Daniel Garrison Brinton (1837-1899) was an American surgeon, historian, archaeologist and ethnologist. After graduating from Yale University in 1858, he studied at Jefferson Medical College for two years and spent the next year travelling in Europe. He continued his studies at Paris and Heidelberg. From 1862 to 1865, during the American Civil War, he was a surgeon in the Union Army. He became professor of Ethnology and Archaeology in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1884; and was professor of American linguistics and Archaeology in the University of Pennsylvania from 1886 until his death.
From 1868 to 1899, Brinton wrote many books, and a large number of pamphlets, brochures, addresses and magazine articles.
The Brinton's short essay The Aims of Anthropology, which we propose to our readers today, was published in November 1895 on the magazine Popular Science Monthly. It is an address of the retiring president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, delivered at Springfield, Massachussets, August 29, 1895.