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Teacher-Curator Knows Buses Well

TIME AND SPACE are two factors that do not keep Lowell John Bean, curator of ethnology at the Desert Museum, Palm Springs, and Pasadena City College anthropology teacher, from carrying on two important jobs simultaneously.

Bean, who is a four-fifths, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 8 a.m. to 12 teacher of anthropology at Pasadena City College, travels by bus 720 miles weekly, commuting between the desert mecca and Pasadena City College.

Bus travel time for Bean is not lost; however, for he utilizes the journey back and forth in working on his writings concerning the Cahuilla Indians, or by grading the research papers his Pasadena City College anthropology students turn in after their weekend visits to the Desert Museum Library, or for their interview with the Cahuilla Indians.

Soon Bean's newest writings co-authored with William Mason, "The Romero Expeditions in California and Arizona 1823-26," will be published by the Desert Museum. The forthcoming book is being designed by Ward Ritchie, top designer of books on California.

Bean received both his B.A. and M.A. from UCLA.

His published articles include "Cahuilla Ethnobotanical Notes," a study of Indian uses of wild plants; and a study of the Cahuilla Indians, aboriginal social organization, and the emergence of Cahuilla Indian women in tribal and political affairs.

The two research grants that have aided Bean in his recent two summers' work with the Cahuilla tribe are the UCLA George Barker Memorial grant and the UCLA Department of Anthropology grant. Research funds are now provided by the Desert Museum.

Bean's Palm Springs curatorial and research work is carried on under the direction of Dr. Clarence E. Smith, director of the Palm Springs Desert Museum, Inc., located at 135 E. Tahquitz Drive.

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