Ruth Underhill
| Ruth Murray Underhill | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
August 22, 1883 Ossining-on-the-Hudson, New York |
| Died | August 15, 1984 (aged 100) Denver, Colorado |
| Education | Ph.D. in anthropology, Columbia University (1937) |
| Occupation | Anthropologist |
| Spouse(s) | Charles C. Crawford (divorced in 1929) |
| Parent(s) | Abram (Abraham) Underhill and Anna Taber Murray |
Ruth Murray Underhill (August 22, 1883 – August 15, 1984) was an American anthropologist. She was born in Ossining-on-the-Hudson, New York, and attended Vassar College, graduating in 1905 with a degree in Language and Literature. In 1907, she graduated from the London School of Economics and began travelling throughout Europe. During World War I, she worked for an Italian orphanage run by the Red Cross.
After the war, she married Charles C. Crawford and published her first book The White Moth. Her marriage ended in 1929 and by 1930, she decided to go back to school to learn more about human behavior. After speaking with Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict in the Anthropology Department at Columbia University, she decided to pursue the field, graduating with a doctorate in 1937. She wrote numerous books on Native American tribes and helped to dispel many myths about their cultures.
Ruth Underhill was born in Ossining, New York on August 22, 1883 to Abram Sutton Underhill, a lawyer, and mother Anna Taber Murray Underhill. There has been some discussion among historians about her year of birth, but both a copy of her birth certificate and early census records indicate that she was born in this year rather than 1884. The oldest of four children, she had two sisters and a brother. Her sister Elizabeth was a suffragist, law school graduate and one of the first female bank directors, while her brother Robert was a professor at Harvard and mountaineer. Like her brother, she enjoyed mountain climbing as a hobby. Her family took the children on frequent camping trips to Europe.
In 1919, Ruth Underhill married Charles Cecil Crawford and they divorced amicably in 1929. She died on August 15, 1984 at age 100 in Denver, Colorado.
Ruth grew up attending Ossining School for Girls. She attended a Bryn Mawr College preparatory school before instead entering Vassar College in 1901. She studied English and languages, receiving her A.B. with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1905. After graduation she went on to travel in Europe and study languages and social sciences at London School of Economics and University of Munich. She became fluent in German, French, Italian, and Spanish.
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