De Laguna, Frederica (1906–2004)

American ethnologist, anthropologist and archaeologist. Name variations: Frederica Annis de Laguna. Born Frederica Annis Lopez de Leo de Laguna, Oct 3, 1906, in Ann Arbor, Michigan; died Oct 6, 2004, in Haverford, Pennsylvania; dau. of Theodore and Grace (Andrus) de Laguna (both philosophers who taught at Bryn Mawr); sister of Wallace de Laguna (geologist); Bryn Mawr College, AB, 1927; Columbia, PhD in Anthropology, 1933.

Studied with Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and Gladys Reichard at Columbia; studied in England and France (beginning 1928); accompanied Arctic archaeologist Therkel Mathiassen on the 1st professional excavation in Greenland, on which Inugsuk culture was discovered; conducted research in Alaska (1930–33), which resulted in The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska (1934); conducted anthropological survey (1935), traveling down Tanana and Yukon Rivers, which became foundation of The Prehistory of Northern North America as Seen from the Yukon (1947); surveyed social conditions on Pima Indian Reservation, Arizona (1936); became teacher at Bryn Mawr (1938); during WWII, served in WAVES; continued work in Alaska, living in Tlingit village of Angoon (1950) and at Yakutat (1952 and 1954); spent 4 seasons with Athapaskan Atna of Copper River (1954, 1958, 1960, 1968); published 3-vol. Under Mount Saint Elias (1972); organized Bryn Mawr's 1st department of anthropology; following retirement from Bryn Mawr, worked in Greenland and as a guest at Alaskan digs. Other works include Chugach Prehistory (1956), (with Kaj Birket-Smith) The Eyak Indians of the Copper River Delta, Alaska (1938), The Story of a Tlingit Community (1960), Voyage to Greenland: A Personal Initiation into Anthropology (1977), as well as detective stories.