Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition Papers,1886-1896.

Collection Number: 9186

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library


DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Title:
Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition papers, 1886-1896.
Collection Number:
9186
Creator:
Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition
Quantity:
2 cubic ft.
Forms of Material:
Correspondence, Diaries, Manuscripts, Reports,
Repository:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Correspondence, diaries, notes, work schedules, budget information, supply requests to merchants, and other papers. Includes correspondence to and from Frank Hamilton Cushing , Frederick Webb Hodge, and Margaret Magill. Daily reports of the expedition by Cushing, Margaret Magill's diary, notes and transcript, directions for daily operations, and various reports included. Also nine letter books of Cushing, much of the correspondence relating to the Hemenway expedition written from Camp Hemenway in Tempe Arizona. Some of the letters include illustrations of artifacts and the dig site. There are also laid in items such as telegrams and incoming correspondence. The some of the letter books have name index at the front. Letter books include: Number 1 November 1886 - July 1887; Number 2 July 1887 - November 1887; Number 3 November 1887 - March 1888; Number 4 October 1887 - July 1888; Number 5 March 1888 - October 1888; Number 6 October 1888 - May 1889, Number 7 February 1890 - May 1892; Number 8 September 1893 - June 1894; November 1895 - December 1896.
Language:
Collection material in English


COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Correspondence, diaries, notes, work schedules, budget information, supply requests to merchants, and other papers. Includes correspondence to and from Frank Hamilton Cushing , Frederick Webb Hodge, and Margaret Magill. Daily reports of the expedition by Cushing, Margaret Magill's diary, notes and transcript, directions for daily operations, and various reports included. Also nine letter books of Cushing, much of the correspondence relating to the Hemenway expedition written from Camp Hemenway in Tempe Arizona. Some of the letters include illustrations of artifacts and the dig site. There are also laid in items such as telegrams and incoming correspondence. The some of the letter books have name index at the front. Letter books include: Number 1 November 1886 - July 1887; Number 2 July 1887 - November 1887; Number 3 November 1887 - March 1888; Number 4 October 1887 - July 1888; Number 5 March 1888 - October 1888; Number 6 October 1888 - May 1889, Number 7 February 1890 - May 1892; Number 8 September 1893 - June 1894; November 1895 - December 1896.
SUBJECTS

Names:
Bandelier, Adolph Francis Alphonse, 1840-1914.
Baxter, Sylvester, 1850-1927.
Cushing, Emily.
Cushing, Frank Hamilton, 1857-1900.
Fewkes, Jesse Walter, 1850-1930.
Garlick, Charles A., b. 1827.
Hemenway, Mary Tileston, 1820-1894.
Hodge, Frederick Webb, 1864-1956.
Kate, Herman F. C. ten(Herman Frederik Carel), 1858-1931.
Kreamer, J. M.
Magill, Margaret.
Matthews, Washington, 1843-1905.
Pepper, William, 1843-1898.
Whiteside, W.
Wortman, Jacob L.
Geological Survey (U.S.).
Huntington Free Library.
Smithsonian Institution.Bureau of American Ethnology.

Subjects:
Indians of North America.
Indians of North America--Arizona.
Indians of North America--New Mexico.
Indians of North America--Southwest, New.
Indians of North America--Antiquities.
Indians of North America--Funeral customs and rites.
Indians of North America--Jewelry.
Indian baskets--North America.
Indianists.
Hopi Indians.
Zuni Indians.

Places:
Southwest, New--Antiquities.
Tempe (Ariz.)


INFORMATION FOR USERS

Cite As:
Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition papers, #9186. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
The Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition 1886-1894
In December, 1886, the principal members of the newly- formed Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition set forth from Albion, New York, the home of its director, Frank Hamilton Cushing, for Fort Wingate, New Mexico. Included in the party were Mr. and Mrs. Cushing; her sister, Margaret Magill, who would serve as the Expedition's artist; Frederick W. Hodge, on leave from the Bureau of Ethnology to serve as Cushing's secretary and personal assistant; and three men from Zuni who were returning home from a visit with Cushing in the East. They would be joined by other notables associated with the Expedition after they reached the area they eventually decided to investigate, the Salt River Valley near Phoenix, Arizona.
The Expedition was sponsored by Mary Hemenway, a wealthy Bostonian who had befriended Cushing during one of his interminable bouts with illness. Under her patronage, Cushing had brought the Zuni men to Massachusetts earlier that year as informants for his investigation into Zuni folklore, started during his years of residency in that pueblo. Mrs. Hemenway's interest was sparked, and she agreed to finance what is today considered the first major scientific archaeological expedition in the Southwest.
The Expedition had a stellar cast of characters associated with it during its eight year existence. Frank Cushing was already known both to the scientific and popular world as the man who had lived as a Zuni. His role as director of the Expedition was popularized in the Eastern press by Sylvester Baxter, a Boston journalist who served as home secretary of the Expedition's advisory Board of Associates. Adolph Bandelier was hired as historian, Dr. Herman F.C. ten Kate was invited as physical anthropologist, and Charles A. Garlick, formerly of the U.S. Geographical Survey, became the Expedition's field manager. Dr. J.L. Wortman of the Army Medical Museum was hired some months after the Expedition was in progress to attend to the preservation of skeletal remains. He came at the behest of Army surgeon Washington Matthews, a close personal friend of Cushing, who visited the Expedition to attend to his friend's medical needs. Frederick Webb Hodge, mentioned above, played an increasingly important, if sometimes stifled role in the daily routines of the Expedition, due in part to the frequent illness of its director. Cushing's illness eventually caused Mrs. Hemenway to bring him home, replacing him with ethnologist Jesse W. Fewkes in 1889. Fewkes directed the work of the Expedition along the lines of ethnological inquiry, especially among the Hopi, until the Expedition was terminated in 1894 with the death of its benefactor, Mrs. Hemenway.
The Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition and its enigmatic director, Frank Hamilton Cushing, have been the subjects of renewed scholarly interest in recent years. A controversial character throughout his career, Cushing's contribution to southwestern archaeology today is considered critical to understanding the prehistory of that area. Recently, David Wilcox of the Museum of Northern Arizona and others have started to pull together various pieces of information about the Expedition. When published, this new analysis will give a fuller picture of this Expedition's place in the study of the prehistory of the Southwest. While it is generally recognized as the first major scientific archaeological investigation in the Southwest, a final report of the Expedition was never written, and its first director, Frank Cushing, published little on its activities.
Emil Haury's 1945 monograph on Los Muertos, a site investigated in detail by the Expedition, however, is a classic work on Hohokam culture. It was drawn from Expedition materials (artifacts and manuscripts) deposited in 1894 at Harvard's Peabody Museum after Mrs. Hemenway's death. Haury evidently was unaware of two other locations of primary source material from the Expedition--the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, and the Huntington Free Library in New York. These institutions obtained their Expedition holdings through their association with Frederick W. Hodge, who as secretary to the Expedition retained many of its papers. He also was given the Expedition papers in the Cushing family's possession sometime after Cushing's death in 1900. Hodge was subsequently an ethnologist with the Museum of the American Indian (and concurrently president of its Library, the Huntington Free Library); he then went to the Southwest Museum where he remained director for many years.
Hemenway papers are from the early years of the Expedition, documenting the daily activities of its staff. Cushing's "Daily Jottings" actually start before the Expedition gets underway, and often are no longer than a sentence or two. The "Daily Orders" were written by Frank and Emily Cushing (Cushing, when incapacitated by illness, would dictate either to his wife, Emily, or to Frederick Hodge). The "Orders", along with the "Daily Reports in Detail", are largely from the early part of 1888. Margaret Magill's diary notes from January to August, 1887, are a particularly interesting part of the collection. Miss Magill subsequently married Frederick Hodge. Scattered Hodge-Cushing correspondence from 1887-1890 is included in these papers, as are several miscellaneous reports authored by these two men. The thus help complete the picture of the role of the Hemenway Southwestern Expedition in the study of southwestern prehistory.
References
Cushing, Frank Hamilton, "Preliminary Notes on the origin, Working Hypothesis, and Primary Researches of the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition," Seventh Congres international des americanistes (Berlin, 1890), p.151-94.
Haury, Emil W. The Excavation of Los Muertos and Neighboring Ruins in the Salt River Valley, Southern Arizona, Papers, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 24, no. 1 (1945).
Hinsley, Curtis M. Savages and Scientists: the Smithsonian Institution and the Development of American Anthropology, 1846-1910. Washington: Smithsonian, 1981.
Mark, Joan. Four Anthropologists: an American Science in its Early Years. New York: Science History, 1980.

RELATED MATERIALS

Much of the letterbooks are faded to the point of being unreadable, however many of the original Hodge to Cushing letters duplicated in the letterbooks exist within the collection.
A complete day by day guide to the letterbooks including names of all correspondents is available by clicking here. (5.5 MB Searchable PDF)
Microfilm available. Frames are not numbered, papers are arranged in chronological order (where known) within each category, so it is possible to search the microfilm by date. Categories listed in Series I are in order as appearing on microfilm.
SERIES LIST

Series I. Foldered items
Box 1
Series II. Letterbooks
Volumes 1-9

CONTAINER LIST

Container
Description
Date
Box 1 Folder 3
Diary jottings. F.H. Cushing and F.W. Hodge
November 15, 1886 - October 17, 1887
Many daily entries consist of a single sentence.
Also available on Reel 1
Box 1 Folder 11
Memoranda of work. F.W. Hodge
September 19, 1887 - December 17, 1887
With added notes by C.A. Garlick. Outlines daily assignments for various employees, primarily under Garlick's supervision.
Also available on Reel 1
Box 1 Folder 9
Daily orders. F.H. Cushing
December 23, 1887 - February 21, 1888
Contains daily directions to C.A. Garlick, and F.W. Hodge and their reports on what was not accomplished of the tasks assigned.
Also available on Reel 1
Box 1 Folder 10
Daily orders. F.H. Cushing
February 22, 1888 - April 10, 1888
Contains daily directions to C.A. Garlick, and F.W. Hodge and their reports on what was not accomplished of the tasks assigned.
Also available on Reel 1
Box 1 Folder 1
Daily reports in detail. F.H. Cushing
December 23, 1887, January 1, 1888 - February 24, 1888
Contains site descriptions and sketches, sometimes in the hand of F.W. Hodge, as well as more general discussions.
Also available on Reel 1
Box 1 Folder 2
Daily reports in detail. F.H. Cushing
February 25, 1888 - March 31, 1888, December 31, 1888
Contains site descriptions and sketches, sometimes in the hand of F.W. Hodge, as well as more general discussions.
Also available on Reel 1
Box 1 Folder 7
Diary notes of unnamed member of party
January 24, 1887 - January 30, 1887
Also available on Reel 2
Box 1 Folder 7
Diary notes of Miss Margaret W. Magill
February 6, 1887 - August 17, 1887
Also available on Reel 2
Box 1 Folder 8
Transcripts of Diary notes of Miss Margaret W. Magill
February 6, 1887 - August 17, 1887
Also included is a typed copy of an article from the Boston Herald, April 15, 1888, discussing personnel of the expedition.
Unclear if this was filmed
Box 1 Folder 4
Correspondence. F.W. Hodge to F.H. Cushing
September 27, 1887 - October 31, 1887
First letter of the microfilm edition (undated) is to Cushing from Ed. P. Gaston.
Also available on Reel 2
Box 1 Folder 5
Correspondence. F.W. Hodge to F.H. Cushing
November 1, 1887 - December 18, 1887
Also available on Reel 2
Box 1 Folder 6
Correspondence. F.W. Hodge and F.H. Cushing
1888 - 1891
Also available on Reel 2
Box 1 Folder 12
Microfilming instructions
Not filmed
Letterbook microfilm reel numbers are seperate from the reels listed above.
Volume 1
Letterbook 1
November 1886 - July 1887
Also available on Reel 1
Volume 2
Letterbook 2
July 1887 - November 1887
Also available on Reel 1
Volume 3
Letterbook 3
November 1887 - March 1888
Also available on Reel 2
Volume 4
Letterbook 4
October 1887 - July 1888
Also available on Reel 2
Volume 5
Letterbook 5
March 1888 - October 1888
Also available on Reel 3
Volume 6
Letterbook 6
October 1888 - May 1889
Also available on Reel 4
Volume 7
Letterbook 7
February 1890 - May 1892
Also available on Reel 5
Volume 8
Letterbook 8
September 1893 - June 1894
Also available on Reel 6
Volume 9
Letterbook 9
November 1895 - December 1896
Also available on Reel 7