Robert Barlow was born in Leavenworth, Kansas on May 18, 1918. Barlow began his
college career at the Kansas City Art Institute and later transferred to San Francisco Junior College.
In 1939 he entered Escuela de Antropologia of the Instituto Nacional de Ciecias Biologicas,
where he first obtained an interest in Mexican anthropology. Barlow was
a naturally gifted linguist and soon learned classical Nahuatl. He
developed a great interest in Mexican prehistory documentary source
exploitation while studying with teacher Wigberto Jimenez Moreno.
Barlow eventually returned to the U.S. to continue his studies in
anthropology and received his B.A. at University of California, in Berkley in 1942.
Barlow furthered his studies at Mexico's Universidad Nacional Autonoma.
In 1942 he got experience as a Teaching Assistant in Geography. From this experience he
moved onto a research assistant position in Anthropology at Berkeley, a position he held from 1942 to 1943.
He received a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1944. It was
for his work in the collection of old Mexican documentary materials.
Due to a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation from 1946-1948,
Barlow was able to make a trip to France, where, at the Bibliotheque
Nationale, he was able to study the holdings in the field of
Mexican primary sources.
Barlow's first teaching position was at Escuela Nacional de Antropolgia, were he taught Nahuatl. He also taught in the Instituto de Historia
of Universidad Nacional Autonoma of Mexico. In 1945, Barlow was
very active in the Mexican Council for Indian Languages. He worked for the
Mexican Institudode Alfa-betizacion para Indigenas Monolingues as a
consultant on modern Nahuatl. Barlow gathered many documents and
recorded present day living languages on his many trips throughout Mexico.
He also worked on a study of the Maya of Yucatan as an associate of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington's Division of Historical Research.
Robert Hamilton Barlow died in Azcapotzalco, D.F., Mexico, on January 2nd, 1951,
at 32 years of age. At the time, he was the acting chairman of Mexico
City College's department of anthropology. In this quote, Norman McQuown
spoke for all who knew and respected Robert Barlow, “Never robust in health, sensitive
to the world about him to a uncommon degree, unable to devote himself blindly
and exclusively to his love of knowledge for it’s sake alone, he succumbed
to the mal du siecle which in one way or another has touched us all. His
place will not soon be filled.” (AA vol.53 p. 543) .
References
McQuown Norman, Biography: Robert Hamilton Barlow, American Anthropology, Vol. 53 No. 4
pg 543, 1951
Ferguson William M. Maya Ruins in Central America in Color,
University on New Mexico Press, Albuquerque NM, 1984
Written By: Joel Juen, 2003
Edited By: Lillian Dolentz, 2008