Lynd, Robert Staughton, 1892-1970

Sociologist and educator. Married Helen Merrell, also a sociologist.

From the description of Robert Staughton Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd papers, 1895-1968 (bulk 1922-1968). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71064050

Professor of Sociology at Columbia University.

Lynd was a member of the Consumers' Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration.

From the description of Robert Staughton Lynd papers, 1933-1937. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 606938250

Biographical Note

Robert Staughton Lynd

• 1892, Sept. 26: Born, New Albany, Ind.
• 1914: B.A. Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
• 1914 - 1918 : Editor, Publishers' Weekly
• 1919: Manager, advertising and publicity, Charles Scribner's Sons
• 1920: Assistant publisher, B. W. Huebsch, Inc., and the Freeman
• 1921: Married Helen Merrell (died 1982)
• 1922: Missionary and writer, Elk Basin, Wyo., oil fields
• 1923: B.D., Union Theological Seminary, New York, N.Y.
• 1923 - 1926 : Director, Small City Study, Institute of Social and Religious Research
• 1926 - 1927 : Assistant director, Division of Educational Research, Commonwealth Fund
• 1927 - 1931 : Assistant to chairman, later permanent secretary, Social Sciences Research Council
• 1929: Published with Helen Merrell Lynd Middletown, a Study in Contemporary American Culture. New York: Harcourt, Brace
• 1931: Ph.D., Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
• 1931 - 1960 : Professor of sociology, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
• 1937: Published with Helen Merrell Lynd Middletown in Transition; a Study in Cultural Conflicts. New York: Harcourt, Brace
• 1939: Published Knowledge for What? The Place of Social Science in American Culture. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press
• 1970, Nov. 1: Died, New York, N.Y.

Helen Merrell Lynd

• 1896, Mar. 17: Born, La Grange, Ill.
• 1919: B.A., Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
• 1921: M.A., Columbia University, New York, N.Y. Married Robert Staughton Lynd (died 1970)
• 1929: Published with Robert Staughton Lynd Middletown, a Study in Contemporary American Culture. New York: Harcourt, Brace
• 1929 - 1964 : Engaged in research and writing Lecturer, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y, and Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, N.Y.
• 1937: Published with Robert Staughton Lynd Middletown in Transition; a Study in Cultural Conflicts. New York: Harcourt, Brace
• 1944: Ph.D., Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
• 1945: Published England in the Eighteen-Eighties: Toward a Social Basis for Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press Published Field Work in College Education. New York: Columbia University Press
• 1958: Published On Shame and the Search for Identity. New York: Harcourt, Brace
• 1965: Published Toward Discovery. Bronxville, N.Y.: Sarah Lawrence College
• 1982: Died, Warren, Ohio

From the guide to the Robert Staughton Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd Papers, 1895-1968, (bulk 1922-1968), (Manuscript Division Library of Congress)

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Robert Staughton Lynd was born on September 26, 1892 in New Albany, Indiana. He was a professor of sociology at Columbia University for thirty years (1931-1961.) He married Helen Merrell in September, 1922. They had two children, a son, Staughton, in 1929, and a daughter, Andrea, in 1934.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Lynd is best known for the book, Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture, that he and his wife wrote. The book was based on a landmark study of a typical American community in 1929 from a cultural anthropological standpoint. It was one of the first sociological analyses done in the country of a modern, urban community. The book proved to be a bestseller and was noted for its scientific perspective. Lynd and his wife followed up with a sequel titled, Middletown in Transition in 1937 by returning to the same community to observe the effects of the Great Depression on its people. Known as the Middletown studies, these analyses are still used and referred to by American sociologists.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Lynd died on November 1, 1970 in Warren, CT, at the age of seventy-eight.

From the guide to the Robert Staughton Lynd papers, 1933-1945, [Bulk Dates: 1933-1935]., (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)