Albert Buell Lewis (June 21, 1867 – October 10, 1940) was the first American anthropologist to conduct a systematic, long-term field study in Melanesia, A.
B. Lewis is best remembered for the collection and documentation of over 14,000 Melanesian objects gathered in the colonial territories of Melanesia during his time as the leader of the Joseph N. Field South Pacific Expedition from 1909 to 1913.
Lewis’s doctoral thesis, ”Tribes of the Columbia Valley and the Coast of Washington and Oregon” was a library study that addressed the culture of a diverse collection of indigenous peoples that had been labeled as a mix of North California and Northwest Pacific slope cultures in terms of local development.
[11] Prior to his graduation, George Dorsey, curator and head of the Department of Anthropology at Field Museum of Natural History approached Lewis with the prospect of offering him a job should suitable funding be located.
While waiting for Dorsey to find funding Lewis assisted William C. Mills with the excavation of Seip Mound near Bainbridge, Ohio.
[13] Lewis arrived at the Field Museum of Natural History in March 1907 after receiving his doctorate in anthropology at Columbia University the previous spring.
He was the second student of Franz Boas to be hired by the Field Museum, William Jones, the first Native American to earn an anthropology degree, being the other.
[15][16] It is here at the Field Museum that Lewis came to fully appreciate the previous emphasis of material culture that he experienced during his time at Columbia University with Boas.
Lewis's enduring legacy remains the collection of close to 14,000 objects that were acquired during the four-year Joseph N. Field South Pacific Expedition.
[19] Creating one of the largest and well known exhibits about Melanesia, Lewis opened the Joseph N. Field Hall for display in 1921 and it remained mostly unchanged until its renovation in 1986.
[23] Researching the regions of New Guinea, New Britain, and New Caledonia, Lewis traveled to numerous other areas, amassing an ethnographic collection for the Field Museum unparalleled anywhere in the world.
[24] Not only did Lewis gather over 14,000 objects during his four-year expedition in the South Pacific, but he also created one of the best documented collections of its kind in the world.
In an effort to expand the newly formed Field Museum’s collection base and establish it as a world-class scientific and educational institution, Lewis created extensive documentation to accompany the artifacts that were shipped back to Chicago.