Anthropologist. Aleš Hrdlička was famous for being the first scientist to spot and document the theory of human colonization of the Americas from east Asia. He argued that Native Americans migrated across the Bering Strait land bridge from Asia, supporting this theory with detailed field research of skeletal remains as well as studies of the people in Mongolia, Tibet, Siberia, Alaska, and Aleutian Islands. The findings backed up the argument which later contributed to the theory of global origin of human species that was awarded to him by the Thomas Henry Huxley Award in 1927. He immigrated with his family to the United States in 1881, when he was only 13. At the age of 18, he decided to study medicine at the Eclectic Medical College. He sat for his exams in Baltimore in 1894 to complete his medical studies and graduated with honors. He received a position in the newly founded State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane at Middletown, New York. It was here that he developed his interest in anthropometry. In 1896 he left for Paris to study anthropology at the Eccole de Medecine. Later that year, upon returning to the United States, he became an associate in anthropology in the New York Pathological Institute where he remained until 1899. Hrdlička founded and became the first curator of physical anthropology of the U.S. National Museum, now the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in 1903. At the time of his retirement from the Smithsonian in 1942, his colleagues credited him with establishing at the National Museum one of the greatest-if not the greatest-collections of anthropological material in all the world. Hrdlička's position at the Smithsonian provided him with the support for his scientific travel across America.
Anthropologist. Aleš Hrdlička was famous for being the first scientist to spot and document the theory of human colonization of the Americas from east Asia. He argued that Native Americans migrated across the Bering Strait land bridge from Asia, supporting this theory with detailed field research of skeletal remains as well as studies of the people in Mongolia, Tibet, Siberia, Alaska, and Aleutian Islands. The findings backed up the argument which later contributed to the theory of global origin of human species that was awarded to him by the Thomas Henry Huxley Award in 1927. He immigrated with his family to the United States in 1881, when he was only 13. At the age of 18, he decided to study medicine at the Eclectic Medical College. He sat for his exams in Baltimore in 1894 to complete his medical studies and graduated with honors. He received a position in the newly founded State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane at Middletown, New York. It was here that he developed his interest in anthropometry. In 1896 he left for Paris to study anthropology at the Eccole de Medecine. Later that year, upon returning to the United States, he became an associate in anthropology in the New York Pathological Institute where he remained until 1899. Hrdlička founded and became the first curator of physical anthropology of the U.S. National Museum, now the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in 1903. At the time of his retirement from the Smithsonian in 1942, his colleagues credited him with establishing at the National Museum one of the greatest-if not the greatest-collections of anthropological material in all the world. Hrdlička's position at the Smithsonian provided him with the support for his scientific travel across America.
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