Abstract

The anthropological interests of the Geological Survey of Canada were given a legislative mandate in 1907. First action on the new mandate was taken in 1910, just before the opening of the new Victoria Memorial Museum Building. With support from the nationalistic Government of Sir Wilfred Laurier, the Geological Survey undertook major expansion and specialization of museum functions including establishment of a new anthropology division with an archaeology section. Harlan Smith, an accomplished midcareer American archaeologist with extensive West Coast Canadian experience, was hired to head the professional archaeology section, his engagement on 15 June 1911 marking the beginning of full-time professional archaeology at the federal level. The archaeology of Canadian native peoples was poorly developed in 1911. In Smith's view that of southern British Columbia, for which he was a major contributor, was fairly good. Next best was that of Ontario with its large, but poorly studied collections. Arctic prehistory was beginning its emergence, but for all other areas knowledge was minuscule. Smith's plan was to survey the great cultural areas, build reference files, and undertake intensive study of at least one important site in each area in order to create a standard which would facilitate additional studies. The plan got a good start during the first several years, but changes in government and the vicissitudes of two world wars coupled with minor and major economic depressions made the next thirty years very difficult. Nevertheless, staff brought landmark studies to fruition for all culture areas and provided leadership in public education, in situ preservation of archaeological resources, disciplinary development, and attempts to find broader economic and social values in archaeological knowledge. Decades of budget restrictions brought the archaeology section to a low point in the mid 1940s. However when the post World War II economic boom took effect in the Museum, the archaeology section began a renewal which led to the hiring of the first new staff since 1924, the severing of a long association with the Geological Survey of Canada, a marked expansion in funding, and an invigorated program for the 1950s.