author
George A. (George Amos) Dorsey
1868–1931
A pioneering American ethnographer, he spent years studying Indigenous peoples of the Americas, especially the Caddoan and Siouan nations of the Great Plains. His work helped shape early museum anthropology in the United States.
1 Audiobook
Traditions of the Arikara
by George A. (George Amos) Dorsey
About the author
Born in Ohio in 1868, George Amos Dorsey studied at Denison and Harvard, earning a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1894. Early in his career he took part in archaeological work in South America, then moved into teaching and museum work as anthropology was becoming a formal academic field in the United States.
Dorsey is best known for his ethnographic research on Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a particular focus on the Plains. He taught at Harvard and later joined the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where he served as curator and helped build major anthropological collections. His fieldwork and publications made him an important figure in the development of American anthropology.
Along with his scholarly work, he also wrote for broader audiences, helping bring anthropology to general readers. He died in New York City in 1931, leaving behind a body of work closely tied to the study of Native American cultures and to the growth of museum-based research.