Iris Higbie Wilson Engstrand (born January 9, 1935) is a retired American academic. She was professor of history at University of San Diego from 1968 until 2017; she joined the faculty of the San Diego College for Men before it and other colleges joined to form the university in 1972.[1]

Iris H. Wilson in 1963

She specialized in the history of California and Spanish exploration during the 1700s,[2] and as of 2017 had written about twenty books on those subjects.[1]

She serves on the board of directors of the Maritime Museum of San Diego.[3] She served as co-editor of the Journal of San Diego History, 2004-2014; president of the Western History Association, 2004-2005; and in 2007 was awarded the Order of Isabella the Catholic by the government of Spain for her contributions to the field of Spanish history.[2]

She was born in 1935 in Los Angeles and earned her B.A. (1956), M.A. (1957), and Ph.D. (1962) from the University of Southern California.[2] Her dissertation topic was "Scientific Aspects of Spanish Exploration in New Spain during the Late Eighteenth Century," and was supervised by Donald C. Cutter.[4] She began her teaching career in the Huntington Beach High School from 1957 to 1959, and then worked as a translator of Spanish manuscripts for the Los Angeles County Museum, 1959-60.[5] She became a lecturer at the University of Southern California in 1962, and an instructor at Long Beach City College in 1962.[5]

Selected works

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  • Engstrand, Iris Wilson (2016). San Diego: California's Cornerstone (2nd ed.). Sunbelt Publications. ISBN 9781941384244.
  • Engstrand, Iris H.W. (1981). Spanish scientists in the New World : the eighteenth-century expeditions. Seattle: Univ. of Washington P. ISBN 978-0295957647.
  • Engstrand, Iris H. W. (11 December 2015). "The Enlightenment in Spain: Influences Upon New World Policy". The Americas. 41 (4): 436–444. doi:10.2307/1007350. JSTOR 1007350.
  • Engstrand, Iris H.W. (Fall 2014). "WD-40: San Diego's Marketing Miracle" (PDF). The Journal of San Diego History. 60 (4): 253–270.
  • Engstrand, Iris H. W., & Bullard, Anne. (1999). Inspired by nature: The San Diego Natural History Museum After 125 years. San Diego Natural History Museum.[6]
  • Engstrand, Iris H. W (February 2000). "Of Fish and Men: Spanish Marine Science during the Late Eighteenth Century". Pacific Historical Review. 69 (1): 3–30. doi:10.2307/3641236. JSTOR 3641236.

References

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  1. ^ a b "History with Class". USD Magazine. 27 January 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Leong, Karen J. "Past Presidents: Iris H. Wilson Engstrand (1935- )" (PDF). Western History Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-04-10. Retrieved 2017-04-09.
  3. ^ Brennan, Deborah Sullivan (1 September 2015). "Studying San Diego: from Old World to New". San Diego Union-Tribune.
  4. ^ ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database.
  5. ^ a b "Wilson, Iris Higbie," in Historians of Latin America in the United States, 1965: Biobibliographies of 680 Specialists. Ed. Howard F. Cline. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1966, 95.
  6. ^ Enstrand, Iris (1 December 1999). Inspired By Nature: The San Diego Natural History Museum After 125 Years. San Diego Natural History Museum. p. 250. ISBN 978-0918969040.