E-mail this pageAnthropology Faculty - Dr. Gordon C. Pollard
Distinguished Teacher Professor of Anthropology
Dr. Pollard has been a member of the faculty since 1970. For fun, Dr. Pollard enjoys fishing, collecting old local postcards and steroviews, and refinishing antique furniture.
Education
- Ph.D., Columbia University, New York City 1970
- B.A., Rice University, Houston, Texas in 1965
Areas of Academic Specialization
- One of Dr. Pollard's specialties is archaeology. He has conducted field research on pre-Hispanic cultures in Chile and Argentina, and has worked at sites in Utah and California.
- More recently, he has focused on historical and industrial archaeology of the Adirondack-Lake Champlain region of New York State.
Teaching Areas
- Human Evolution
- The Inkas and Andean Civilization
- Great Archaeological Discoveries
- Archaeological Method & Theory
- Historical Archaeology
- Primates
- Dr. Pollard has offered numerous summer field courses, most of which have centered on the 19th century charcoal iron industry of the local area.
Awards
- Robert M. Vogel Prize for outstanding scholarship in industrial archaeology, awarded by the Society for Industrial Archeology, June 2007, for the best article to appear in the last three years in IA, The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology.
- Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2000.
- "Best research of 1993" from the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors for Bottles and Business in Plattsburgh, New York: 100 Years of Embossed Bottles as Historical Artifacts.
Selected Publications
- "A Large Business: the Clintonville Site, Scale, and Resources at Adirondack Bloomery Forges," with Haagen Klaus. IA, the Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology 30(1): 19-46, 2004 (issue appeared February 2006). Full text available online at www.historycooperative.org/journals/sia/30.1/pollard.html
- "Experimentation in 19th Century Bloomery Iron Production: Evidence from the Adirondacks of New York." The Journal of the Historical Metallurgy Society 28(1): 33-40, 1998.
- "A Time of Change: the 19th Century Iron Works at Clintonville, N.Y." The Antiquarian, 12(1): 15-23, Clinton County Historical Association, 1995.
- Bottles and Business in Plattsburgh, New York: 100 Years of Embossed Bottles as Historical Artifacts. Book published by Clinton County Historical Association, 1993. The book was awarded the prize for "Best research of 1993" by the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors. A supplement to this book was produced in 1997, and updated in 2005. Comments from a review in Historical Archaeology 30(3), 1996:
"The...work is quite analytical and exhaustive in both documentary and physical attribute discussion and description. Pollard's work can be applied universally through its methodology."
- "The Prehistory of N.W. Argentina: the Calchaqui Valley Project 1977-1981." Journal of Field Archaeology 10(1): 11-32, 1983.
Contact Dr. Gordon Pollard
Office: Redcay 129
Phone: (518)564-4005
E-mail: gordon.pollard@plattsburgh.edu