Scope and Contents
The Gallagher papers consist mainly of materials relating to his major field work. In 1949-1950 and in 1951, he investigated social arrangements, especially kinship, in the rural village of Civaux in the Department of Vienne in central France. In 1953-1954, working for International Public Opinion Research, Inc., which was under contract with the U. S. Air Force Human Resources Research Institute, he returned to France and studied the relations between the people of Chateauroux, a small city in the Department of Indre, and the personnel of a nearby American air base. The great bulk of Gallagher's material relating to France resulted from the work at Civaux. Only a few writings, including his Ph.D. dissertation, reflect the work at Chateauroux.
In 1962-1963, Gallagher was at Ranchi University, in the state of Bihar (now Jharkhand), in central India, on a National Science Foundation Science Faculty Fellowship. From there, he carried out studies in the village of Makhmandro among Oroans (Kurukh), a Dravidian group. Again, his focus was on social relations. His main method consisted of interviews of laborers.
Early in Gallagher's career, in 1951, he worked for the Science Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota, attempting to establish criteria for identifying tribal origins and dates for American Indian beaded artwork. Few materials resulting from this study appear in the collection. Gallagher's interest in isolated communities of northern Saratoga County, New York is represented by a few items, most of them manuscripts of writings.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
