Background
Cressman was born outside of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, the son of a physician.
anthropologist archaeologist university professor
Cressman was born outside of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, the son of a physician.
He received his Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia in 1928, and that same year, he left the priesthood.
He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1923, but feeling doubts about his vocation, began studying sociology and anthropology at Columbia University in New New York In 1929, he took a position as Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon. The Department of Anthropology was founded by him six years later.
His first hire for the department was Homer Barnett.
Cressman was the chair of the department from 1935 until his retirement in 1963. His most significant discovery came in 1938, when he discovered a pair of perfectly preserved shredded sagebrush bark sandals at Fort Rock in Oregon that were radiocarbon dated from 10,500 to 9,300 years old, making them the oldest footwear ever discovered.
(Book by Cressman, Luther Sheeleigh)
(Luther S. Cressman offers a brief, lucid introduction to ...)