The papers that are presented in this volume are the results of a resolution to organize a symposium that would include biographical and historical sketches of Davidson Black. The neglect of Black by both scientists and laymen in Canada is in part due to his untimely death in 1934, just seven years after the first in situ discovery of Sinanthropus at Chou Kou Tien. Other factors that contributed to his anonymity among his countrymen are historical circumstances and, perhaps, the national temperament.