It's late 19th century rather than early 20th, and on a far more
modest scale than the examples you cite, but the principle is the
same.  These are pioneer ethnologist W J McGee's 1894 and 1895
expeditions in southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico to recover
information and artifacts among the Papago and Seri Indians.  You can
read about it in "Trails to Tiburón: The 1894 and 1895 Field Diaries
of W J McGee," transcribed by Hazel Fontana with an introduction and
notes by Bernard L. Fontana (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press,
2000).
    B. Fontana

----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Lebo" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2001 3:25 PM
Subject: scientific expeditions


> Aloha,
>
> I am looking for information about "scientific expeditions" as an
approach
> to doing research in the early 20th century. I am looking at two
projects
> that were done in the Pacific during this period: the Tanager
Expedition to
> the Northwest Hawaiian Islands in the 1920s and the Panala`au
Project to
> more remote Pacific islands in the mid-1930s. In both cases, the
> institutions involved sent cultural and/or natural science staff
into the
> field to collect research data. I am interested in finding
information
> about this approach to collecting scientific data, particularly
cultural
> data. Does anyone know of any references where someone has done
research on
> this approach?
>
> susan
>
> Susan A. Lebo
> Anthropology Department
> 1525 Bernice Street
> Honolulu, HI 96817