John Philip Gillin was Dean of the Division of Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. Gillin arrived at the University of Pittsburgh in 1959 and retired in 1972, and is credited as a founder of the Department of Anthropology and its PhD program. Under his tutelage, the Anthropology Department became one of the nation's most distinguished.
Gillin came to Pittsburgh from the University of North Carolina where he was research professor of anthropology until 1959. During his career he was a member of faculty for Duke University, Ohio State University, Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Utah. Gillin was also on the staff of the Peabody Museum at Harvard.
Gillin received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Wisconsin (1927, 1930) and M.A. and PhD degrees from Harvard (1931,1934).
Gillin's research interest were in cultural anthropology with an emphasis on Latin America. His fieldwork included studies in Algeria, New Mexico, British Guiana, Ecuador, Eastern Peru, Utah, Guatemala, Colombia and Wisconsin.
Gillin was widely published and was a member of the American Anthropological Association, Society for Applied Anthropology (president 1959-60), National Research Council and many others. He was a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Alpha Kappa Delta, Alpha Kappa Lambda, and Phi Beta Kappa (1966).
Born in Waterloo, Iowa, on August 1, 1907, Gillin was the son of the noted sociologist John Lewis Gillin. He was married to Helen Norgord. They had one son, John Christian Gillin.
This collection consists mainly of photographs of the various locations and people that were the subject of Gillin's research. There are significant numbers of photographs from British Guiana (Guyana), Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala and Brazil as well as scattered photos from his world travels. The paper records are mostly manuscripts, reprints and ephemeral publications. There are two films, the 8 mm Fiesta in St. Luis and one 16 mm unidentified film. There is a scrapbook from the 1942 Guatemala Expedition.
No restrictions.
This collection was sent to the Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh, by Eduardo Lozano, the Latin American bibliographer. These records are the non-book portion of a collection that was sent to the library by Richard Scaglion, Chair of the Anthropology Department, University of Pittsburgh, July 1, 2004.
John P. Gillin Papers, 1933-1959, UA.90.F75, University Archives, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
John P. Gillin Papers, 1933-1959, UA.90.F75, University Archives, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
This collection was processed by ASC Staff in July 2004. Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Dan Horvath on July 9, 2004. Information about the collection title and the controlled access terms was extracted from the MARC record in the University of Pittsburgh catalog Voyager ID number: 4376710.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.