Overview
This collection contains biographical materials, lecture notes, correspondence, research notebooks, manuscripts (unpublished and published) and drawings/plans. The records document the work of Tatiana Proskouriakoff on Mayan text, ceramics, architecture and history.
Dates
- Creation: 1935-1985 (inclusive)
Conditions Governing Access
Restrictions on access: Unrestricted
Conditions Governing Use
Restrictions on use: Unrestricted.
Extent
3.5 linear feet (1 bankers box, 1 document box, 47 oversize watercolors and plans)The Tatiana Proskouriakoff Papers, 1935-1985, document Ms. Proskouriakoff's work and scholarship in the field of Mayan studies. This collection contains biographical materials of Tatiana Proskouriakoff, lecture notes (Fine Arts 121 and Anthropology 260), incoming correspondence, Carnegie Institution of Washington and National Science Foundation reports, research notebooks, manuscripts (unpublished and published), drawings, watercolors, and field plans.
Biographical Sketch:
Tatiana Proskouriakoff was born in Tomsk, Russia in 1909 to Avenir and Alla Proskouriakoff. Her family came to the United States in 1915, when Avenir, an engineer and chemist, was sent on a mission by the Russian Imperial Government to oversee the manufacture of arms produced for Russia. The family settled in Philadelphia where, during the Russian Revolution, they established permanent residence in the United States.
Tatiana Proskouriakoff received a B.S. in architecture in 1930 from Pennsylvania State College. After graduation, Proskouriakoff was employed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, where she copied meticulous drawings. Proskouriakoff's reconstruction drawing of Piedras Negras acropolis impressed a visiting archaeologist from the Carnegie Institution, who invited her to join the institution
At the Carnegie Institution, Proskouriakoff participated in the expedition to Copan and Chichen Itza as a draftsperson and illustrator. There, Tatiana Proskouriakoff contributed to the studies of the Maya by producing architectural reconstruction drawings and by providing a method of dating through a systematic analysis of glyphic data from Maya monuments. By the time she was promoted to staff member at the Carnegie Institution in 1943, Proskouriakoff became a Research Associate at the Peabody Museum, Harvard.
While at the Peabody Museum, Tatiana Proskouriakoff's major undertaking included preparing an illustrated and descriptive catalog of jade pieces from the Cenote of Sacrifice and Chichen Itza. This required sorting and restoring shattered pieces, and drawing the missing components of jade pieces based on her visual memory and knowledge of iconography. In 1958, she became an Honorary Curator of Maya art at the Peabody Museum.
Tatiana Proskouriakoff wrote several works from 1944-77 including: An Inscription on a Jade Probably Carved at Piedras Negras (1944), An Album of Maya Architecture (1946) and Jade from the Cenote of Sacrifice (1974).
Throughout her career, Tatiana Proskouriakoff won several awards in recognition for her contribution to Archaeoiogy and epigraphy including the A.V. Kidder Medal in 1972 from the Carnegie Institution for her discovery regarding Mayan hieroglyphic writing, Pennsylvania State University's nomination as Woman of the Year in 1971 and the Guatemalan Order of the Quetzal in 1984, as well as an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Tulane University in 1977.
She passed away in Watertown, Massachusetts on August 30th, 1985 at the age of 76.
Sources:
- Graham, Ian. (1991, Jan) "Obituary: Tatiana Proskouriakoff." American Antiquity, 55 (1), 6-11.
- Obituary, The Boston Globe, September 9, 1985
Arrangement
- Series I: Biographical materials.
- Series II: Lecture notes
- Series III: Correspondence (incoming)
- Series IV: Reports
- Series V: Notebooks
- Series VI: Manuscripts (unpublished and published) and notes
- Series VII: Drawings, watercolors, and plans
- Addendum: Kaminaljuyu plans
Physical Location
Peabody Museum Archives
Immediate Source of Acquisition
# 993-25
These papers were given to the Peabody Museum of Harvard University by Ian Graham ; 1993.
General note
Collections records may contain language, reflecting past collecting practices and methods of analysis, that is no longer acceptable. The Peabody Museum is committed to addressing the problem of offensive and discriminatory language present in its database. Our museum staff are continually updating these records, adding to and improving content. We welcome your feedback and any questions or concerns you may want to share.
Processed by:
Elizabeth Sandager, September 1993; edited by Patricia H. Kervick, Associate Archivist; August 2009
- Title
- Proskouriakoff, Tatiana . Papers of Tatiana Proskouriakoff, 1935-1985 (inclusive): A Finding Aid
- Author
- Peabody Museum Archives
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- pea00044
Repository Details
Part of the Peabody Museum Archives Repository
Papers in the Peabody Museum Archives consist of primary source materials that document the Museum’s archaeological and ethnographic research and fieldwork since its founding in 1866. More than 2,800 feet of archival paper collections contain documents, papers, manuscripts, correspondence, data, field notes, maps, plans, and other historical records that represent diverse peoples from around the world, and which were created or collected by the Museum, its individual affiliates, or related entities. The collections also document the history or provenience, as well as the creation of, many of the Museum’s archaeological and ethnographic collections.