Otis Tufton Mason

Otis Tufton Mason was an American ethnologist and curator born on April 10, 1838, in Eastport, Maine. He studied at Columbian University in Washington, D.C., and spent many years there as an educator before becoming closely associated with the Smithsonian's United States National Museum.

At the Smithsonian, Mason became one of the leading figures in late 19th-century anthropology. He was especially interested in material culture—the baskets, tools, clothing, and other everyday objects that reveal how people live and work. His writing and museum work helped organize and interpret large ethnological collections, and he became well known for studies of Native American technologies and basketry.

He died on November 5, 1908. Though some of the ideas and classifications of his era now feel dated, his work was important in the early development of anthropology and museum curation in the United States.