Robert Bennett Bean

Robert Bennett Bean (1874–1944) was an associate professor of anatomy and ethnologist adept to craniometry and the concept of "race", whose scientific work was discredited by his mentor but who nonetheless became a professor at the University of Virginia and remained so until his death.[1]

Life and career

Bean, through his mother, was descended from the First Families of Virginia, including colonist and land owner William Randolph. He studied medicine and anatomy and obtained a B.S. in medicine, followed by an M.D. in anatomy in 1904.

Career

Bean became a professor of anatomy at numerous universities, including the University of Michigan (1905–1907), the Philippine Medical School of Manila (1908) and the Tulane University of Louisiana (1910–1916). In 1916 he accepted a position as an associate professor at the University of Virginia and remained so until his death. He became the councilor of the American Anthropological Association in 1919 and was also a regional chairman for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1926). He is buried at the University of Virginia cemetery.[2]

Works

He is best remembered for his racist ethnological work The Races of Man (1932).[3]

Books

• Racial Anatomy of the Philippine Islanders (1910)
• The Races of Man. Differentiation and Dispersal of Man (1932, 2nd Ed. 1935)
• The Peopling of Virginia (1938)

References

1. Brent Tarter, The Grandees of Government: the Origins and Persistence of Undemocratic Politics in Virginia (Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 2013) p. 319 citing Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (New York 1981) pp. 77-82
2. "Dr Robert Bennett Bean (1874 - 1944) - Find A Grave Memorial". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
3. "Robert Bennett Bean", 1874-1944, R. J. Terry, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 48, No. 1, Jan. - Mar., 1946, pp. 70-74.