Phillip Harold Lewis, former curator of anthropology at the Field Museum, dies

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Updated: January 20, 2012 8:22AM

Phillip Harold Lewis participated in expeditions to Papua New Guinea, studied Melanesian culture and brought hundreds of items, including masks and other pieces of art back to Chicago for display at the Field Museum.

As a curator of anthropology at the Field Museum for nearly 40 years, Mr. Lewis oversaw the museum’s collections of what was known at that time as “primitive art.”

“He was the first and only curator of the museum to focus on the concept of how art and society relate to each other,” said Ryan Williams, associate curator and current chair of the anthropology department at the Field Museum. “Over the long duration of his service at the museum, he helped bridge the gap between what natural history museums do and what art museums do.”

Mr. Lewis died of natural causes on Dec. 10 at a nursing home in Evanston, according to one of his daughters. He was 89.

While working for the Field Museum, Mr. Lewis, who earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago, traveled on three separate trips to New Ireland, an island in Papua New Guinea, where he lived for months at a time in the village of Lesu.

“It was certainly what we would think of as very primitive. No electricity or running water,” said his daughter, Betty Lewis. “He would tell us about fruit bats flying into the living space stealing his bananas and waking up with lizards in his slippers.”

While on the island, Mr. Lewis collected art and studied the people and their customs, particularly funerals and other ceremonies. He became close with the villagers, who “adopted” Mr. Lewis’ wife into their clan and named many of the children after Mr. Lewis’ kids.

“We felt a kindred spirit with them,” said Betty Lewis, who, as a child, stayed in the Chicago area with her mom and siblings while Mr. Lewis was away.

A native of Chicago, Mr. Lewis was born July 31, 1922, to Jewish immigrant parents from Lithuania. He spoke Yiddish at home and learned English at school once he started kindergarten.

While attending Lane Tech High School on the North Side, Mr. Lewis worked as the cartoonist for the school’s newspaper. Also while a teenager, Mr. Lewis built his own violin through a program with the park district.

“It’s a little bit funny-looking,” Betty Lewis said. “It’s flat so it doesn’t have an arch on the back.” Even still, all three of his children would later learn to play on the instrument, and both of his daughters ended up becoming professional musicians in Chicago.

During World War II, Mr. Lewis joined the Army Air Corps and served as a weatherman in Alaska, mostly in the Aleutian Islands.

After the war, he took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago, where he met his future wife, Sally Rappaport. The two married in 1949 and made a home in Hyde Park. After having kids, the family moved to Evanston in 1971.

Mr. Lewis retired from the Field Museum in 1992 as one of the longest-serving curators in the anthropology department. During his tenure, he also spent time as the department chair.

Aside from work, Mr. Lewis was a skilled painter and photographer, who captured many pictures during his travels, as well as of his family, and developed them in a darkroom he set up at his home in Evanston.

“He was a very intelligent, easy-going guy,” said his younger sister, Judy Lewis Natkin. “He was always interested in many things and did research all his life.”

Mr. Lewis was preceded in death by his wife. Aside from his sister and daughter Betty Lewis, he is survived by a son, David Lewis; daughter, Emily Lewis Mantell; and two grandchildren, Sonia Mantell and Evan Lewis.

No services are planned.

ObituaryChicago.com