Sherwood L. Washburn
| Sherwood L. Washburn | |
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| Born |
November 26, 1911 Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Died | April 16, 2000 (aged 88) Berkeley, California |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Anthropology |
| Institutions | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | Earnest A. Hooton |
| Doctoral students | Irven DeVore, F. Clark Howell, Vincent M. Sarich, Jane Lancaster, Ralph Holloway |
| Known for | Comparative approach to understanding human evolution, renaissance of behavioral primatology |
| Influences | W. T. Dempster, W. LeGros Clark, Alfred Romer |
| Notable awards | Viking Fund Medal, Huxley Memorial Medal and Lecture, Distinguished Service Award of the American Anthropological Association |
| Notes | |
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Designated by the AAPA as the premier American physical anthropologist of the twentieth century
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Sherwood Larned Washburn (November 26, 1911 – April 16, 2000), nicknamed "Sherry", was an American physical anthropologist and pioneer in the field of primatology, opening it to the study of primates in their natural habitats. His research and influence in the comparative analysis of primate behaviors to theories of human origins established a new course of study within the field of human evolution.
He was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Henry Bradford Washburn, Sr., dean of the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, and Edith Buckingham Hall. He was the younger brother of Henry Bradford Washburn. In his youth, Washburn took a keen interest in the field of natural history, and during school vacations worked with exhibits and collections in Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Washburn graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in Anthropology in 1935, followed by a Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1940. For a time, Washburn considered pursuing his doctorate in zoology, and in his first year in graduate school, worked as an assistant with a zoological expedition in southern Asia called the Asiatic Primate Expedition. His work as a graduate student in comparative anatomy, comparative psychology, animal locomotion mechanics, and paleontology helped shape in him a multi-disciplinary perspective toward the study of evolutionary origins.
Washburn married Henrietta Pease in 1938, and they had two children, Sherwood "Tuck" and Stan. They subsequently resided in New York, Chicago, Illinois and Berkeley, California, where Sherwood held university positions. Washburn died in Berkeley in 2000 at age 88.
Washburn entered Harvard's graduate program with the intention of pursuing a doctorate in zoology. His focus shifted to anthropology after being induced to attend an introductory seminar on the subject led by his freshman advisor and close family friend Alfred Tozzer. Finding the mixture of archaeology, customs and human evolution stimulating, he joined the physical anthropology program led by Earnest Hooton where he was able to enfold his zoological coursework such as comparative anatomy and paleontology in his approach to the study of human evolution. Doctoral students in Harvard's physical anthropology program were forced to look beyond the anthropology department to secure the necessary training, which Washburn considered fortuitous because the experience left him with deep appreciation how much more can be learned when a multidisciplinary effort is brought into the analysis.
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