1 Item (Photographs : ca 3100 prints and negatives)
1 Item (Maps and illustrations )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
United States -- Archeology
Bc53, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico -- Archeology
Chaco Canyon (N.M.) -- Archeology
Colorado -- Archeology
Arizona -- Archeology
New Mexico -- Archeology
Agate Basin, Wyoming -- Archeology
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
This collection of Rober's papers and photographs is almost excluvely concerned with his scientific fieldwork and resulting publications. It is not complete; for example, there is little in the photographs concerning his work at Agate Basin in Wyoming (though some related site forms are part of the records of the River Basin Surveys). Apparently, some of the series that form the records of the RBS began as Roberts's own files and were simply continued once his interest turned to the administration of the RBS. For instance, there is correspondence concerning Robert's work in New Mexico among the RBS correspondence series. The file of correspondence in manuscript 4851 is a miscellany with few letters from any one correspondent.
Biographical / Historical:
Frank H.H. Roberts, Jr. studied history and English at the University of Denver and after receiving his B.A.worked briefly as a journalist. Entering graduate school at Denver he was influenced by Etienne Bernadeau Renaud and, later, Jean Allard Jeacon. Although his studies toward a master's degree were in political science, he carried out archeological work among ruins in the Piedra-Pagosa region of the San Juan River valley in southwestern Colorado and became an instructor in archeology at the University of Denver. In 1923, he became an assistant curator at the Colorado State Museum.
Robert's formal training in archeology came through subsequent studies at Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D. in 1927. While a student, he worked during the summers of 1925 and 1926 for Neil Merton Judd on expeditions to Chaco Canyon. Judd offered him the opportunity to study pottery sequences, expanding upon work already carried out successfully for the Piedra region. From his work under Judd, Roberts produced his dissertation. The work also led to a permanent appointment as an archeologist with the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology in 1926.
For some time after this, Roberts continued to work primarily among ruins in the Southwest. In 1927, he conducted excavations at Shabik'esche Village in Chaco Canyon and carried on excavations at Kiathuthlunna on the Long H Ranch in eastern Arizona. In 1930, he excavated in the Village of the Great Kivas on the Zuni reservation and, in 1931-1933, worked along the Whitewater River in eastern Arizona and at a site near Allantown, Arizona. For the University of New Mexico Field School in 1940-1941, Roberts directed expeditions to the Bc-53 site in Chaco Canyon.
Throughout this work Roberts's primary interest was "the early structure and sequences of Southwestern culture." This led to Roberts's ultimate interest in the problem of early man in America. He was asked to inspect the discoveries at the original Fosom site in 1927, and over time became convinced of an error in contemporary thinking about the relatively recent arrival of humans in the New World. He was increasingly drawn to study the problem and particuarly after 1933, devoted most of his field work to it. Between 1934 and 1940, he worked at Lindenmeier, a Folsom campsite in northern Colorado. In 1941, he excavated the Mons site near the Peaks of Otter in Virginia, though failing to find expected remains of early man. In the same year, he worked at a Folsom site at San Jon, New Mexico, and, in 1942, another Folsom site in the Agate Basin in Wyoming. In 1943--again in connection with this interest in early man--he carried out a reconnaissance of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River in Texas. In addition, Roberts inspected other sites in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Saskatchewan.
Roberts also worked briefly with other interests. In 1932, he served as an advisor to the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C., in its excavation at Chichen Itza and Uxmal in the Yucatan. In 1933-1934, he conducted a Civil Works Administration expedition to excavate mounds in the Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee. In 1956-1960, he was on the advisory council for the National Park Service's Wetherill Mesa Project.
In the administration of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Roberts became the assistant chief under Matthew Williams Stirling in 1944. In 1946, he became, in addition, the director of the BAE's River Basin Surveys, a salvage archeological program concerned with areas where the federal government was planning dams and reservoirs. In 1947, he became the associate director of the BAE and, in 1958, its director. In addition to these duties and his scientific work, Roberts served as American representative to the League of Nations' International Conference of Archeologists at Cairo in 1937 and as representative on the International Commission for Sites and Monuments in 1939-1942. During World War II, he was involved with the Ethnogeographic Board, an organization that provided liaison between federal war agencies and the scientific community. For the board, Roberts prepared a survival manual and a volume on Egypt and the Suez Canal that was issued as one of the Smithsonian's War Background Studies. For several years later in his life, Roberts was also on the National Council for Historical Sites and Buildings. He also served the Smithsonian on committees concerned primarily with personnel.
Outside official duties, Roberts represented the American Anthropological Association on the National Research Council in 1935-1949. In 1936, he was president of the Anthropological Society of Washington and, in 1944, vice president of the AAA. In 1949, he became president of the Washington Academy of Sciences. A founding member of the Society for American Archaeology and a member of the committee that drafts its constitution and bylaws, Roberts served that organization as president in 1950. In 1952, he became a vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Local Numbers:
MS 4851
Restrictions:
The photographic negatives are in special storage and require advance notice to view.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Scope and Contents:
Eight men standing in western dress, six with type of headdress, not feathers, two with western hats. One holding what looks like a bow. Village of the Great Kivas, New Mexico.
Local Numbers:
NAA INV 10000220
NAA MS 4851
OPPS NEG 79-11638
Local Note:
Black and white photoprint
Place:
New Mexico Zuni Pueblo
Forms part of:
Frank Harold Hanna Roberts Colln Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives
Collection Restrictions:
The photographic negatives are in special storage and require advance notice to view.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Collection Citation:
MS 4851, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Scope and Contents:
Pictographs of animals and other items on rock. To the left are the words "Bob Hudson"; to the right is a feathered headdress. Village of the Great Kivas, New Mexico.
Local Numbers:
NAA INV 10000221
NAA MS 4851
OPPS NEG 79-11643
Local Note:
Black and white photoprint
Place:
New Mexico Zuni Pueblo
Forms part of:
Frank Harold Hanna Roberts Colln Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives
Collection Restrictions:
The photographic negatives are in special storage and require advance notice to view.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Collection Citation:
MS 4851, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Descriptive Entry:
The Charles Lewis Gazin Papers document his professional career during his tenure at the Smithsonian, 1932-1984, and, to a slight extent, his graduate work, 1927-1930.
Several aspects of Gazin's career receive extensive documentation in the papers: his administrative and curatorial duties at the Smithsonian; his field work and study trips;
his research and publication in vertebrate paleontology, especially early mammals; his involvement with professional organizations; his activities with colleagues in the scientific
community; and his interactions with the public. There are also correspondence, records, and papers of other scientists, some predating Gazin's career, which he apparently
collected. The papers contain very little concerning his personal life.
Gazin maintained a voluminous correspondence documenting most aspects of his professional career. Most of the correspondence, including Smithsonian memoranda, and exchanges
with colleagues and the public, is located in Series 1. However, a sizable amount, usually concerning specific subjects and organizations, is distributed throughout the collection.
Materials associated with Gazin's administration of the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology are similarly dispersed. Those reflecting the day-to-day operations of the Division,
such as memoranda, reports, budget notes, and informational publications, are concentrated in Series 2. The curatorial work of the Division is documented by records of specimen
loans; photographs of specimen preparation and mounting; and memoranda, scripts, inventories, and drawings relating to the design and presentation of exhibits. Comprehensive
discussion of Division activities is available in the Annual Reports, dating to 1906, which also document Charles W. Gilmore's tenure in the Division. These are located in
Series 3.
Records of Gazin's frequent field expeditions include accounts of expenses; lists of collected specimens; photographs; and, sporadically, field diaries and narrative reports.
As with other Division activities, the Annual Reports consistently provide the most complete descriptions of expeditions. Comprehensive coverage of Gazin's grant-sponsored
museum trips and field work, including research proposals, progress reports, itineraries, and correspondence, can be found in the National Science Foundation files within
Series 8.
Gazin's research is further documented by notes, drafts, and manuscripts relating to his publications and talks. Of note are the files relating to "Mammalian Faunal Zones
of Bridger Eocene" (see Bridger Zones files) and "A Study of the Eocene Condylarthran Mammal Hyopsodus" (see Hyopsodus files) which record the progression of the papers from
notes to printer's copies. Associated with Gazin's manuscripts are the scientific illustrations prepared for them. See Series 11.
Material reflecting Gazin's participation in professional societies is mostly located in the organization files located in Series 5. Those societies in which Gazin was
long and actively involved, such as the American Geological Institute, the Geological Society of America, and the Washington Academy of Sciences, are represented extensively
by correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes of meetings, and circulars, which in effect, document periods of their history.
A few organizations are represented in separate series. These records pertain to Gazin's research through the National Science Foundation (NSF), and his reviews of research
proposals submitted to NSF (Series 8); his various positions with the Earth Sciences Division of the National Research Council (Series 7); and his long-standing service to
the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) (Series 6). Correspondence, manuscripts, and charts included in the SVP files document the collective efforts of Gazin and his
SVP colleagues to define and correlate, by the incidence of vertebrate fossils, the geologic formations of the North American continental Tertiary.
Historical Note:
Charles Lewis Gazin (1904-1996) was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Raised on the west coast, his first acquaintance with prehistoric animals took place on a childhood
visit to the Los Angeles County Museum. As a student at the California Institute of Technology (CIT), he pursued a general interest in geology, receiving the B.S. degree in
1927 and the M.S. degree in 1928. In his graduate work, culminating in a Ph.D. earned at CIT in 1930, he focused on the study of vertebrate paleontology, his lifelong interest.
Gazin's long tenure in government service began in 1930 with his appointment as Junior Geologist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). While assisting USGS geologists
in studying and mapping geologic regions in Montana, Idaho, and California, Gazin also collected Miocene fossils for the United States National Museum (USNM). In 1932, he
became Assistant Curator in the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology at the USNM. Gazin served in that capacity until 1942 when, although maintaining a formal association with
the Division as Associate Curator, he took a military leave from the Museum to participate actively in the war effort. Rising in rank from 1st Lieutenant to Major in the U.
S. Army Air Force, he taught at the Air Force Intelligence School and also worked in radar intelligence, for which he received the Legion of Merit in 1946.
Gazin returned to the USNM in 1946 as Curator of the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, a position he held until 1967. During 1967 he served as Acting Chairman of the
Department of Paleobiology, before being named Senior Paleontologist. From 1970 to 1982 Gazin served as Paleobiologist Emeritus and from 1982 to 1984, as Curator Emeritus.
Gazin's research interests concern the vertebrate paleontology of the Tertiary and Quaternary of continental North America. Together with his responsibility for collecting
fossil material for the Smithsonian, these interests spurred considerable field work over his career. Between 1934 and 1969, except during World War II, Gazin led field expeditions
nearly every summer. Though he explored and excavated in much of the western United States, his efforts were concentrated on Hagerman, Idaho; southwestern Wyoming; central
and northeastern Utah; San Juan Basin, New Mexico; San Pedro Valley, Arizona; and Huerfano and Denver Basins, Colorado. From these and other arid locales, he recovered prodigious
quantities of mammalian fossils of Paleocene to Pleistocene age, in addition to fossils of Cretaceous dinosaurs and lizards. Most of the 99 works listed in his bibliography,
and nearly all of his longer publications, whether describing regional faunal assemblages or focusing on particular varieties of early mammals, are based upon this extensive
field work in the Rocky Mountain West.
During the winters of 1950 and 1951, Gazin conducted field work in Panama, returning to the Smithsonian with approximately ten tons of Pleistocene mammal specimens. Principal
among them were two skeletons of the giant ground sloth Eremotherium, exhibited since at the National Museum of Natural History.
In 1960 Gazin received a four-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that he extended into a seven-year study of early Tertiary mammals. Under the grant, he made
four field expeditions, mostly to Wyoming; trips to study museum specimens and fossil localities in Europe during 1960 and Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, and Argentina in 1962;
and numerous visits to inspect specimens in museums and universities in the United States. Gazin's study produced three major papers, published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous
Collections, as well as several shorter articles. With a second NSF grant, received jointly with Waldo R. Wedel of the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology in 1961, Gazin
participated in the collection and study of Pleistocene and recent mammals found in association with human artifacts near Littleton, Colorado.
Gazin also took an active role in several professional organizations. He was a charter member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, serving as its President, 1949-1950;
representative to the National Research Council, 1948-1951, 1957-1960; and on several committees working to define and correlate the North American continental Tertiary. He
assisted in drafting the constitution of the American Geological Institute and served as Director, 1956-1958, and 1962. He also chaired the National Research Council committee
on postdoctoral fellowships in the earth sciences, 1960-1963.
Chronology:
June 18, 1904 -- born in Colorado Springs, Colorado
1927 -- married Alice Van Dusen; had three children
1927 -- B.S., with honors, California Institute of Technology
1927 -- field work in Santa Barbara County, California
1928 -- M.S., CIT
1928, 1929 -- field work in eastern Oregon and northeastern Nevada
1930 -- field work in San Pedro Valley, Arizona
1930 -- first prize, best pre-doctoral presentation, Cordilleron Section, Geological Society of America
1930 -- Doctor of Philosophy, CIT
1930 -- appointed Junior Geologist, USGS
1930 -- field work for USGS in western Montana and northern Idaho
1930-1931 -- geologic mapping of San Andreas fault zone in southern California for USGS; fossil collecting in the Cajon Pass and Palmdale area, California, for the USNM
1931 -- geologic mapping in Kettleman Hills, California, for USGS
1932 -- field work in Death Valley, California, for USGS
1932 -- appointed Assistant Curator, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, USNM
1934 -- field work in southern Idaho
1936 -- field work in Arizona and San Juan Basin, New Mexico
1938 -- field work in central and northeastern Utah
1938-1940 -- Editor, Washington Academy of Sciences
1939 -- field work in central Utah
1940 -- field work in central Utah and southwestern Wyoming
1940 -- USNM delegate to 8th American Scientific Congress
1941 -- field work in southwestern Wyoming
1942 -- divorced Alice van Dusen Gazin
1942 -- appointed Associate Curator, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, USNM
1942-1945 -- 1st Lieutenant to Major, United States Army Air Force (Intelligence)
1943 -- married Elizabeth Parker Hobbs
1946 -- appointed Curator, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, USNM
1946 -- member, Editorial Board, Geological Society of America
1946 -- field work in central Utah and southwestern Wyoming
1946-1948 -- Secretary, Washington Academy of Sciences
1947 -- helped draft constitution, American Geological Institute (AGI)
1947 -- Incorporator, AGI, representing the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP)
1947 -- Field work in Huerfano Basin, Colorado
1948-1949 -- Member, USNM Committee on Modernization of Exhibits
1948-1951 -- Member, Division of Geology and Geography, National Research Council (NRC), representing the SVP
1949 -- Field work in San Juan Basin, New Mexico, and western Wyoming
1949-1950 -- President, SVP
1949-1951 -- Member, Board of Managers, Washington Academy of Sciences
1950 -- field work in the interior of Panama
1950-1951 -- Member, Executive Committee, Division of Geology and Geography, NRC
1951 -- field work in the interior of Panama
1951 -- field work in Strait Canyon, West Virginia
1951 -- field work in southwestern Wyoming
1952-1966 -- Member, SVP Cenozoic Committee
1952-1966 -- Chairman, SVP Eocene Subcommittee
1953 -- field work in southwestern Wyoming and northeastern Utah
1954 -- field work in southwestern Wyoming
1956 -- field work in Wyoming and Nebraska
1956 -- Smithsonian delegate to the 20th International Geological Congress, Mexico City
1956-1958 -- Member, USNM Space Requirements Planning Committee for wings for the Natural History Building
1956-1958 -- Director, AGI
1957 -- field work in southwestern Wyoming
1957-1960 -- Member, Earth Sciences Division, NRC, representing the SVP
1959 -- field work in southwestern Wyoming
1960 -- received National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for "Early Tertiary Mammals of America"
1960 -- Smithsonian delegate to the 21st International Geological Congress in Copenhagen and to symposia on early mammals in Brussels and Oxford
1960 -- study trip to museums and fossil localities in France, Spain, Switzerland, West Germany, Austria, Belgium, and England
1960-1963 -- Chairman, NRC Committee on Postdoctoral Fellowships in Earth Sciences
Gazin, C. Lewis (Charles Lewis), 1904-1996 Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Note:
This series consists of correspondence reflecting the varied aspects of Gazin's professional life as research scientist and Smithsonian curator. Over the course
of his lengthy career, he maintained wide-ranging contacts with colleagues in universities and museums throughout the world, as well as with students and lay persons interested
in ancient vertebrate life. The correspondence chiefly concerns field work by Gazin and others; identifications, loans, and donations and fossil specimens; analyses of geologic
formations and faunal types; publications; conferences; and museum visits. Additional correspondence, involving officers and staff of the Smithsonian, focuses on field expeditions,
exhibits, publications, and the administration of the Departments of Geology and Paleobiology and the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology. Also included are a few manuscripts
by Gazin and papers and research proposals by associates. Further correspondence, usually related to specific subjects or organizations, can be found in most of the series
that follow.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7314, Charles Lewis Gazin Papers
Folder 7 Army Truck Loan, 1946. Correspondence, notes, and documents concerning the loan of an Army ambulance to the Smithsonian for a paleontological expedition to Wyoming and Utah in 1946.
Collection Creator::
Gazin, C. Lewis (Charles Lewis), 1904-1996 Search this
Container:
Box 1 of 47
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7314, Charles Lewis Gazin Papers
