Peveril Meigs III (May 5, 1903 – September 16, 1979) was an American geographer, notable for his studies of arid lands on several continents and in particular for his work on the native peoples and early missions of northern
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
, Mexico.
Meigs was born in
Flushing
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushin ...
in New York City. He studied at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, receiving his B.A. degree in 1925 and a Ph.D. in 1932. He held academic positions at
San Francisco State Teachers College (1929),
Chico State College (1929-1942),
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
(1938-1939),
American University (1948), and
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
(1948).
Beginning during World War II, Meigs was employed primarily by the U.S. government, working for the
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (1942-1944), Joint Intelligence Study Publishing Board (1944-1947), Earth Sciences Division of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps (1949-1953), and Quartermaster Research and Engineering Center (1953-1965). In the red scare of the early 1950s, Meigs was prominent among those listed as security risks by Senator
Joseph McCarthy.
Meigs published dozens of articles and books. Particularly notable was his early work on Baja California, which was influenced by his Berkeley mentors,
Carl O. Sauer in historical geography and
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...
in ethnography.
He co-authored with Sauer a study of
Mission San Fernando Velicatá, the only mission founded by the Franciscans during their brief tenure (1768-1773) on the peninsula. Meigs' doctoral dissertation (1932) was a groundbreaking study of the
Dominican missions of northwestern Baja California. It was subsequently published and remains the key source on the subject.
During his field trips to northern Baja California, particularly in 1928, 1929, and 1936, Meigs became familiar with the region's surviving Indian groups. He published a monograph on the
Kiliwa (1939) that continues to be the most reliable source concerning the aboriginal lifeways of that people. Also included were important notes on the neighboring
Paipai and
Kumeyaay. After his retirement in 1965, Meigs published several additional articles on the ethnography and archaeology of these groups, based on his notes from his earlier field studies. His book on the
coastal deserts was published by
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
in 1966. He also mapped
tide mill
A tide mill is a water mill driven by tidal rise and fall. A dam with a sluice is created across a suitable tidal inlet, or a section of river estuary is made into a reservoir. As the tide comes in, it enters the mill pond through a one-way ga ...
s along the Atlantic coast of the U.S.
Has died aged 76 in
Wayland, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
[Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65908298/peveril-meigs : accessed 08 June 2020), memorial page for Peveril Meigs, III (5 May 1903–16 Sep 1979), Find a Grave Memorial no. 65908298, Maintained by Dorothy Oksner (contributor 46619695).]
Bibliography
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1935. ''The Dominican Mission Frontier of Lower California''. University of California Publications in Geography No. 7. Berkeley.
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1939. ''The Kiliwa Indians of Lower California''. Iberoamericana No. 15. University of California, Berkeley.
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1966. ''Geography of Coastal Deserts''. Arid Zone Research No. 28. UNESCO, Paris.
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1970. "Capes of Human Hair from Baja California and Outside". ''Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly'' 6(1):21-28.
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1971. "Creation Myth and Other Reflections of the Nijí Mishkwish". ''Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly'' 7(1):9-13.
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1972. "Notes on the La Huerta Jat'am, Baja California: Place Names, Hunting, and Shamans". ''Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly'' 8(1):35-40.
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1974. "Field Notes on the Sh'un and Jat'am, Manteca, Baja California". ''Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly'' 10(1):19-28.
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1974. "Meigs on Tablas". ''Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly'' 10(1):37-38.
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1976. "Some Pictographs in Northern Baja California". ''Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly'' 12(1):2-8.
* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1977. "Notes on the Paipai of San Isidoro, Baja California". ''Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly'' 13(1):11-20.
* Sauer, Carl O., and Peveril Meigs, III. 1927. "Site and Culture at San Fernando de Velicatá". ''University of California Publications in Geography'' 2:271-302. Berkeley.
References
;Sources
*
Mathes, W. Michael. 2001. "Peveril Meigs, III, and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the Final Dominican Mission Frontier of Lower California". ''Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly'' 37(4):16-18.
;Notes
External links
Biographical outline and bibliographyMSS 530.
Special Collections & Archives UC San Diego Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meigs, Peveril
1903 births
1979 deaths
American geographers
Archaeologists of the Baja California peninsula
People of the Office of Strategic Services
California State University, Chico faculty
Historians of Baja California
20th-century geographers