blood Groups and Transfusion by Alexander S. Wiener, undated
The Development of the Vertebrate Skull by G.R. deBeer, 1938
El Egaño de las Razes by Fernando Ortiz, 1947
Escape From Freedom by Erich Fromm, 1942
Malaria in the Upper Mississippi Valley 1660-1900 by Erwin H. Ackerkneicht, 1946
Man in the Primitive World: An Introduction to Anthropology by E. Adamson Hoebel, 1949
The Nature-Future Controversy by Nicholas Pastore, 1950
The Stone Age of Mount Carmel by McCown and Keith, 1940
The Vertebrate Eye and Its Adaptive Radiation by Gordon Lynn Walls; The Retina by S.L. Polyak; and Vertebrate Photoreceptors by Samuel R. Detwiler (3 copies), 1943
Box 32 Of others 1948, 1955
Beutner, R., M.D. The Inhalation Anesthetics, review, undated
La Barre, Weston The Social CeU, 1955
Unidentified book review, 1948

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