This collection contains the professional papers of linguist Charles F. Hockett. Included are research materials consisting of field notes and notebooks, correspondence, published and unpublished writings, annotated copies of other scholars' work, a few drawings, photographs, and sound recordings.
Scope and Content Note:
This collection contains the professional papers of linguist Charles F. Hockett. Included are research materials consisting of field notes and notebooks, correspondence, published and unpublished writings, annotated copies of other scholars' work, a few drawings, photographs, and sound recordings.
The materials in this collection document Hockett's career as a structural linguist, and provides glimpses into his military service and his passion for music. Hockett's writings and notes, which comprise the majority of the materials in the collection, demonstrate his contributions to the field of linguistics.
Charles Francis Hockett was a linguist best known for his contribution to structural linguistics. Strongly influenced by the work of Leonard Bloomfield, he was "widely considered Bloomfield's chief disciple, and the most prominent explicator and elaborator of Bloomfield's works" (Gair 7). While he primarily focused on Algonquian languages, Hockett also studied Chinese, Fijian, and English.
Hockett was born in Columbus, Ohio on January 17, 1916 to Homer and Amy Hockett. He matriculated at Ohio State University in 1932 and graduated in 1936 with a BA and MA in ancient history. He then went on to study at Yale where he received his PhD in 1939. Afterward, he completed two years of postdoctoral study and had the opportunity to work with Leonard Bloomfield directly.
Drafted into the US Army in 1942, Hockett prepared language-training materials, language guides, and dictionaries for military personnel. He was eventually promoted to Captain and left the military in 1946 when he became a professor of linguistics at Cornell University. In 1957 he joined the Department of Anthropology. Hockett stayed at Cornell until 1982 when he retired to emeritus status. He later served as an adjunct professor of linguistics at Rice University.
He died on November 3, 2000.
Sources Consulted
James W. Gair, "Charles F. Hockett," in Biographical Memoirs volume 89. Washington, D.C. : National Academies Press, 2007.
Chronology
1916 -- Born January 17 in Columbus, Ohio
1932 -- Entered Ohio State University at 16
1936 -- Graduated summa cum laude with BA & MA in ancient history
1939 -- Summer of fieldwork in Kickapoo and autumn in Michoacán, Mexico Received PhD in Anthropology from Yale; dissertation based on fieldwork in Potawatomi
1940-1941 -- 2 years of postdoctoral study, including two quarters with Leonard Bloomfield at Chicago, followed by a stay at Michigan
1942 -- Drafted into US Army
1945 -- Dispatched to Tokyo as a first lieutenant to help train U.S. troops in Japanese
1946 -- Began university teaching career as an assistant professor of linguistics in the Division of Modern Languages at Cornell where he was in charge of Chinese and continued to run the Chinese program for 15 years Separated from the army with a terminal leave promotion to captain
1957 -- Become a member of Cornell's Department of Anthropology (later named the Goldwin Smith Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology)
1964 -- President of the Linguistic Society of America
1974 -- Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
1982 -- Retired from Cornell to emeritus status
1983 -- Festschrift written (Agard et al., 1983)
1986 -- Distinguished lecturer of the American Anthropological Association Visiting professor, later adjunct professor of linguistics at Rice University
2000 -- Died on November 3
Selected Bibliography
1939 -- Potawatomi Syntax. Language 15: 235-248.
1944 -- with Zhaoying Fang. Spoken Chinese: Basic Course. Military edition published (without authors' names) as a War Department Education Manual. Civilian Edition. New York: Holt.
1947 -- Peiping phonology. Journal of the American Oriental Society 67: 253-267.
1948 -- Implications of Bloomfield's Algonquian Studies. Language 24: 17-131.
1955 -- A Manual of Phonology. Baltimore: Waverley Press. How to Learn Martian. Astounding Science Fiction 55: 97-106.
1958 -- A Course in Modern Linguistics. New York: Macmillan.
1960 -- The Origin of Speech. Scientific American 203(3): 88-89.
1970 -- A Leonard Bloomfield Anthology. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
1973 -- Man's Place in Nature. New York: McGraw-Hill.
1987 -- Refurbishing our Foundations: Elementary Linguistics from an Advanced Point of View. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
1997 -- Approaches to Syntax. Lingua 100: 151-170.
Related Collections:
National Anthropological Archives Manuscript 7402. Letters to Charles Hockett regarding Algonquian linguistics 1937-1938.
National Anthropological Archives Manuscript 2009-15. May Mayko Ebihara conducted this oral history interview with Hockett on August 25, 1981 as part of a larger oral history project with anthropologists.
For additional Hockett correspondence, see:
C. F. Voegelin Papers, American Philosophical Society.
Henry Lee Smith Papers, 1935-1972 (bulk 1956-1972), University Archives, State University of New York at Buffalo.
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Charles Hockett's daughter, Rachel Hockett.
Restrictions:
The Charles F. Hockett Papers are open for research.
Notebook containing Kickapoo syllabic texts handwritten in 1929 by Joseph Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo residing in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Also English translations dictated by Alice Abraham of Shawnee, Oklahoma, and handwritten by her granddaugther Susan in 1967. The texts include a story of why rabbits only have fat on their shoulders and an anecdote from Murdock's courtship days. Other texts are on a virginity test, marriage and natal customs, joking relationships, and father and mother-in-law taboos. The notebook also contains 2 pages of linguistic notes in phonetic transcription with English translations.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 833
Local Note:
Title changed from "Kickapoo Legends and ethnology 1929" 6/10/2014.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Manuscripts
Narratives
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Five notebooks containing texts handwritten in Kickapoo syllabary and a phonetic transcription on mortuary customs and observances. A sixth notebook contains English translations, as well as anthropometric measurements of Joseph Murdock and his daughter, Rose. Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo that resided in Oklahoma, frequently assisted Michelson in his Kickapoo research.
Notebook containing three stories handwritten in Kickapoo syllabary collected by Truman Michelson in Oklahoma. Michelson labelled the texts as Mexican Kickapoo. Two of the stories are titled "Bill H. Horse story (European)" (pages 1-17) and "The man who was blessed by an owl" (pages 18-47); the third story is untitled. "B.J." is written on the notebook cover, possibly referring to the author of the texts. According to the Bureau of American Ethnology catalog card, the author may be B.J. Johnson.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3190
Local Note:
Title changed from "Legends summer 1930" 5/27/2014.
Three notebooks containing stories handwritten in Kickapoo by Joseph Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo residing in Oklahoma. There are a few titles and notes written in English. The following is a list of the titles, translated into English. The list may not reflect the physical arrangement of the stories.
Contents: Where the people had a town and the chief had a son; Apparently something on Mide and Wabano; A story of where the people had a town and the man moved; A witch causes death; Hog (the end is very much like the last story in Jones' Kickapoo text and the so-called Meskwaki "Tiger" story from Jack Bullard); An old woman kills her daughter-in-law as she fell in love with her son-in-law (very much like Jones' Fox story. The ending is slightly different); What happened to a woman who hated her son-in-law (much the same as Jones' Fox story "How a girl hated the man who stayed with her parents; the bull frog episode appears in both); Skunk and opossum (almost exactly the same as Jones' Kickapoo story; ending is different); Raccoon tries to steal chickens and is caught by a Frenchman; story something like Wissler's "Split Feather" (the end is like one of Jones' Fox stories); V-dentata; a story almost like Jones' story of the man who married many women (the louse episode occured in both); Wisake and the "Flag"; story that begins like the bear lover, goes on almost like Jones' Kickapoo story (it is closer to the Apaiyashihagi story); The determination of paternity by passing ? the baby; Potiphar's wife (ending different from Jones' Kickapoo); a variant of Jones' Boy and the giant (the mayor's daughter episode is lacking and the ending is different); Snapping turtle on the war path; Snapping turtle runs a race with Black Hawk; White Blooms (a new story); Why Kickapoos did not eat Blackhawk, and the youth who fasted all month; (names of some Kickapoo months; A man lives with his son-in-law; An old man wishes his daughter to marry ("control of goods" under the "control of game"; some European elements); Story of Tootca (= grub worm) Lesbian; Ten men who were brothers together; (on last page apparently a summary of titles of stories running backward one page).
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3189
Local Note:
Title changed from "Legends summer, 1930" 5/22/2014.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Folklore
Narratives
Manuscripts
Field notes
Date:
1922, undated
Scope and Contents:
Kickapoo texts and linguistic and ethnographic notes collected by Truman Michelson. Michelson worked with the Kickapoo on multiple occassions in Oklahoma, and these materials were likely collected during one of those trips. There are multiple Kickapoo texts, but only one is accompanied by an English translation, which looks to be incomplete. Among the untranslated texts is the story of the rabbit cycle. There are also some notes with information from Joseph Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo who frequently assisted Michelson in his research.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Folklore
Narratives
Manuscripts
Place:
Shawnee (Okla.)
Date:
1929, 1967
Scope and Contents:
Truman Michelson conducted research among the Kickapoo in 1929 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. During this time, he worked with Joseph Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo and former student at Carlisle Indian Industrial School. This collection contains legends in Kickapoo syllabary collected by Michelson from Murdock. The collection also partial interlineal English translations dictated by Alice Abraham and handwritten by her granddaughter Susan in 1967.
List of stories: Eye juggler; Girls who marry the stars; Snapping turtle goes to war; Wisakea (reflection of deer in the water); Wisakea and the "little frightener"; Wisakea and the snapping turtle quarrel; Wisakea and the wife of the sun; Wisakea and the French saloon keeper; Speech of Waupakiche at a dance in the evening; Wisakea and the place where speaking is forbidden; Adventures with Apaiyashiage brothers, Wisakea flies with ducks; Lynx and rabbit; Ten Brothers together.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1772
Local Note:
Title changed from "Mexican Kickapoo Legends 1929" 6/10/2014.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Field notes
Vocabulary
Place:
Shawnee (Okla.)
Date:
1929
Scope and Contents:
Truman Michelson conducted research among the Kickapoo in 1929 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. During this time, he worked with Joseph Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo and former student at Carlisle Indian Industrial School. These notes contain information from Murdock and include phonetic transcriptions of vocabulary, a list of gentes, and some personal names.
Truman Michelson conducted research among the Kickapoo in 1929 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. During this time, he worked with Joseph Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo and former student at Carlisle Indian Industrial School. This collection contains an assortment of Kickapoo lingustic notes, ethnographic notes, and stories that Michelson obtained from Murdock. Topics include sin and social crimes, clan organization, childbirth, puberty, ceremonies and rituals, and daughter and father-in-law taboos. Among the stories is an English translation of the rabbit cycle legend (see MS 1203 for Kickapoo text), Murdock's experiences as a boy, and stories illustrating bashfulness before mothers-in-law.
The following is a list of other stories, which are in Kickapoo without English translations: Exchanging tooth with a garter snake; How corn came to be on this earth; Wisakea and the mallard duck; Wisakea and the skunk; Legend of witches; Why people began to kill each other; Why it is that some people can understand children before they talk and why they understand dogs; Woman and dog; The maiden and the man who frightened her; A thunderer is captured and made prisoner; Wisakea bungling host stories; Boy told by the giant to feed the lion straw and the horse meat; Skunk and opossum; Garter snake tooth; The one who was left behind.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Narratives
Folklore
Manuscripts
Date:
1929
Scope and Contents:
Story of rabbit cycle handwritten in Kickapoo syllabary by Joseph Murdock, a Mexican Kickapoo. Truman Michelson collected the text from Murdock in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Also includes letter to W.H. Holmes, Chief, Bureau of American Ethnology, transmitting the above. Heyworth, Illinois. September 20, 1906. Autograph letter signed. 1 page. Other letters from Custer concerning Kickapoo language and Custer's desire to do work for the BAE are in Bureau of American Ethnology letters received, 1906.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1819
Local Note:
Autograph letter signed
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Citation:
Manuscript 1819, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Truman Michelson's handwritten Kickapoo, Mexican Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sauk notes, consisting of anthropometric measurements of Kickapoo people and one person of Kickapoo and Potawatomi heritage; Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sauk vocabulary; and some ethnological notes on social organization. These notes were collected during the summer of 1928, most likely during his fieldwork with the Kickapoo in Oklahoma.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 3088
Local Note:
Title changed from "Texts summer 1928" 5/21/2014.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- anthropometry Search this
