Ronald Allen Brooks (1937-circa 1986) was an anthropologist and exhibit designer, including a year of employment in the exhibits department of the Southwest Museum in 1985. This collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, notes, and photocopied articles Brooks wrote or collected from 1932-1986, covering anthropological and linguistic topics, such as orangutans, Niska Indians of the Nass River, Northwest Coast art and archaeology, Northwest Coast fishery history and eulachon or candlefish. This collection includes copies and drafts of the paper "Box of Daylight: Myths of Invention" which Brooks presented at the Third Annual Meeting of the Canadian Ethnology Society in Victoria, British Columbia in February of 1976.

Ronald Allen Brooks was born 1937 February 9 in Los Angeles. He studied design and construction technology at Santa Monica College and then studied anthropology at San Francisco State College, where he received his B.A. Brooks then received his M.A. in anthropology from University of California, Davis. Brooks presented his paper "Box of Daylight: Myths of Invention" at the Third Annual Meeting of Canadian Ethnology Society in Victoria, British Columbia in February 1976. Brooks also contributed the definition for "Northwest Coast Art" to Harper and Row's 1976 publication Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Brooks collected extensive research material for his proposed Ph.D. dissertation "Candlefish Run: A Natural Resource for Nativistic Revival, Nass River, British Columbia." His dissertation however was never completed. Brooks combined interests in art and anthropology with his technical skills to work as a museum exhibit curator/designer in the 1970s-1980s, including a year of employment in the exhibits department of the Southwest Museum in 1985. Ron Brooks passed away in 1985 or 1986.

2.5 Linear Feet (6 boxes)

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