Arizona’s and New Mexico’s Hidden Scholars: Husband and Wife Archaeological Teams by Nancy Parezo

In 1983 I began a research project to document and honor the over 1600 women who have worked in the American Southwest between 1870 and 1940 and published articles about what they learned. We knew much about the most famous of the over 3,500 men who likewise worked in the region, especially men like Franz Boas, John Wesley Powell, and Emil Haury, whose contributions had been analyzed and celebrated in histories of anthropology. But what about women like Lucy Wilson, Natalie Curtis Burlin, Matilda Coxe Stevenson, or Marion Mindeleff? Over the last thirty years a group of dedicated scholars have tried to rectify these omissions by uncovering who worked in the American Southwest and producing summaries of work, biographies, analyses of their intellectual contributions and data collection activities, exhibits, and popular articles. We have even had women declared state treasures. Tonight I will focus on recent work by Don and Kay Fowler and myself on early husband and wife archaeological teams who worked in Arizona and New Mexico and how their efforts have gone unrecognized but whose efforts helped pave the way for future generations to have successful careers. We focus on the activities of Frank and Theresa Russell who surveyed Arizona between 1900 and 1903.
Presented through AAHS@Home November 21, 2022