Aleš Hrdlička (1869-1943)

Aleš Hrdlička (1869-1943) was curator of physical anthropology at the United States National Museum, now the National Museum of Natural History, from 1904 to 1941. A Czech native, Hrdlicka traveled widely to collect skeletal remains and established the Smithsonian's world-renowned physical anthropology collections. In 1904, he came to head the newly created Division of Physical Anthropology (DPA) at the U.S. National Museum -- a position he held for the next forty years.