Harvey Pitkin Papers, American Philosophical Society

The linguist Harvey Pitkin has worked on several of the indigenous languages of Northern California, with a particular interest in Wintu, Patwin, and Yuki. A student of A. L. Kroeber, Pitkin was a member of the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and later at Columbia University before his retirement in the late 1980s.

The Pitkin Papers contain materials recorded or accumuluted by Harvey Pitkin during the course of his study of American Indian languages, including not only his own fieldnotes and research on Wintu and Yuki, but originals and copies of notes, notebooks, and slipfiles by A. L. Kroeber, A. M. Halpern, John P. Harrington, John Alden Mason, Paul Radin, Hans Uldall, Donald Ultan, T. T. Waterman, and others. These include important information on Atsugewi, Kwakiutl, Luiseno, Pomo, Wappo, Yahi, and Yana, and include some data on the consultants Ralph Moore (Yuki) and Ishi (Yahi).

Background note

Born in New York City on April 22, 1928, Harvey Pitkin received his doctorate in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1963. Under the direction of Alfred L. Kroeber, he directed his attention to a study of the dialects of Wintu (Wintu and Patwin), a Penutian language of Northern California, and later to Yuki and Wappo, California languages of uncertain affinity. Relatively early in Pitkin's career, Kroeber entrusted him with his invaluable collection of Yuki notes and notebooks, feeling that Piktin's ear was better attuned to the subtleties of the language.

In 1960, Pitkin was hired as Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Berkeley, earning promotion to Associate in 1964 and full professor in 1980. He later served on the faculty at Columbia University until his retirement.

Pitkin's publications included two major monographs, Wintu Grammar, University of California Publications in Linguistics 94 (1985), and Wintu Dictionary University of California Publications in Linguistics 95, the former bassed largely on his dissertation. Among several articles he wrote were "A Comparative Survey of California Penutian," "A Bibliography of the Wintun Family of Languages," "A Comparison of Miwok and Wintun" (with Sylvia A. Broadbent), "Language and Culture," "Some Problems of Method in Anthropological Linguistics," "Coyote and Bullhead, a Wintu Text," "Squirrel and Acorn-Woman (Wintu)," and "Two Plus Two Makes Two: An Analysis of Wintu Numerals."

Scope and content

The Pitkin Papers (1884-1968) are comprised of 15.5 linear feet of materials relating to Harvey Pitkin's research on the indigenous languages of northern California. The collection consists primarily of research ntoes and notebooks, vocabularies, and slip files, with some texts and other manuscripts, correspondence, and phonetic tracings. An inveterate collector of materials relating to the languages he studied, Pitkin accumulated originals and copies of the works of other specialists in California languages, including his mentor, A. L. Kroeber, A. M. Halpern, John P. Harrington, John Alden Mason, Paul Radin, Hans Uldall, Donald Ultan, T. T. Waterman, and others. These include important information on Atsugewi, Kwakiutl, Luiseno, Pomo, Wappo, Yahi, and Yana, and include some data on the consultants Ralph Moore (Yuki) and Ishi (Yahi).

Arrangement

The collection is divided into three series:


Series I. Patwin and Wintu Materials	1884-1957	13 boxes; 7 linear feet
Series II. Yuki Materials	1900-1968	12 boxes; 7.25 linear feet
Series III. Miscellaneous Materials	1904-1958	3 boxes; 1.25 linear feet

Administrative information

Restrictions

None.

Provenance

The Pitkin Papers were donated by Harvey Pitkin in February 1993 (acc. no. 1993-227ms).

Preferred citation

Cite as: Harvey Pitkin Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Catalogued by Tim Wilson, 1996.

Additional information

Separated material

Transferred to printed materials:

Ralph Beals, Address in memory of Alfred L. Kroeber, delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Anthropological Association, March 31, 1961, at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The originals of Kroeber's Yuki notebooks were transferred to the Kroeber Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley in 1999. Photocopies of all were retained.

Related material

The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, houses an extensive collection of the papers of A. L. Kroeber.