Papers of cultural anthropologist Harold Marion Ross, who was known for his ethnographic studies of the Baegu people of Malaita in the Solomon Islands. The collection includes correspondence, research files, manuscripts, notebooks, photographs, slides, and sound recordings.
Harold Ross Papers, 1962-2010 (bulk 1966-1980) (MSS 733)
Extent: 4.88 Linear feet (9.5 archives boxes, 1 flat box)
Harold Marion Ross was born June 11, 1936 to Gerda and Marion Ross in Kansas City, Missouri. After earning a B.A. magna cum laude in anthropology from Harvard University in 1958, Ross served as a submarine officer in the US Navy and studied languages at the University of Indiana. He returned to Harvard in 1962, continuing to serve in the US Naval Reserve until he retired with the rank of Captain, and earned an M.A. in anthropology in 1964.
In 1966-1968 Ross conducted ethnographic field research for his doctoral dissertation in Malaita, in the Solomon Islands, accompanied by his wife Kathryn Penstone Ross and their two children. Ross and his family lived with the Baegu, a traditional agricultural community noted for unilineal descent, limited acculturation, and a shared market economy with a neighboring fishing population on the Lau Lagoon.
Ross received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard in 1970, and then earned an M.B.A at Eastern Illinois University in 1974. He joined the faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1968 as assistant professor of anthropology, later becoming associate professor and associate department head. Ross was professor of anthropology at St. Norbert College in Green Bay, Wisconsin; dean and vice president for academic affairs at Daemen College in Buffalo, New York; and dean of faculty and vice president for academic affairs at Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri starting in 1990.
The papers of anthropologist and professor Harold Marion Ross document his research among the Baegu people of Malaita in the Solomon Islands and his teaching career in anthropology. Materials in the collection date from 1962-2010.
Arranged in seven series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) WRITINGS, 3) SUBJECT FILES, 4) RESEARCH PROJECTS, 5) JOURNALS & NOTEBOOKS, 6) IMAGES, AND 7) SOUND RECORDINGS.