Demitri B. Shimkin Papers, 1935-2025 | University of Illinois Archives

By subject and chronological or alphabetical thereunder.

The papers in the additional 2016 accession are arranged in the following three series:

Series 1: Personal Materials, 1937-2001

Series 1: Personal Material: includes Professor Shimkin's curriculum vitae, honors and awards, photographs, VHS and cassette tapes, obituaries, retirement and memorial materials, and Demitri B. Shimkin Award student papers. The materials are arranged chronologically with one undated item listed at the beginning of the series.

Series 2: Research Materials, 1956-1992

Series 2: Research Material: contains (1) research materials including conference talks, slides and photographs, correspondence, rare publications, related audiovisual materials, arranged alphabetically; (2) restricted files related to the Holmes County Health Research Program (HCHRP). Among HCHRP materials are (a) hematology report cards, (b) individual interview survey files of Holmes Country residents listing age, sex, information about hypertension, medical care, and essential household information (including types of house, sanitation, water, rooms, heating, appliances, phones, or cars e.g.). Interview files are arranged by case number with unnumbered items listed at the end. (c) HCHRP statistical printouts from 1972-1974 including the codebook, arranged by individual runs. These items are restricted for use.

Series 3: Publications, 1938-1993

Series 3: Publications: includes books, book reviews, and journal articles authored and co-authored by Demetri Shimkin. The series is organized chronologically with undated publications listed at the beginning of the series.

Series 4: Alexander (Alec) Shimkin Papers, 1947-2025

Series 4 contains Alec’s student and personal papers, photographs (Mississippi, Vietnam, and personal), correspondence (including family correspondence before and after death), and secondary materials relating to Alec’s engagement in the civil rights movement and his volunteer service, journalism, and death in the Vietnam War.

Professor Shimkin was born on July 4, 1916, in Omsk, Siberia. His family moved to Indonesia after the Russian Revolution, then to Holland and the United States. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Anthropology in 1936 and in 1939 received a Ph.D. in Anthropology, both from the University of California at Berkeley. Shimkin served in the U.S. Army on the War Department General Staff, the Military Intelligence Division (1941-1947) and he taught at the National War College, the Army War College and the Navy War College (1946-1947).

Shimkin worked as a research associate at Harvard University's Russian Research Center from 1948 to 1953 and was assistant curator of Siberian Ethnology. He also served as a social science analyst to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1953-1960). In 1960, Shimkin was hired as a professor of anthropology and geography at the University of Illinois. After his retirement in 1985, he was Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at UIUC.

Shimkin's research and publications focused on military intelligence, public health and human ecological studies as regards to diverse groups in Russia, Siberia, the Americas, and Africa. His most notable projects include: human ecological studies in Western Siberia in the Soviet Union (1984), Alaska (1949, 1966), and the Shoshone Indians in the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming (1937-1940, 1966, 1975); and primary health care and malaria studies in Tanzania (1983-1984, 1988-1989).

Shimkin participated in a Center for Advanced Computation (UIUC) project funded by the National Center for Health Services Research and Development under subcontract from the Milton Olive II Memorial Corporation. This corporation was a non-profit organization made up of representatives of the black community and the Holmes project received assistance and cooperation from the residents. Lexington, Mississippi to study community health of African-Americans living in Holmes County, Mississippi from1966 to 1978, (CAC Document no. 138, Nov. 1974, https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/32714/hypertensioninho138scho.pdf?sequence=2).

Shimkin taught anthropology courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, covering topics such as human ecology, North American Indian, Siberian, and Russian ethnology, African health problems, and African American cultures. He served as an American Anthropological Association Representative for the National Research Council (1964-1967). Additionally, he was a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at Kemerovo State University (Soviet Union, 1984), and a Fellow for the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (1970-1971).

Demitri Shimkin died December 22, 1992.

References:

"Mini Curriculum Vitae," ca. 1992. [Demitri B. Shimkin Papers, Box 33, Folder 12]

"Demitri Shimhin Obituary," The New York Times. December 25, 1992. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/25/obituaries/demitri-shimkin-76-an-anthropologist.html.