Martha Warren Beckwith

Martha Warren Beckwith (January 19, 1871 – January 28, 1959) was an American folklorist and ethnographer, appointed to the first chair in Folklore established in the U.S. She was born in Wellesley Heights, Massachusetts.

Education and academic career

Beckwith graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1893 and taught English at Elmira College, Mount Holyoke, Vassar College, and Smith College. In 1906, she obtained a Master of Arts degree in anthropology after studying under Franz Boas at Columbia University, and she received her Doctor of Philosophy in 1918. In 1920, Beckwith was appointed to the chair in Folklore at Vassar College, making her the first person to hold a chair in Folklore at any college or university in the United States. She became a full professor in 1929 and retired in 1938.

Research

Beckwith conducted research in a variety of European and Middle Eastern countries, but her most extensive research focused on Hawaii, Jamaica, and the Sioux and Mandan-Hidatsa Native American Reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota where she was inducted into the Prairie Chicken Clan of the Mandan-Hidatsa.

Selected bibliography

• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Folk-Games of Jamaica (with music recorded in the field by Helen H. Roberts). Poughkeepsie, N. Y.: Vassar College, 1922.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Christmas Mummings in Jamaica. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College, 1923.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Black Roadways: A Study of Jamaican Folk Life. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1929.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Polynesian Analogues to the Celtic Other-World and Fairy Mistress Themes. New Haven, C.T.: Yale University Press, 1923.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Jamaica Anansi Stories (with music recorded in the field by Helen Roberts). New York: American Folklore Society, 1924.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Jamaica Proverbs. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College, 1925.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Notes on Jamaican Ethnobotany. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College, 1927.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Jamaica Folk-Lore. New York: American Folk-Lore Society. 1928.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Myths and Hunting Stories of the Mandan and Hidatsa Sioux. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College, 1930.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Mandan-Hidatsa Myths and Ceremonies. New York: American Folk-Lore Society, 1937.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. Hawaiian Mythology. New Haven, C.T.: Yale University Press, 1940.
• Beckwith, Martha Warren. The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.