Guide to the Papers of Henry Otley Beyer

Biographical Note

Henry Otley Beyer was born on 13 July 1883 in Edgewood, Iowa U.S.A.. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Denver, Colorado.

Beyer went to the Philippine Islands in 1905 and worked first as a teacher in the Bureau of Education. Later he was sent to study the Ifugaos of the Banaue Valley of North Luzon and during this time also studied the Philippine language, mythology, folklore, custom law and pre-history.

In 1908 Beyer travelled to China, Egypt, Southern Asia, the Moorish States of North Africa and Europe and completed, under the Robert Winthrop Scholarship, a post-graduate year at Harvard studying anthropology. When Beyer returned to the Philippines he collected his 150 volume Philippine ethnographic series containing data on the tribes of Luzon, Visayas, Mundando and Sulu Archipelago.

Beyer was appointed ethnologist in the Philippines Bureau of Science and part-time Head of the Philippine Museum in 1909. When the Department of Anthropology, within the College of Liberal Arts in the University of Philippines was set up in 1914, Beyer became its first Head. In 1921, Sociology was fused with Anthropology and the Department of Anthropology and Sociology was set up. Beyer remained its Head until 1951.

When specimens of fossils and artefacts dating from the old stone age were unearthed in the Sierra Madre Foothills, Beyer continued his archaeological work as well as his work in Batangas, Laguna de Bay Basin and Central Luzon. During this time his Philippine Ethnographic series and Philippines before Magellan were published.

In 1928 a remarkable site (Iron-age pre-Spanish village) was found in the Rizal province and Beyer worked on this site. The Rizal-Bulakan and Batangas surveys together recovered a history of the central Luzon population for more than 10,000 years.

During the 1936 - 37 period Beyer's work on Philippine Tektites began to attract attention. His paper on this subject was published in the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1942.

President Manuel Quezon and Beyer agreed in 1937 that Beyer would donate his entire archaeological collection provided the government would build an adequate museum to house the collection. Plans were drawn up but work had not yet begun when war broke out in 1941. A Japanese ethnologist, Tado Kano helped Beyer save most of his collection during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Beyer was interned for two years, whilst his collection was housed in the Watson building off the campus of the University of the Philippines.

After the war the University was transferred to Diliman, and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology separated. Beyer left the University in 1954 and was appointed Emeritus Professor of Anthropology.

Between 1910 and 1953 Beyer wrote and published a large number of scientific papers and books on Philippine archaeology, ethnology and history. For his work Beyer was awarded an Honorary doctorate in science from Silliman University, a doctor of science in Anthropology from Ateno de Manila and a doctor of laws from the University of the Philippines.

When Beyer died on 31 December 1966, he was buried in an Ifugao burial shed on one of the hills of Banaue.