Jenness, Diamond, 1886-1969

Dates

• Existence: 1886 - 1969

Biography

Diamond Jenness was born on February 10, 1886 in Wellington, New Zealand. He received degrees in anthropology from Victoria University College, Balliol College and Oxford University. From 1913-1916, Jenness served as an ethnologist with the Canadian Arctic Expedition from under the leadership of both Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Dr. Rudolph M. Anderson. His detailed studies of the Copper Inuit around Coronation Gulf, and of other Arctic native people, helped establish him. Although most of his time thereafter was devoted to Indian studies (and administrative duties), he soon identified two very important prehistoric Eskimo cultures: the Dorset in Canada (in 1925) and the Old Bering Sea culture in Alaska (in 1926), for which he later was named "Father of Eskimo Archaeology. In 1926, Jenness succeeded Canada's first Chief Anthropologist, Dr. Edward Sapir, as Chief of Anthropology at the National Museum of Canada, a position he retained until his retirement in 1948. Between 1920 and 1970, Jenness authored more than 100 works on Canada's Inuit and First Nations people, including "Life of the Copper Eskimo," (1922), and "The Indians of Canada" (1932). Jenness died in 1969.

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