Education
Gunther graduated in 1919 as a student of Franz Boas, and received her Master of Arts in anthropology from Columbia University in 1920, studying under famed anthropologist Franz Boas.
Gunther graduated in 1919 as a student of Franz Boas, and received her Master of Arts in anthropology from Columbia University in 1920, studying under famed anthropologist Franz Boas.
Gunther"s work on ethnobotany is still extensively consulted today. She formed part of the core of the newly formed anthropology program at the University of Washington in the 1920s, along with Spier and Melville Jacobs. In 1930 the Washington State Museum named her Director.
The faculty grew from two residents in 1930 to ten in 1955 during her time as the University’s Anthropology Department.
In 1966 she moved to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, becoming chair in 1967. An American Indian specialist, her research focused on the Salish and Makah peoples of western Washington State, with publications on ethnobotany, ethnohistory, and general ethnology.
Her students included anthropologists Wayne Suttles, Dale Croes and Wilson Duff. In 1949 she helped finance the archaeological investigation run by Charles East. Borden at Walen"s farm (DfRs-3) on Boundary Bay.