Hrdlicka, Ales

Hrdlička, Aleš (ä`lĕsh hûrd`lĭchkä), 1869–1943, American anthropologist, b. Humpolec (now in Czech Republic). He received his medical education in the United States. In 1903 he began to organize the division of physical anthropology at the U.S. National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington and was its curator from 1910 to 1942. Hrdlička founded the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (1918), which he edited until his death, and the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (1929). From 1898 to 1925 he carried out anthropological investigations throughout Europe and the Americas as well as in East Asia, Australia, Egypt, and South Africa. In 1926–37 he led expeditions to Alaska. His work on anthropometry, early man, and human evolution and his research on the supposed migration tracks of the Native American in Siberia and Alaska won him an international reputation. His books include Physical Anthropology (1919), Anthropometry (1920), Old Americans (1925), and Alaska Diary, 1926–1931 (1943).