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Audrey Hawthorn was born in 1917 in California. She was raised in New York City, and obtained a BA in 1939 at New College, Columbia University. During 1939-1941 Hawthorn was granted an MA; she also attended Yale Graduate School in Anthropology from 1940-1941. In 1941, Audrey and her husband, Dr. Harry Hawthorn, were given a joint fellowship in Latin American studies for coordinating the office of American Affairs and the Institute of Human Relations, Yale. Audrey was also a psychiatric case worker with the Family Services Agency in Yonkers, NY, 1946-47. The couple came to the UBC in 1947 when Harry was appointed UBC's first anthropologist. Audrey was appointed to the position of Honourary Curator of the new anthropology museum (in the basement of the UBC Library). In 1956 she was granted a regular appointment as Curator. She was the first person (and UBC the first institution) in Canada to begin the formal training of professional museum staff. From 1948 on, students from the Department of Anthropology voluntarily completed most of the work in the museum under her direction. By 1955, non-credit courses in museum studies were offered; in 1963, a credit course, Anthropology 331, Primitive Art, was added to the curriculum, and in 1965 Anthropology 431, Museum Principles and Methods was added. For a number of years, these were the only museum studies credit courses in Canada. In recognition of her teaching responsibilities, Audrey Hawthorn was appointed Assistant Professor in 1966 and Associate Professor in 1971. Her most important publications were a study of Indian Arts and Crafts, commissioned by the Royal Commission on Arts, Letters and Sciences in 1951; "People of the Potlatch, the Art of the Kwakiutl Indians" and "A Labour of Love" (a history of the Museum of Anthropology). She discontinued her museum duties in 1977 and formally retired in 1985. Audrey Hawthorn was awarded an honourary LL.D from the University of Brandon in 1984; received the Order of Canada in 1986; and an Honourary LL.D from UBC in 1986.

Born: 1917
Died: 2000-11