Iris Higbie Wilson Engstrand (born January 9, 1935) is a retired American academic. She was professor of history at

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in San Diego, California, United States. Chartered in 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University ...

from 1968 until 2017; she joined the faculty of the San Diego College for Men before it and other colleges joined to form the university in 1972. Iris Higbie Wilson Engstrand-1963

She specialized in the

history of California The history of California can be divided into the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American period (about 10,000 years ago until 1542), the Exploration of North America, European exploration period (1542–1769), the Spanish colonial ...

and Spanish exploration during the 1700s, and as of 2017 had written about twenty books on those subjects. She serves on the board of directors of the

Maritime Museum of San Diego The Maritime Museum of San Diego is a maritime museum in San Diego, California. Established in 1948, it preserves one of the largest collections of historic sea vessels in the United States. Located on San Diego Bay, the centerpiece of the museum' ...

. She served as co-editor of the '' Journal of San Diego History,'' 2004-2014; president of the Western History Association, 2004-2005; and in 2007 was awarded the

Order of Isabella the Catholic The Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic (; Abbreviation, Abbr.: OYC) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent Order of merit, orders of merit bestowed by the Kingdom of Spain, alongside the Order of Charles III (established in 1771) and ...

by the government of Spain for her contributions to the field of Spanish history. She was born in 1935 in Los Angeles and earned her B.A. (1956), M.A. (1957), and Ph.D. (1962) from the University of Southern California. Her dissertation topic was "Scientific Aspects of Spanish Exploration in New Spain during the Late Eighteenth Century," and was supervised by Donald C. Cutter. She began her teaching career in the Huntington Beach High School from 1957 to 1959, and then worked as a translator of Spanish manuscripts for the Los Angeles County Museum, 1959-60."Wilson, Iris Higbie," in ''Historians of Latin America in the United States, 1965: Biobibliographies of 680 Specialists''. Ed. Howard F. Cline. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1966, 95. She became a lecturer at the University of Southern California in 1962, and an instructor at Long Beach City College in 1962.

Selected works

* * * * *Engstrand, Iris H. W., & Bullard, Anne. (1999). ''Inspired by nature: The San Diego Natural History Museum After 125 years''. San Diego Natural History Museum. *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Engstrand, Iris Living people 1935 births Recipients of the Order of Isabella the Catholic American women historians University of Southern California alumni University of San Diego faculty Writers from Los Angeles Historians from California 21st-century American women