MARTHA WARREN BECKWITH
1871 - 1959
Martha Warren Beckwith, Research Professor Emeritus of
Folklore at Vassar College since 1938, died at her home
in Berkeley, California, on January 28, 1959. Born in
Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1871,
Miss Beckwith spent her childhood in Hawaii ("the blessed
islands," as Padraic Colum called them in his book ded-
icated to her) and early became interested in the folklore
and folk tales of Polynesia, a field which she made her
own after graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 1893
and taking a doctorate at Columbia University in 1912.
After teaching at Mount Holyoke, Elmira, and Smith, Martha
Beckwith was Instructor of English at Vassar from 1909 to
1913. She joined the faculty again in 1920 as Research
Professor on the Folk~lore Foundation and as Associate
Professor of Comparative Literature, the latter title be-
ing dropped in 1929. Her chair as Research Professor of
Folk-lore was probably unique in the history of American
college education - and perhaps is even to this day. It
was made possible by the generosity of a Mr. and Mrs.
Alexander of Hawaii, was arranged by them anonymously
through a lawyer so that even President MacCracken did
not know the identity of the donors until fter Miss
Beckwith's retirement, and was given solely for Miss
Beckwith. Even in this day of giving to colleges and
universities by foundations we might remark this practice
for serious consideration.
After her return to Vassar Martha Beckwith gradually built
up courses in folklore, greatly encouraged by President
MacCracken, who also raised funds for field work by Vassar
students to collect folklore in Dutchess County. The Vassar
College Folk-lore Foundation published fourteen numbers be-
tween 1922 and 1934 and of these the first ten have the
subtitle, "Vassar College field work in folk-lore." Martha
Beckwith wrote nine of these monographs, four of which were
reprinted by the American Folk-lore Society; her students
wrote the others, sometimes in collaboration with her.
These studies and her other monographs ranged over a wide
field, for in her several leaves of absence Martha Beckwith
collected tales, riddles, and songs from Hawaii, Jamaica,
Cuba, the Mandan and Hidatsa Sioux, and the Kwakiutl Indians.
She published a translation of the Hawaiian romance of
Laieikawai in 1918, an edition and translation of Kepe1ino's
MARTHA WARREN BECKWITH (Continued)
Traditions of Hawaii in 1932, and six books of scholar-
ship on folklore between l924 and 1951. Three of these
dealt with Jamaican folklore and tales, one with Mandan
and Hidatsa myths and ceremonies, and two with Hawaiian
mythology. The crown of these and of her scholarship is
The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant, which she trans-
lated, ediied, and wrote a penetrating comment on, and which
was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1951.
Reviewing this book in the Journal of American Folk-lore,
LXIV (1951), 429-432, Katharihe Luomala of-the University of
Hawaii described Miss Beckwith as "the author of several
major works on Hawaiian mythology and its relationship to
that of the rest of Polynesia" and said of the book, 'the
publication of her translation is a milestone in Polynesian
research, and for folklorists and anthropologists who wish
to learn of Polynesian chants and their function in cul-
ture, this book on the most famous chant of all, is a fas-
cinating introduction to the subject."
She was an inspiring teacher of the comparatively few students
she recognized as promising, but she was no more interested
in the average student than she was interested in the politi-
cal and social problems of modern life. She had many warm
friends, however, who appreciated her single-minded devotion
to scholarship and her courage in the many difficulties of
research in her chosen field. She was a charming and beauti-
ful woman, the best type of Victorian lady and scholar.
John Peirce
Winifred Smith
Richard Brooks, Chairman
XV - 86