John Otis Brew - Archaeological Involvement and The Peabody Museum

Archaeological Involvement and The Peabody Museum

Brew was appointed curator of southwestern archaeology at the Peabody Museum in 1941 and the curator of North American archaeology in 1945. Brew also taught, which he thoroughly enjoyed, and made sure his students were actively enjoying the classroom as much as he was. These positions left Brew ample time to pursue his love for archaeological research and never interfered with his work. In 1948 he was appointed director of the Peabody Museum.

In 1945 the Committee for the Recovery of Archaeological Remains, known as CRAR, was formed. The committee was appointed by the Society for American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association and the American Council of Learned Societies and consisted of William S. Webb, A.V. Kidder, Frederick Johnson, and John Otis Brew (as the chairman). CRAR was a successful and very productive organization with J.O. Brew at the head. Brew was applauded for his leadership by Emil Haury in the following quote, "Jo knows his way around Washington, on the Hill and wherever else it counts. His dealings with tough-minded Senators, Representatives, and people in the Bureau of the Budget, have been done with a finesse that has paid off. All one needs to do is…catch the enthusiasm Jo has instilled in them (Federal agency representatives) for an activity that is far from their main line of interest".

J.O. Brew was also president of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1949 he revealed a humorous side when he wrote to his colleagues stating, "I have been instructed by the last Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology to appoint a committee to determine whether or not we should retain the traditional spelling ‘Archaeology’ or adopt the bob-tailed version ‘Archeology’ in the official name of the society and all its works". The archaeologists considered Brew’s letter with all seriousness, and voted sixteen to seven in favor of the traditional spelling.

The Peabody Museum celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary on October 8, 1966. The event was celebrated the evening before with approximately four-hundred and fifty graduates, friends, faculty, and staff. IN an essay in the volume 100 Years of Archaeology, Brew notes that it was a festive event in which tobacco was smoked and cocktails were served for the first time inside the halls of the museum. He also organized several lectures that took place over the 1966 academic year that discussed the growth of the five major phases of anthropology from 1866 to 1966. Those phases were: American Archaeology, Old World Prehistory, Biological Anthropology, Ethnology and Social Anthropology, and Anthropological Linguistics. The lecturers were Gordon Willey of Harvard University, Glyn Daniel of Cambridge University in England, Sherwood Washburn of the University of California at Berkeley, Fred Eggan of the University of Chicago, and Floyd Lounsbury of Yale University. Brew also gave a brief history of the Peabody Museum. All of these activities showed what great enthusiasm Brew had for Harvard University, the Peabody Museum, and the fields of anthropology and archaeology.

Brew also became actively involved with the National Park Service Advisory Board and UNESCO’s International Committee for Monuments, Historic Sites, and Archaeological Excavations, for which he was chairman for a number of years. He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Commission and the advisory board of Plimoth Plantation and served as trustee of Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts. Late in his life he also served on a board that advised the Tennessee Valley Authority on archaeological matters.