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© 2008 University of Chicago Library
Open for research. No restrictions.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Slotkin, James Sydney. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
James Sydney Slotkin was born in New York City on July 12, 1913.
Slotkin studied at the Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin between 1930 and 1932. In 1932 he came to the University of Chicago and earned his BA in 1934, majoring in anthropology. In 1935 he received his MA from the University of Chicago, and on July 27 of that year he married Elizabeth Josephine Cole, a fellow student. In 1940 he received his PhD from the University of Chicago, with a major in anthropology and a minor in social psychology.
He was an Instructor at Washington University in St Louis in 1941, and a Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin from 1942 to 1944. Between 1944 and 1946 he was an Assistant Professor at Howard University, and in the summers from 1943 to 1945 he was an Associate Professor at the University of Texas. In 1946 he returned to the University of Chicago as an Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, which he remained until 1957.
As a scholar, Slotkin had a broad range of interests, working in numerous fields, including: social anthropology; ethnohistory; social psychology; the history and methodology of social science and the sociology of knowledge. He published articles on a variety of topics, but major works included: Social Anthropology (1950); Personality Development (1952); and From Field to Factory (1960). Between 1949 and 1951, and again in 1954, he conducted ethnographic field work with the Menomini Indians of Wisconsin. As a result of his research into Peyote religion, published in such works as The Peyote Religion (1956) and Menomini Peyotism (1957), he became Secretary of the Native American Church of North America.
Slotkin died in Chicago on August 6, 1958.
James Sydney Slotkin was a student at the University of Chicago between 1932 and 1940 and Associate Professor of Social Sciences from 1946 and 1957. The collection includes published and unpublished manuscripts and papers, teaching materials, correspondence and some research materials. It documents his broad interests in various topics in the social sciences: anthropology, sociology, esthetics, social psychology and methodology.
The Slotkin papers have been organized into four series: Series I, Unpublished Manuscripts; Series II, Teaching; Series III, Published Material; and Series IV, Correspondence. It contains material from the period 1931-1962.
The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:
This Series is divided into six subseries by topic: (1) Major Works; (2) Papers on Metaphysics and Methodology; (3) Papers on Historical Topics; (4) Papers on Contemporary Problems; (5) Esthetics; and (6) Miscellaneous Papers. This organization largely follows the organization of the papers at the time of donation. The series contains material from the period 1931-1957, and includes draft and unpublished papers, term papers and some research materials.
This series contains material from the period 1946 to 1955. The folders are organized as they were at the time of donation, and contain syllabi and class materials.
This series contains material from the period 1932-1956. It contains reprinted articles, biographic material, some research material and a microfilm reproduction of "Bulletin of the Native American Church."
This series contains correspondence from the period 1941-1958. It is organized largely in the order it was received: alphabetically by correspondent, with two folders at the end of the series containing correspondence relating to individual publications.