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, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

, Mexico.

Biography

Meigs was born in Flushing 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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, 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 and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

(1938-1939),

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

(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., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

(1948). During the 1936 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Meigs joined an

EPIC Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

slate nominally pledged to

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

for president; they actually supported

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

, but opposed U.S. Senator

William Gibbs McAdoo William Gibbs McAdoo Jr.McAdoo is variously differentiated from family members of the same name: * Dr. William Gibbs McAdoo (1820–1894) – sometimes called "I" or "Senior" * William Gibbs McAdoo (1863–1941) – sometimes called "II" or "J ...

, who headed the president's slate. The EPIC slate lost to Roosevelt's by a margin of eight to one. Beginning during World War II, Meigs was employed primarily by the U.S. government, working for the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...

(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 Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age ...

. 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 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 The Kumeyaay, also known as 'Iipai-Tiipai or by the historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Uni ...

. 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 (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

in 1966. He also mapped tide mills along the Atlantic coast of the U.S.Peveril Meigs, "Tide mills on the Atlantic," ''Old Mill News'', issue 7 (1979). Has died aged 76 in Wayland, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

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 bibliography

MSS 530.
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Meigs, Peveril 1903 births 1979 deaths Archaeologists of the Baja California peninsula People of the Office of Strategic Services California State University, Chico faculty Historians of Baja California 20th-century American geographers