#43 • Dr. Henry B. Collins Jr. - Smithsonian Anthropologist's Archive

Part of June 2026 Premier Auction (live auction by Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals)

High bid $5,250.00

Status: Sold

Category: Alaskana

An important historic archive documenting the education, fieldwork, publications, correspondence, honors, photographs, and professional career of Dr. Henry Bascom Collins, Jr. (1899-1987), pioneering Smithsonian Institution anthropologist and archaeologist whose work became foundational to the study of Arctic prehistory, Bering Strait archaeology, and early Alaska Native cultural chronology. This extensive collection spans Collins’s academic and professional life, from his University notebooks and 1925 George Washington University Master of Arts diploma through decades of Smithsonian research, field study, publication, institutional recognition, and later-career documentation. Collins is best remembered for his landmark archaeological work on St. Lawrence Island, Cape Prince of Wales, and the broader Bering Strait region, where his excavations and analysis helped define the Old Bering Sea and Punuk cultural sequences and significantly advanced scholarly understanding of Arctic migration, technology, and cultural development. The archive includes Collins’s George Washington University diploma; Smithsonian Institution identification badges, including a later badge expiring in 1987; early and mid-century photographs of Collins; Alaska and Arctic field photographs; correspondence; postal ephemera; typescripts and news releases; archaeological and anthropological publications; and institutional material relating to the Smithsonian, the Anthropological Society of Washington, and Arctic research. Notable printed material includes Collins’s Arctic Area volume from the Program of the History of America series, a December 3, 1948 issue of Science featuring a prehistoric Eskimo dwelling photograph by Collins, and multiple papers and booklets relating to Smithsonian research in Alaska, the Bering Strait, and northern prehistory. Several documents directly illuminate the early twentieth-century mindset and activities of Smithsonian collecting and fieldwork, including a circa 1928 Smithsonian letter suggesting Collins visit Sledge Island and King Island for the purpose of collecting skeletal remains. Other pieces discuss ancient fossil ivory artifacts from St. Lawrence Island, early iron use among Punuk Eskimo peoples, and later scholarly debate concerning possible Pleistocene human occupation in Alaska. A circa 1963 Smithsonian news release records Collins’s cautious comments on early man in Alaska and references artifacts found in association with mammoth, mastodon, bison, and horse remains near Fairbanks. Also included are awards and associated honors reflecting Collins’s international scholarly circle, including a bronze commemorative medal honoring Smithsonian physical anthropologist Ales Hrdlička; a Hans-Georg Bandi medal connected to prehistoric research and St. Lawrence Island scholarship; two Czechoslovakian coat of arms enamel stick pins; and additional institutional ephemera. The archive provides a rare, layered view of Collins not only as a Smithsonian scientist, but as a central participant in the formation of Arctic archaeology as a professional field. Taken as a whole, this is a significant research archive preserving material from one of the major figures in twentieth-century Arctic anthropology. It offers a compelling early perspective into Smithsonian activity in Alaska, Bering Strait field research, museum collecting practices, and the development of archaeological interpretation surrounding Indigenous Arctic cultures. The largest item measures approximately 16.75" x 21" tall. Numerous other objects in this auction come directly from the Collins estate and are listed explicity as such in their provenance notes. Provenance: From the collection of Dr. Henry B. Collins and descendants. Collins (1899-1987) served as Senior Archaeologist and Head Curator of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution and spent decades conducting research throughout Alaska and the Bering Strait region.