Matthew W. Stirling: Archaeologist of the Americas

In this installment of ‘Profiles in History,’ we meet an ethnologist whose passion for Central and South America led to revolutionary discoveries.

Marion and Matthew Stirling in Veracruz, Mexico, April 15, 1939. Smithsonian Institution Archives/CC0

Matthew W. Stirling (1896–1975) was born in California’s Salinas Valley, where his father was a manager for the Southern Pacific Milling Co., which had milling and quarrying operations throughout the state’s central coast. The young Stirling had an early fascination with archaeology from finding common artifacts, like arrowheads, on his grandfather’s ranch near Salinas. It was a fascination he would cultivate the rest of his life.

He attended the University of California, earning his bachelors degree in 1920. The following year, he ventured from California across the country to Washington to attend George Washington University, graduating in 1922 with a master’s degree. It was also here and in 1921 that Stirling began his very long affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution.

New Guinea Expedition

He began that affiliation as a museum aide and then as assistant curator for the Division of Ethnology until 1924. Although Stirling resigned from his position at the Smithsonian in 1924, he was still affiliated with the organization when he led the Smithsonian Institution-Dutch Colonial Government expedition into Netherlands New Guinea. The expedition, which took place from April to December 1926, ventured into the interior of New Guinea.

The Stirling-led expedition was very large, and not only included Dutch and American explorers, but also “a military escort of 75 Ambonese soldiers, around 130 Dayak canoemen and carriers, and some 250 Malay convicts who mainly worked as carriers.” Stirling organized the expedition to use a hydroplane. It was the first time an airplane was used to fly over impenetrable forests and areas thought to be uninhabited. Stirling, whose “pygmy” curiosity motivated him to lead the expedition, was surprised to see that some of these areas were inhabited and cultivated. He relinquished the leadership position in July, although he stayed with the expedition.

Matthew Stirling's expedition photograph of pygmies, from "By Aeroplane to Pygmyland." Smithsonian Institution Digital Libraries

From the airplane, the expedition shot “20,000 feet of film footage,” which resulted in Stirling’s successful film “By Aeroplane to Pygmy Land.” The film, long thought lost, was recently discovered in the Netherlands. The information gathered about New Guinea’s Negrito and Pauan cultures now forms “one of the National Museum’s most valuable collections.”

Love, Beatty, and the BAE

In 1928, Stirling returned to the Smithsonian to become the chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE). He was the “first academically trained anthropologist to head the Bureau,” and he held this position until 1957 (the final 10 years, the position was titled “director”). This was substantially longer than that held by John Wesley Powell, the founding director who served from 1879 to 1902.

Three years after taking the head position, Marion Illig was hired as the BAE secretary. While working there, she studied anthropology, geology, as well as Russian, at night. Stirling and Marion quickly fell in love and the two married in 1933. According to Stirling, she became his “co-explorer, co-author and general coordinator.” In 1939, she accurately calculated the date of a stone-etched date of 31 B.C., which at the time was the oldest dated artifact discovered in the New World. The calculation would not be confirmed until 1972, when the rest of the artefact was discovered.

The same year became the BAE secretary, Stirling endorsed and joined Donald Beatty’s Latin American Expedition (1931–32). The expedition was also endorsed by Maj. Leslie Barbrook, of the National Geographic Society, and sponsored by J.P. Morgan. The expedition into the continent’s interior resulted in the first images of the Jivaro people.

Mesoamerican Origins

It was in Central America, from 1938 until his resignation as BAE director, that Stirling would make his greatest contribution to the study of ethnology. With funding from the National Geographic Society, Stirling led 13 expeditions into southern Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, and Costa Rica, of which eight were conducted in Mexico. It was also during this time that he received his doctorate from Tampa University in 1943.

After returning from the Beatty Expedition, he visited Copán, in western Honduras near the Guatemalan border, and Quiriguá, in southeast Guatemala. Both locations are known for their Mayan ruins. While exploring these areas, he was informed that ruins were also located in southern Veracruz. It was here that he made his most significant discovery.

From 1938 to 1946, Stirling explored Tres Zapotes, Cerro de las Mesas, La Venta, and San Lorenzo. These southern Mexico expeditions confirmed that the Mayan were not the earliest civilization in the Americas. His discovery of the Olmec civilization predated the Mayans by more than 1,000 years. The Olmecs are most identifiable by the stone heads discovered by Stirling and his expedition team, of which Marion was a part.

This 1,000-year time differential was confirmed, upon “discovering ‘America’s oldest dated work’—a stone monument bearing a date equivalent to 291 B.C.”

According to National Geographic, “The Olmec Civilization was one of the most influential ancient civilizations of the early Americas, and … is commonly thought to be the ‘mother culture’ of many other cultures that appeared in the region in later years.” The Olmecs built large mounds, pyramids, statues, and monuments—most famously the stone heads.

Additionally, Stirling discovered nearly 800 pieces of pre-Columbian jade and 11 smooth granite spheres in Costa Rica.

A green pre-Columbian Mesoamerican jade pendant. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain

A Literary and Film Legacy

It was not enough, however, to merely discover these ancient civilizations. As head of the BAE, Stirling hired numerous professional anthropologists, archaeologists, and ethnologists to continue researching the Mesoamerican cultures, including Homer Barnett, Philip Drucker, William Fenton, George Foster, Duncan Strong, and Gordon Willey. The work was often published in BAE bulletins as part of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.

This work was eventually published in a seven-volume set called “Handbook of South American Indians.” The work was edited by Julian Steward, who was hired by Stirling in 1938 for such a task.

Stirling finally retired from the BAE in 1957. Upon his retirement, he continued as a research associate for the Smithsonian Institute. He became a member of the National Geographic Society’s Committee on Research and Exploration, and also worked in collaboration with the National Park Service.

He wrote numerous books of his expeditions including “Stone Monuments of Southern Mexico,” “The Native Peoples of New Guinea,” “Origin Myth of Acoma,” and “National Geographic on Indians of the Americas.” Along with “By Aeroplane to Pygmy Land,” Stirling shot a film called “Uncovering Mexico’s Forgotten Treasures” for National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution.

A 2018 reprint of Matthew Stirling's "Origin Myth of Acoma: And Other Works."

Stirling and Marion were married for 42 years, and after his death in 1975, she continued working in the field of archaeology. She remarried in 1977 to Maj. Gen. John Ramsey Pugh. She served twice, from 1960 to 1963 and 1969 to 1972, as president of the Society of Women Geographers. She was also a trustee for the Textile Museum in Washington from 1968 till her death in 2001.

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