Alabama Anthropological Society

The Alabama Anthropological Society was organized May 13, 1909, after Thomas M. Owen, Peter A. Brannon, and Henry S. Halbert decided that an organization was needed for the promotion of the study of anthropology in Alabama. From its formation in 1909 and through the 1920s the group sponsored meetings to exchange information and ideas, as well as excursions in which the members excavated Native American artifacts. The group had five committees whose members were appointed by the president. The committees were as follows: Field Exploration, Collections and Relics, Publicity, Promotion of Anthropological Study in Alabama Schools and Colleges, and Transportation. Beginning in 1920, the society published Arrow Points, a journal of the group's activities. Peter A. Brannon, the society's secretary, was largely responsible for the production of the journal.

By the 1930s the activities of the group slowed considerably. This occurred, in part, because of the advent of larger-scale archaeological programs, some of them government-sponsored. Arrow Points ceased publication in 1937. From that point on, the society appears to have existed primarily in name only. It eventually died with the last of its original members in the 1960s. The group's legacy can be found in its journal and in its artifacts and relics found in the Native American collections of the Alabama Dept. or Archives and History.

From the description of Records, 1787-1979. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122498286