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Matilda Coxe Stevenson
1850–1915
A pioneering American anthropologist, she broke ground as the first woman hired by the U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology and became known for her close study of Pueblo and Zuni life. Her fieldwork helped preserve detailed records of ceremonies, crafts, and community traditions in the American Southwest.
2 Audiobooks
The Religious Life of the Zuñi Child
by Matilda Coxe Stevenson
The Sia
by Matilda Coxe Stevenson
About the author
Born in 1850, she became one of the earliest women to build a professional career in American anthropology. Reliable sources describe her as the first woman employed as an anthropologist by the U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology, where she carried out years of research in the Southwest.
She is especially associated with work among Pueblo peoples, including extensive studies of Zuni life, religion, and material culture. Her writing and collecting preserved information on ceremonial practice, domestic life, and traditional arts at a time when few women were recognized in the field.
Matilda Coxe Stevenson died in 1915, but her work remains part of the early history of American anthropology. Today she is remembered both for the record she left behind and for opening a path for women in a discipline that was then almost entirely male.