Thomas Forsyth McIlwraith

Thomas Forsyth McIlwraith

Thomas Forsyth McIlwraith, anthropologist (b at Hamilton, Ont 9 Apr 1899; d at Toronto 29 Mar 1964). McIlwraith graduated from McGill and Cambridge and, as field assistant at the National Museum of Canada, conducted research on the Northwest Coast, 1922-24. In 1925 he joined the University of Toronto and was a professor and head of the department of anthropology from 1936 to 1952.

At U of T, McIlwraith built a department in which archaeological, linguistic, physical and ethnological anthropology all found a place. His own research interests lay in ethnology and later in the effects of change on Canadian native peoples. In 1939 he edited (with C.T. Loram) The North American Indian Today and in 1948 published the Bella Coola Indians (seeNUXALK). Chairman of the Social Science Research Council, president of the Royal Canadian Institute and the Royal Society of Canada, fellow of the Royal Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, he remained a research associate of the National Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum.