David Prescott Barrows

Who was David Prescott Barrows?

David Prescott Barrows was an American anthropologist, explorer, and educator. Born in Chicago in 1874, his family moved to California. He showed a keen interest in the life and customs of the American Indians, and was said to have "spent almost every summer during the period 1890–1899 in research work among the tribes of southern California and in the Colorado Desert." He later became President of the University of California. He went on many travels, publishing works of his findings in countries such as Morocco and the Philippines. He described Marrakesh as Morocco's "strangest city", and wrote of it "The city lies some fifteen or twenty miles from the foot of the Atlas mountains, which here rise to their grandest proportions. The spectacle of the mountains is superb. Through the clear desert air the eye can follow the rugged contours of the range for great distances to the north and eastward. The winter snow mantle them with white, and the turquoise sky gives a setting for their grey rocks and gleaming caps that is of unrivaled beauty."