Dr. Purdy is Professor Emerita of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida (UF), and she is Curator Emerita in Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, in Gainesville. Dr. Purdy taught in the UF Anthropology Department for more than 20 years and inspired many students of Florida Archaeology. Her popular courses included World Prehistory, North American Indians, North American Archaeology, Archaeological Field Schools, and Lithic Technology. She also taught social science courses, such as Economics and Politics of Minorities, Energy and Society, and America in International Affairs. Dr. Purdy served as principal investigator for many projects in Florida, plus others in Arizona, Idaho, and Washington. She has presented papers at national meetings as well as international conferences. She secured many grants and won teaching awards, such as 1985 Teacher of the Year in the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
During her career, Dr. Purdy has authored and co-authored more than 45 scholarly articles and reports, and 16 books. Topics include lithic, bone, and wooden artifacts, weathering, pyrotechnology, and thermoluminescence. She has investigated wet sites, waterlogged canoes, steamboats, and colonial contraband. She has done pioneering work at early lithic sites in Florida.
In 1948, Barbara earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from San Diego State College. She then married and had four children. She was married 67 years to the late “Hank” Purdy, a professor of plant pathology. She now has five grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Barbara was a homemaker when she returned to school, achieving an M.A. degree in anthropology at
Washington State University in 1967. She already was deeply interested in lithic artifacts when, in 1969, Barbara attended the first flint-working session at Shoshone Falls, Idaho, funded by the National Science Foundation and taught by master flintknapper Don Crabtree. In 1967, Barbara moved to Gainesville, and she immediately began classes and fieldwork in archaeology at UF. Her dissertation focused on chipped stone technology. She earned a Ph.D. degree in 1971 in Anthropology and Geology, and then joined the UF faculty. In 1971, she was lead author, with UF geologist Kelly Brooks, of
an article in the journal, Science, titled “Thermal Alteration of Silica Minerals: An Archaeological Approach,” which remains a classic study.”
Per the Florida Anthropological Society
Read more about the award and Dr. Purdy’s work here
Read Dr. Purdy’s feature in Mammoth Trumpet