Muriel "Miki" Crespi (1929-2003) | University of Illinois Archives

Name: Muriel "Miki" Crespi (1929-2003)

Historical Note: Muriel “Miki” Crespi (née Kaminsky, 1929-2003) was an anthropologist (B.A., CUNY, 1959; M.A. Columbia University, 1962; Ph.D University of Illinois, 1968) who was born in New York, and renowned for her contributions to the National Parks Service as the first Chief Ethnographer of the NPS Ethnography Program from 1981-2003 (now known as the NPS Cultural Anthropology Program). From the National Parks Service web page about Crespi: “The NPS Cultural Anthropology program, originally known as the Ethnography program, was established in 1981 by Muriel "Miki" Crespi (1929-2003). Dr. Crespi completed her undergraduate studies at Columbia and received a Ph.D. in anthropology from Illinois University. In 1981, after spending time in academia at Hunter College, Wisconsin, and Brown, she was hired by the NPS to complete a Native American relationships policy and to design and initiate an applied anthropology program. Dr. Crespi's consistent focus was on contemporary peoples and traditional communities associated with NPS' cultural and natural resources…Dr. Crespi was instrumental in finalizing the first NPS Native American relations policy in 1987. With assistance from NPS leaders and professional academic associations, Dr. Crespi was fundamental to the process of acquiring funding in 1991 to hire cultural anthropologists in regional offices.” (The National Parks Service. “Muriel ‘Miki Crespi & the NPS Ethnography Program,” March 30, 2016. https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1209/crespi.htm)