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Peabody Museum South American Expedition, 1906–1909

Members of the Expedition in camp on the Tambopata River; seated, left to right, Dr. Farabee, Dr. Horr, Mr. de Milhau, Mr. Hastings (detail). From William Curtis Farabee, Indian Tribes of Eastern Peru. Cambridge, Mass.: The Museum, 1922

Members of the Expedition in camp on the Tambopata River; seated, left to right, Dr. Farabee, Dr. Horr, Mr. de Milhau, Mr. Hastings (detail). From William Curtis Farabee, Indian Tribes of Eastern Peru, 1922, Harry Elkins Widener Library, Harvard University.

Map showing location of Indian tribes in the upper Amazon region, in William Curtis Farabee, Indian Tribes of Eastern Peru, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 1922. Harry Elkins Widener Library, Cambridge, Mass.

William Curtis Farabee, an American anthropologist and ethnographer, led the Peabody Museum’s first ethnological expedition and established its headquarters at Harvard’s Boyden Station, near Arequipa, Peru. With support from Louis J. de Milhau, the Inca Mining Company, and from the Peruvian government, the expedition made three journeys to the Eastern Andes of Peru and Bolivia to study native inhabitants of the Amazon River basin and to map some of its boundaries.

Farabee’s field notes provide a rich account of the diversity among the Macheyanga, Conebo, Sipibo, and other tribes in Northern Peru. His pioneering observations of daily life—language, dress, ceremony, folklore—together with his work to trace ethnical relations between different peoples set the stage for future studies.

Expeditions and Discoveries Resources on the Peabody South America Expedition

Selected Manuscripts and Records in Expeditions and Discoveries

South America Expedition Records, 1904–1922. Peabody Museum 09–03, Peabody Museum Archives, Cambridge, Mass.

Publications

Farabee, William Curtis. Indian Tribes of Eastern Peru. Cambridge, Mass.: The Museum, 1922.
Ferris, Harry Burr. The Indians of Cuzco and the Apurimac. Lancaster, Pa.: New Era Printing Company, [1916].
Ferris, Harry Burr. Anthropological Studies on the Quichua and Machiganga Indians. New Haven: Conn. Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, [1921].

References

The following sources were used in writing this page.

Farabee, William Curtis. The Central Arawaks. Philadelphia: 1918.
Farabee, William Curtis. The Central Caribs. Philadelphia: The University Museum,1924.
Harvard University. Reports of The President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1903–1904. Cambridge, Mass. Published by Harvard University, 1905.
Papers of Solon Irving Bailey, 1889–1925, 1931. A New Peruvian Route to the Plain of the Amazon. HUG 1191, Box 1, Folder 11. Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, Mass.

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