Featured Memoir
Jim Allen by James O’Connell
“Over his six-decade professional career, Frederick James Allen, known to all as Jim, made highly influential contributions on the initial human colonization of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea), the Late Pleistocene history of Tasmania, the ancestral Polynesian Lapita cultural complex, and the development of pre-European coastal trading networks in New Guinea. Apart from archaeology he was known for, among other things, his exploits on the cricket pitch, his late-night a capella performances of traditional Australian songs and poetry, his (sometimes) intimidating style in debate, and his knowledge of Australian wines, honed over decades of personal experience.”
About the Series
Published since 1877, Biographical Memoirs provide the life histories and selected bibliographies of deceased National Academy of Sciences members. Colleagues familiar with the subject’s work write these memoirs and as such, the series provides a biographical history of science in America.
The Online Collection includes approximately 1,900 memoirs, including those of famed naturalist Louis Agassiz; Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Thomas Edison; Alexander Graham Bell; noted anthropologist Margaret Mead; and psychologist and philosopher John Dewey.
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