Wallis, Ruth Sawtell (1895–1978)
Wallis, Ruth Sawtell (1895–1978)
American physical anthropologist and novelist. Born Ruth Sawtell, Mar 15, 1895, in Springfield, MA; died Jan 21, 1978; dau. of Grace Quimby Sawtell and Joseph Otis Sawtell(haberdasher); attended Vassar College, 1913; Radcliffe College, BA,1919, MA in anthropology, 1923; Columbia University, PhD; m. Wilson D. Wallis (cultural anthropologist), 1931.
Known for analysis of Azilian skeletal remains from France, children's growth studies, and ethnography of Micmac Indians (eastern Canada), published scholarly work Azilian Skeletal Remains from Montardit (Ariege) France (1931) and popular account Primitive Hearths in the Pyrenees (with Ida Treat, 1927); with Mildred Totter, was one of only two women who became charter members of American Association of Physical Anthropologists (1930); taught at Hamline University, St. Paul (early 1930s); worked with Works Progress Administration (WPA, 1935–37); launched 2nd career as novelist with Too Many Bones (1943); with husband, published ethnography of the Micmac, The Micmac Indians of Eastern Canada (1955), and work on Malecite Indians, The Malecite Indians of New Brunswick (1957); at Annhurst College in CT, began lecturing in sociology (1957), then became full professor (1967), then retired as its 1st professor emerita (1974).