Archaeological Research Facility

Clinton Hart Merriam, who signed his name C. Hart Merriam was a naturalist who spent part of his professional life studying California Indians. He worked assiduously with native informants. For Merriam's background, which was that of a biologist and not ananthropologist, the reader is referred to a following section written by Alfred L. Kroeber, "C. Hart Merriam as Anthropologist." Although Merriam had a formal tie with the Smithsonian Institution which held a bequest known as the E.H. Harriman Fund, he was not a member of the Smithsonian staff. He had, in brief, an institutional connection, but he did not work under the direction of that institution.