Edgar Lee Hewett
Encyclopedia
Edgar Lee Hewett, D.Sc., (23 November 1865 – 31 December 1946) was an archaeologist/anthropologist active in work on the Native American
communities of New Mexico
and the southwestern United States
, and most famous for his role in bringing about the Antiquities Act
, a pioneering piece of legislation for the conservation movement
. He was the founder and first director of the Museum of New Mexico
, as well as the first president of the New Mexico Normal School, now New Mexico Highlands University
.
Hewett's dealings with the great potter
Maria Martinez
of San Ildefonso Pueblo were instrumental in establishing San Ildefonso as a center for Native American pottery, and indeed, for the rebirth of pottery as a significant folk art
form in the region.
Hewett also had a significant role in the formation of Bandelier National Monument
and Chaco Culture National Historical Park
, established to preserve extensive prehistoric ruins of the Pueblo people
that he studied, largely through his role in bringing about the Antiquities Act
authorizing the creation of such national monument
s.
on November 23, 1865. He was educated at Tarkio College in Missouri
and thereafter settled in Florence, Colorado
as a member of the school system, eventually becoming superintendent of the Florence schools and, in 1894, a member of the faculty of the Colorado State Normal School in Greeley, Colorado
(today the University of Northern Colorado
), where he received a master's degree in 1893.
Hewett's 1891 marriage to Cora Whitford proved eventful for his eventual career and prominence. Cora was described in contemporary accounts as "frail" -- frequently (and almost certainly in this case) a euphemism for a victim of tuberculosis
-- and at her doctors' advice, the Hewetts started to spend time in the warmer climate of northern New Mexico
. As a result Edgar Hewett was exposed to, and became fascinated by, the prehistoric ruins in Frijoles Canyon near Santa Fe
-- a site that would eventually become the centerpiece attraction of Bandelier National Monument
.
Hewett's interest in Frijoles Canyon was timely, for Adolph Bandelier
had just started to describe, through both scientific papers and his novel The Delight Makers, prehistoric life on the Pajarito Plateau
. Hewett came to know Bandelier and consider him his mentor in his own studies. By 1896 Hewett himself was conducting field work on the Plateau, although he continued to defer to Bandelier's expertise on the region for many years.
Hewett rapidly came to believe that the Plateau's archaeological sites constituted a national resource that should be preserved, and in the 1890s he advocated creation of a "Pajarito National Park" that would protect essentially the entire Plateau. However, the time was not yet ripe for such a step. Contemporary agriculture
on the Plateau was not exactly widespread, but such as it was, the ranchers relied upon it for sustenance, and perceived a threat to their economic well-being if the land was put off limits to ranching and farming. (Ironically, many years later, Valles Caldera National Preserve would be created in the adjoining Jemez Mountains
with language that explicitly mandated looking after the economic interests of the region in terms of agriculture and forestry
.) These pressures, combined with opposition from Santa Clara Pueblo, prevented Pajarito National Park from coming about -- yet.
territorial legislature, anticipating the day when the New Mexico Territory would achieve statehood, authorized the creation of a normal school
at Las Vegas, New Mexico
. The New Mexico Normal School, as it was originally called (renamed New Mexico Normal University in 1902, later becoming New Mexico Highlands University
as it is today), took some time to form, but was ready for its first class of students in 1898. By this time Hewett had achieved a modicum of fame, at least locally, and had become friendly with some of the power brokers who were behind the creation of the Normal School. This led to his appointment as the first president of the New Mexico Normal School in 1897.
Hewett's time at the head of the Normal School can be viewed as generally successful. The college was organized along conventional lines for normal colleges and commenced with several areas of pedagogy aiming toward production of degreed teachers, who were needed by the state-to-be. The enrollment increased rapidly and for a time exceeded that of the University of New Mexico
in Albuquerque. However, he fell afoul of some of the powerful figures of the region who disagreed with Hewett's increasingly vocal position that the archaeological resources of New Mexico Territory required preservation. He was also criticized for an "unconventional" approach to pedagogy -- a euphemism for his enthusiasm for taking students into the field (at the Pajarito Plateau) at summer camps, a highly innovative practice at the time and one that reinforced the concerns that his critics had about his enthusiasm for preserving the sites there. Particularly contentious was the fact that he included women in his field camps. By early 1903 he was pressured out of the president's office. Hewett's name, however, remains attached to buildings at today's New Mexico Highlands University.
Hewett's interest in the Pajarito Plateau intensified during his time at the Normal School. He was able to enlist students at the Normal School in the surveying
of the Plateau that started to put his inquiries there on a more scientific footing. He also learned the value of working the smoke-filled room
to achieve support for his goals. This was one of the traits that set him apart from his contemporaries such as Richard Wetherill
, and had much to do with the next phase of his career.
in anthropology
from the University of Geneva
in 1904. He spent little time in residence at the university, developing his dissertation mainly by collating a number of papers that he had written previously (a practice that, in the eyes of Hewett's many critics, would characterize and compromise much of his later writing as well) and having them translated into the required French
. The resulting dissertation, bearing the title Les Communautés Anciennes dans le Desert Americain, was favorably received, and sufficed to earn Hewett his degree despite his inability to defend it in the customary French.
Meanwhile, the political landscape that had prevented the creation of the Pajarito National Park was starting to change. John F. Lacey
, a congressman from Iowa
, had visited northern New Mexico in 1902 to see the impact of pot hunting, and had enlisted Hewett as a guide. He was so impressed that Hewett was retained to report to Congress
on the archaeological resources of the region.
By this time Hewett had become more adept at working the political system, and his skills were starting to show some results, frictions at the Normal School notwithstanding. He had traveled to Washington, D.C.
in 1900 (no small journey at the time) and befriended the prominent anthropologist Alice Cunningham Fletcher
among others. In 1902, he wrote a pointed complaint about the pot-hunting practices that he saw as devastating Chaco Canyon
, with the result that Wetherill and the Hyde Expedition were forbidden to excavate there. This set the stage for Hewett to deliver a truly influential report to Congress -- and he delivered. On September 3, 1904, freshly back from Geneva, Hewett submitted to the General Land Office
(GLO), which at this time had jurisdiction over government lands in the Southwest, a "Memorandum concerning the historic and prehistoric ruins of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, and their preservation." This report rapidly made its way to Congress and Lacey, who resonated with Hewett's declaration in the Memorandum that "it will be a lasting reproach upon our Government if it does not use its power to restrain" the destruction of the ruins.
Hewett spent most of late 1904 and 1905 shuttling between Washington and New Mexico, helping Lacey with a nascent Act of Congress
at the one and continuing his archaeological fieldwork at the other. This was a time of personal misfortune for him, however, as Cora Hewett's illness had become terminal. While in Geneva, she had to use a wheelchair
much of the time; after their return to the United States, she entered a sanatorium
in Santa Fe, New Mexico
for a time; in the fall of 1905, she died. Hewett, who had obviously found his calling, kept on working.
The result was the Antiquities Act
of 1906, a towering piece of American legislation by any standards. As a result of the Antiquities Act, it was now no longer necessary for Congress to authorize permanent withdrawal of land for the purpose of preservation of cultural or other resources; a presidential proclamation would now suffice. This apparent short-circuiting of separation of powers
was controversial at the time, and has remained so for the 100 years since its passage, but Lacey's experienced hand guided the bill through Congress, meeting the objections of its critics and propelling it toward passage and presidential signature. President Theodore Roosevelt
signed the Antiquities Act into law on June 8, 1906, and Hewett's place in the history of the conservation movement
was secured. Ironically, Roosevelt's first use of the Antiquities Act was not to protect one of the ruins that Hewett had made his life's passion, but rather to establish Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming
, a site of more geological and scenic interest than archaeological significance. However, the Act would soon be put, repeatedly and vigorously, to its (or at least Hewett's) intended purpose.
complex that would become the centerpiece of the eponymous Montezuma Castle National Monument
. Hewett knew of Montezuma Castle from his work inventorying the Southwest for the GLO and Lacey, and he knew that it was not only archaeologically significant but also imperiled by aggressive pot hunting (sometimes using dynamite
to knock down walls so that rooms within could be excavated). Hewett lent his support to the creation of this national monument, which came into being in 1907.
Montezuma Castle was a relatively uncontroversial site, being small, remote, and not heavily (or at least profitably) exploited by either the pot hunters or agriculture in the vicinity, some temporary de facto restrictions on the pot hunting having already come into being before the monument was created. It was therefore a good test case for Hewett's vision as embodied in the Antiquities Act, and creation of the national monument caused comparatively few complaints. Another site closer to home that Hewett had studied, at today's Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
in southwestern New Mexico, would soon follow, and by the end of 1907, Chaco Canyon itself had been made a national monument
, thus preserving the most extensive site of ruins of the Pueblo culture
. However, Hewett was not satisfied; he had his eye on other extensive and significant candidates for preservation, notably his long-time favorites on the Pajarito Plateau, that promised to be more controversial. He therefore turned his attention to the problems of getting these sites preserved, as the number of national monuments created under the Antiquities Act began to climb.
In 1907 the Archaeological Institute of America
gave Hewett an additional platform, by establishing the School of American Archaeology, later the School of American Research, in Santa Fe. Hewett's friend Alice Fletcher
, by then the doyenne of American archaeology, was one of the prime backers of the School; Hewett became its first director, a position he would hold until his death in 1946. The School would provide Hewett not only with a mouthpiece, but also a base for his increasingly professional (if still controversial) research activities and students and collaborators to do the work.
The process of preserving the sites of the Pajarito Plateau proved difficult and time-consuming, partly because interactions among the affected parties were complex, and partly because when Roosevelt passed the reins of government to William Howard Taft
, enthusiasm in the White House for preserving such sites was diminished. Another factor had to do with Hewett's own personality. He had many supporters, but also many critics, and some of the latter complained that his real goal was to ensure that he, Edgar L. Hewett, D.Sc., Director of the School of American Research, would have access to, and control of, the Plateau's sites -- while his rivals would not. Negotiations over a new monument were long and contentious, but finally, on February 11, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson
proclaimed the new Bandelier National Monument
, naming it for Adolph Bandelier who had died recently. The monument was rather smaller than Hewett had hoped, covering only Frijoles Canyon, some comparatively empty land to the southwest, and an outlier (now Tsankawi
), and omitting among others the very significant Puye Cliff Dwellings
near Santa Clara Pueblo
. However, even the most ardent preservationists had to admit that, from the standpoint of protecting Puebloan sites, Bandelier was much better than nothing.
, some of it of considerable beauty. Pottery of a more "modern" nature was produced at some of the pueblos of the region in the first part of the 20th century, but it was intended for the tourist trade
, was frequently of embarrassingly poor quality, and had little to do with the pottery of antiquity. The artifacts found during the excavations provided evidence that the Native Americans of the region could do better at making pottery.
Shortly after the first World War, an opportunity arose to revive the high-quality work of antiquity, driven as much by Hewett's curiosity about the potters of the past as anything else. He made the acquaintance of a potter at San Ildefonso Pueblo named Maria Martinez
-- a name that would become a watchword in Native American art. Hewett set Maria and her husband Julian, at that point proficient artisans in a polychrome style of pottery common at San Ildefonso, the task of trying to reproduce the colors and textures seen in the ancestral work of Frijoles Canyon and its vicinity. Almost serendipitously, the Martinezes developed a "black-on-black" style that not only evoked the ancient work but also produced breathtakingly beautiful pieces for the modern collector. Hewett, in conjunction with the eccentric entrepreneur/philanthropist
s Vera von Blumenthal
and Rose Dougan, detected in this pottery a commercial opportunity that the puebleños would go on to develop into a major and economically significant cottage industry in the region. The Santa Fe Indian Market
, probably the world's leading exposition for Native American art, has an economic impact on northern New Mexico estimated at nearly $20,000,000 annually. San Ildefonso (and Santa Clara) black-on-black pottery, some of it by descendants of Maria and Julian Martinez, features prominently to this day among the "Best of Show" award winners at the Market, as well as more pedestrian but still high-quality work that has far transcended the tourist trinkets that were being produced in the pueblos at the beginning of the 20th century.
, or SAR) lost little time in establishing itself not merely as a platform for its director, but also as a center for the development of professional archaeologists. Its first professional papers were published the year it opened. Neil Judd
, Alfred V. Kidder
, Sylvanus Morley
, and Earl Morris
were among the prominent archaeologists who spent time there, Judd and Kidder in particular contributing to the excavations of many of the same sites that had interested Hewett.
These educational successes aside, Hewett's appointment at the School ruffled feathers among the old school of American archaeology, which was largely centered on the East Coast and took a decidedly condescending stance toward the "amateur" Hewett, Alice Fletcher's backing notwithstanding. One of his most vocal critics was Franz Boas
, who had started the first archaeology Ph.D.
program in the United States at Columbia University
in New York
. Boas and several of his colleagues wanted to control the School and the education it afforded its students, and to have the "incompetent" Hewett sacked. Local pressures sufficed to keep him in the job, and eventually Boas and colleagues were placated through formation of a similar institute in Mexico City
.
In 1909 another action of the territorial legislature created the Museum of New Mexico
. Hewett was a logical choice to be its first director, and was installed in the position. The enabling legislation mandated that the Museum be managed by the SAR, helping to solidify Hewett's grasp on both positions. Hewett staffed the Museum's administrative functions with several of his friends and supporters from the Normal School days, and persuaded Alice Fletcher to take a key advisory role as well. This of course exposed him to complaints from his critics about cronyism
, but ensured that he at least had a stable power base within the institution. The Museum was empowered by the legislature to acquire land containing some key archaeological sites in the state that were not yet protected by the Antiquities Act, and under Hewett, it did so.
Hewett was able to commingle public (Museum) and private (SAR) resources as he saw fit, but the arrangement was a matter of concern and in 1959 the two institutions were forced to separate. Today, the Museum of New Mexico is a subdivision of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
Hewett remarried in 1911, to Donizetta Jones Wood, who would survive him. During this period he continued to do field work, his growing reputation ensuring that he would be invited to join expeditions ranging far beyond the Southwest. He also continued his politicking; not satisfied with Bandelier National Monument (even though it expanded beyond the land in the original proclamation), he continued to lobby for creation of a Pajarito National Park. Nothing came of this advocacy, however.
As time passed, Hewett's academic credentials came to be more recognized, and he spent time and effort building academic archaeology in the western United States. He organized archaeology and anthropology departments at the University of New Mexico
and University of Southern California
. The UNM department, where Hewett spent much of the latter part of his life, would eventually become one of the world's best known. While at UNM, Hewett founded the Museum of Anthropology of the University of New Mexico, which would later become the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology
.
His collaborations with other archaeologists also increased with the passage of time. By 1910 he was collaborating with the Smithsonian Institution
on work in Frijoles Canyon; Neil Judd
was one of the students there. By 1915 he was director of exhibits for the Panama-California Exposition
in San Diego, responsible for assembling the central exhibit "The Story of Man through the Ages". This led in turn to his assuming directorship of the San Diego Museum of Man
, which was created as a permanent institution from the exposition's collections established by Hewett. This museum survives today as one of the institutions in San Diego's Balboa Park district.
Hewett's increasing ties to university life exposed him to the "publish or perish
" mindset of academia
, and here the results were less flattering to Hewett than many of his earlier activities. Much of his later work, or at least his publications, became somewhat repetitive. His 1943 book Ancient Life in the American Southwest, cited below, amounts to a rehashing of a lifetime of archaeology without contributing anything new, and most of it could have been written at least 20 years earlier. Its tone also strikes the modern reader as annoyingly patronizing to (yet still respectful of) the people he studied, but Hewett was, after all, a product of his times.
Edgar Lee Hewett died on December 31, 1946. His ashes are interred at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, one of the units of the Museum of New Mexico that he helped create, next to those of his long-time friend and supporter Alice Fletcher.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
communities of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and the southwestern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and most famous for his role in bringing about the Antiquities Act
Antiquities Act
The Antiquities Act of 1906, officially An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities , is an act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906, giving the President of the United States authority to, by executive order, restrict the use of...
, a pioneering piece of legislation for the conservation movement
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
. He was the founder and first director of the Museum of New Mexico
Museum of New Mexico
The Museum of New Mexico consists of six separate institutions in Santa Fe, New Mexico, including :* New Mexico Museum of Art* Palace of the Governors* Museum of Indian Arts & Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology* Museum of International Folk Art...
, as well as the first president of the New Mexico Normal School, now New Mexico Highlands University
New Mexico Highlands University
New Mexico Highlands University is a public university located in Las Vegas, New Mexico.-History:The university was first established as New Mexico Normal School in 1893, with the prominent archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett serving as its first president...
.
Hewett's dealings with the great potter
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
Maria Martinez
Maria Martinez
Maria Montoya Martinez was a Native American artist who created internationally known pottery...
of San Ildefonso Pueblo were instrumental in establishing San Ildefonso as a center for Native American pottery, and indeed, for the rebirth of pottery as a significant folk art
Folk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....
form in the region.
Hewett also had a significant role in the formation of Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier National Monument is a National Monument preserving the homes of the Ancestral Pueblo People. It is named after Swiss anthropologist Adolph Bandelier, who researched the cultures of the area. Bandelier was designated a National Monument on February 11, 1916, and most of its backcountry...
and Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park hosting the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash...
, established to preserve extensive prehistoric ruins of the Pueblo people
Pueblo people
The Pueblo people are a Native American people in the Southwestern United States. Their traditional economy is based on agriculture and trade. When first encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, they were living in villages that the Spanish called pueblos, meaning "towns". Of the 21...
that he studied, largely through his role in bringing about the Antiquities Act
Antiquities Act
The Antiquities Act of 1906, officially An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities , is an act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906, giving the President of the United States authority to, by executive order, restrict the use of...
authorizing the creation of such national monument
U.S. National Monument
A National Monument in the United States is a protected area that is similar to a National Park except that the President of the United States can quickly declare an area of the United States to be a National Monument without the approval of Congress. National monuments receive less funding and...
s.
Early years
Hewett was born in Warren County, IllinoisWarren County, Illinois
-External links:**...
on November 23, 1865. He was educated at Tarkio College in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
and thereafter settled in Florence, Colorado
Florence, Colorado
The City of Florence is a Statutory City located in Fremont County, Colorado, United States. The population was 3,653 at the 2000 census.ADX Florence, the only federal Supermax prison in the United States, is located south of Florence in an unincorporated area in Fremont County...
as a member of the school system, eventually becoming superintendent of the Florence schools and, in 1894, a member of the faculty of the Colorado State Normal School in Greeley, Colorado
Greeley, Colorado
The City of Greeley is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Weld County, Colorado, United States. Greeley is located in the region known as Northern Colorado. Greeley is situated north-northeast of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. According to the...
(today the University of Northern Colorado
University of Northern Colorado
-Organization:The University of Northern Colorado offers 100 undergraduate programs and more than 100 graduate programs. The university has a satellite campus in Denver, Colorado...
), where he received a master's degree in 1893.
Hewett's 1891 marriage to Cora Whitford proved eventful for his eventual career and prominence. Cora was described in contemporary accounts as "frail" -- frequently (and almost certainly in this case) a euphemism for a victim of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
-- and at her doctors' advice, the Hewetts started to spend time in the warmer climate of northern New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. As a result Edgar Hewett was exposed to, and became fascinated by, the prehistoric ruins in Frijoles Canyon near Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
-- a site that would eventually become the centerpiece attraction of Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier National Monument is a National Monument preserving the homes of the Ancestral Pueblo People. It is named after Swiss anthropologist Adolph Bandelier, who researched the cultures of the area. Bandelier was designated a National Monument on February 11, 1916, and most of its backcountry...
.
Pajarito Plateau
Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier
Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier was an American archaeologist after whom Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico, United States, is named....
had just started to describe, through both scientific papers and his novel The Delight Makers, prehistoric life on the Pajarito Plateau
Pajarito Plateau
The Pajarito Plateau is a volcanic plateau in north central New Mexico, United States. The plateau, part of the Jemez Mountains, is bounded on the west by the Valles Caldera and on the east by the White Rock Canyon of the Rio Grande...
. Hewett came to know Bandelier and consider him his mentor in his own studies. By 1896 Hewett himself was conducting field work on the Plateau, although he continued to defer to Bandelier's expertise on the region for many years.
Hewett rapidly came to believe that the Plateau's archaeological sites constituted a national resource that should be preserved, and in the 1890s he advocated creation of a "Pajarito National Park" that would protect essentially the entire Plateau. However, the time was not yet ripe for such a step. Contemporary agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
on the Plateau was not exactly widespread, but such as it was, the ranchers relied upon it for sustenance, and perceived a threat to their economic well-being if the land was put off limits to ranching and farming. (Ironically, many years later, Valles Caldera National Preserve would be created in the adjoining Jemez Mountains
Jemez Mountains
The Jemez Mountains are a volcanic group of mountains in New Mexico, United States. The highest point in the range is Chicoma Mountain at an elevation of 11,561 feet . The town of Los Alamos and Los Alamos National Laboratory adjoin the eastern side of the range while the town of Jemez Springs...
with language that explicitly mandated looking after the economic interests of the region in terms of agriculture and forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
.) These pressures, combined with opposition from Santa Clara Pueblo, prevented Pajarito National Park from coming about -- yet.
New Mexico Normal School
In 1893 the New MexicoNew Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
territorial legislature, anticipating the day when the New Mexico Territory would achieve statehood, authorized the creation of a normal school
Normal school
A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
at Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas is a city in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities both named Las Vegas, west Las Vegas and east Las Vegas , divided by the Gallinas River, retain distinct characters and separate, rival school districts. The population was 14,565 at the 2000...
. The New Mexico Normal School, as it was originally called (renamed New Mexico Normal University in 1902, later becoming New Mexico Highlands University
New Mexico Highlands University
New Mexico Highlands University is a public university located in Las Vegas, New Mexico.-History:The university was first established as New Mexico Normal School in 1893, with the prominent archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett serving as its first president...
as it is today), took some time to form, but was ready for its first class of students in 1898. By this time Hewett had achieved a modicum of fame, at least locally, and had become friendly with some of the power brokers who were behind the creation of the Normal School. This led to his appointment as the first president of the New Mexico Normal School in 1897.
Hewett's time at the head of the Normal School can be viewed as generally successful. The college was organized along conventional lines for normal colleges and commenced with several areas of pedagogy aiming toward production of degreed teachers, who were needed by the state-to-be. The enrollment increased rapidly and for a time exceeded that of the University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
in Albuquerque. However, he fell afoul of some of the powerful figures of the region who disagreed with Hewett's increasingly vocal position that the archaeological resources of New Mexico Territory required preservation. He was also criticized for an "unconventional" approach to pedagogy -- a euphemism for his enthusiasm for taking students into the field (at the Pajarito Plateau) at summer camps, a highly innovative practice at the time and one that reinforced the concerns that his critics had about his enthusiasm for preserving the sites there. Particularly contentious was the fact that he included women in his field camps. By early 1903 he was pressured out of the president's office. Hewett's name, however, remains attached to buildings at today's New Mexico Highlands University.
Hewett's interest in the Pajarito Plateau intensified during his time at the Normal School. He was able to enlist students at the Normal School in the surveying
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
of the Plateau that started to put his inquiries there on a more scientific footing. He also learned the value of working the smoke-filled room
Smoke-filled room
In U.S. political slang, a smoke-filled room is a term for a secret political gathering or round table style decision-making process. The phrase is generally used to suggest a cabal of powerful or well-connected, cigar-smoking men such as the Bilderberg group meeting privately to nominate a dark...
to achieve support for his goals. This was one of the traits that set him apart from his contemporaries such as Richard Wetherill
Richard Wetherill
Richard Wetherill , a member of a prominent Colorado ranching family, was an amateur explorer in the discovery, research and excavation of sites associated with the Ancient Pueblo People...
, and had much to do with the next phase of his career.
Antiquities Act
Upon stepping down from his position at the Normal School, Hewett decided that further career progress would require the burnishing of his academic credentials. He therefore paused long enough to get a doctorateDoctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
from the University of Geneva
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...
in 1904. He spent little time in residence at the university, developing his dissertation mainly by collating a number of papers that he had written previously (a practice that, in the eyes of Hewett's many critics, would characterize and compromise much of his later writing as well) and having them translated into the required French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. The resulting dissertation, bearing the title Les Communautés Anciennes dans le Desert Americain, was favorably received, and sufficed to earn Hewett his degree despite his inability to defend it in the customary French.
Meanwhile, the political landscape that had prevented the creation of the Pajarito National Park was starting to change. John F. Lacey
John F. Lacey
John Fletcher Lacey was an eight-term Republican United States congressman from Iowa's 6th congressional district. He was also the author of the Lacey Act of 1900, which made it a crime to ship illegal game across state lines, and the Lacey Act of 1907, which further regulated the handling of...
, a congressman from Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, had visited northern New Mexico in 1902 to see the impact of pot hunting, and had enlisted Hewett as a guide. He was so impressed that Hewett was retained to report to Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
on the archaeological resources of the region.
By this time Hewett had become more adept at working the political system, and his skills were starting to show some results, frictions at the Normal School notwithstanding. He had traveled to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in 1900 (no small journey at the time) and befriended the prominent anthropologist Alice Cunningham Fletcher
Alice Cunningham Fletcher
Alice Cunningham Fletcher was an American ethnologist who studied and documented American Indian culture.-Biography:...
among others. In 1902, he wrote a pointed complaint about the pot-hunting practices that he saw as devastating Chaco Canyon
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park hosting the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash...
, with the result that Wetherill and the Hyde Expedition were forbidden to excavate there. This set the stage for Hewett to deliver a truly influential report to Congress -- and he delivered. On September 3, 1904, freshly back from Geneva, Hewett submitted to the General Land Office
General Land Office
The General Land Office was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department of the Treasury...
(GLO), which at this time had jurisdiction over government lands in the Southwest, a "Memorandum concerning the historic and prehistoric ruins of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, and their preservation." This report rapidly made its way to Congress and Lacey, who resonated with Hewett's declaration in the Memorandum that "it will be a lasting reproach upon our Government if it does not use its power to restrain" the destruction of the ruins.
Hewett spent most of late 1904 and 1905 shuttling between Washington and New Mexico, helping Lacey with a nascent Act of Congress
Act of Congress
An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by government with a legislature named "Congress," such as the United States Congress or the Congress of the Philippines....
at the one and continuing his archaeological fieldwork at the other. This was a time of personal misfortune for him, however, as Cora Hewett's illness had become terminal. While in Geneva, she had to use a wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
much of the time; after their return to the United States, she entered a sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
for a time; in the fall of 1905, she died. Hewett, who had obviously found his calling, kept on working.
The result was the Antiquities Act
Antiquities Act
The Antiquities Act of 1906, officially An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities , is an act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906, giving the President of the United States authority to, by executive order, restrict the use of...
of 1906, a towering piece of American legislation by any standards. As a result of the Antiquities Act, it was now no longer necessary for Congress to authorize permanent withdrawal of land for the purpose of preservation of cultural or other resources; a presidential proclamation would now suffice. This apparent short-circuiting of separation of powers
Separation of powers
The separation of powers, often imprecisely used interchangeably with the trias politica principle, is a model for the governance of a state. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the unmodified Constitution of the Roman Republic...
was controversial at the time, and has remained so for the 100 years since its passage, but Lacey's experienced hand guided the bill through Congress, meeting the objections of its critics and propelling it toward passage and presidential signature. President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
signed the Antiquities Act into law on June 8, 1906, and Hewett's place in the history of the conservation movement
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
was secured. Ironically, Roosevelt's first use of the Antiquities Act was not to protect one of the ruins that Hewett had made his life's passion, but rather to establish Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, a site of more geological and scenic interest than archaeological significance. However, the Act would soon be put, repeatedly and vigorously, to its (or at least Hewett's) intended purpose.
Building the national monuments
The first archaeological site to be preserved under the Antiquities Act was the ArizonaArizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
complex that would become the centerpiece of the eponymous Montezuma Castle National Monument
Montezuma Castle National Monument
Montezuma Castle National Monument, located near Camp Verde, Arizona, in the Southwestern United States, features well-preserved cliff-dwellings. They were built and used by the Pre-Columbian Sinagua people, northern cousins of the Hohokam, around 700 AD. Several Hopi clans trace their roots to...
. Hewett knew of Montezuma Castle from his work inventorying the Southwest for the GLO and Lacey, and he knew that it was not only archaeologically significant but also imperiled by aggressive pot hunting (sometimes using dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
to knock down walls so that rooms within could be excavated). Hewett lent his support to the creation of this national monument, which came into being in 1907.
Montezuma Castle was a relatively uncontroversial site, being small, remote, and not heavily (or at least profitably) exploited by either the pot hunters or agriculture in the vicinity, some temporary de facto restrictions on the pot hunting having already come into being before the monument was created. It was therefore a good test case for Hewett's vision as embodied in the Antiquities Act, and creation of the national monument caused comparatively few complaints. Another site closer to home that Hewett had studied, at today's Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is a U.S. National Monument in the Gila Wilderness of southwestern New Mexico. The national monument was established by executive proclamation on November 16, 1907, by President Theodore Roosevelt. It is located in the extreme southern part of Catron County...
in southwestern New Mexico, would soon follow, and by the end of 1907, Chaco Canyon itself had been made a national monument
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park hosting the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash...
, thus preserving the most extensive site of ruins of the Pueblo culture
Pueblo people
The Pueblo people are a Native American people in the Southwestern United States. Their traditional economy is based on agriculture and trade. When first encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, they were living in villages that the Spanish called pueblos, meaning "towns". Of the 21...
. However, Hewett was not satisfied; he had his eye on other extensive and significant candidates for preservation, notably his long-time favorites on the Pajarito Plateau, that promised to be more controversial. He therefore turned his attention to the problems of getting these sites preserved, as the number of national monuments created under the Antiquities Act began to climb.
In 1907 the Archaeological Institute of America
Archaeological Institute of America
The Archaeological Institute of America is a North American nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of public interest in archaeology, and the preservation of archaeological sites. It has offices on the campus of Boston University and in New York City.The institute was founded in 1879,...
gave Hewett an additional platform, by establishing the School of American Archaeology, later the School of American Research, in Santa Fe. Hewett's friend Alice Fletcher
Alice Cunningham Fletcher
Alice Cunningham Fletcher was an American ethnologist who studied and documented American Indian culture.-Biography:...
, by then the doyenne of American archaeology, was one of the prime backers of the School; Hewett became its first director, a position he would hold until his death in 1946. The School would provide Hewett not only with a mouthpiece, but also a base for his increasingly professional (if still controversial) research activities and students and collaborators to do the work.
The process of preserving the sites of the Pajarito Plateau proved difficult and time-consuming, partly because interactions among the affected parties were complex, and partly because when Roosevelt passed the reins of government to William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
, enthusiasm in the White House for preserving such sites was diminished. Another factor had to do with Hewett's own personality. He had many supporters, but also many critics, and some of the latter complained that his real goal was to ensure that he, Edgar L. Hewett, D.Sc., Director of the School of American Research, would have access to, and control of, the Plateau's sites -- while his rivals would not. Negotiations over a new monument were long and contentious, but finally, on February 11, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
proclaimed the new Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier National Monument is a National Monument preserving the homes of the Ancestral Pueblo People. It is named after Swiss anthropologist Adolph Bandelier, who researched the cultures of the area. Bandelier was designated a National Monument on February 11, 1916, and most of its backcountry...
, naming it for Adolph Bandelier who had died recently. The monument was rather smaller than Hewett had hoped, covering only Frijoles Canyon, some comparatively empty land to the southwest, and an outlier (now Tsankawi
Tsankawi
Tsankawi is a detached portion of Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico, near White Rock. It is accessible from a roadside parking area just north of the intersection of East Jemez Road and State Road 4. A self-guided 1.5 mile loop trail provides access to numerous unexcavated ruins, caves...
), and omitting among others the very significant Puye Cliff Dwellings
Puye Cliff Dwellings
The Puye Cliff Dwellings are the ruins of an abandoned pueblo, located in Santa Clara Canyon on Santa Clara Pueblo land near Española, New Mexico. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.-Ancient pueblo dwellings:...
near Santa Clara Pueblo
Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico
Santa Clara Pueblo is a census-designated place in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 980 at the 2000 census. Santa Clara Pueblo was established about 1550....
. However, even the most ardent preservationists had to admit that, from the standpoint of protecting Puebloan sites, Bandelier was much better than nothing.
Native American art
Hewett continued to take an interest in the Pajarito Plateau and its environs, not merely from an archaeological perspective but also from a contemporary one. Many of the Plateau's excavations contained intriguing fragments, and sometimes intact pieces, of potteryNative American pottery
Native American pottery is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component. Ceramics are used for utilitarian cooking vessels, serving and storage vessels, pipes, funerary urns, censers, musical instruments, ceremonial items, masks,...
, some of it of considerable beauty. Pottery of a more "modern" nature was produced at some of the pueblos of the region in the first part of the 20th century, but it was intended for the tourist trade
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
, was frequently of embarrassingly poor quality, and had little to do with the pottery of antiquity. The artifacts found during the excavations provided evidence that the Native Americans of the region could do better at making pottery.
Shortly after the first World War, an opportunity arose to revive the high-quality work of antiquity, driven as much by Hewett's curiosity about the potters of the past as anything else. He made the acquaintance of a potter at San Ildefonso Pueblo named Maria Martinez
Maria Martinez
Maria Montoya Martinez was a Native American artist who created internationally known pottery...
-- a name that would become a watchword in Native American art. Hewett set Maria and her husband Julian, at that point proficient artisans in a polychrome style of pottery common at San Ildefonso, the task of trying to reproduce the colors and textures seen in the ancestral work of Frijoles Canyon and its vicinity. Almost serendipitously, the Martinezes developed a "black-on-black" style that not only evoked the ancient work but also produced breathtakingly beautiful pieces for the modern collector. Hewett, in conjunction with the eccentric entrepreneur/philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
s Vera von Blumenthal
Vera von Blumenthal
Madame Vera von Blumenthal together with Rose Dugan contributed to the development of the Pueblo Indian pottery industry by teaching the potters of the local pueblos techniques which made the pottery more attractive to collectors...
and Rose Dougan, detected in this pottery a commercial opportunity that the puebleños would go on to develop into a major and economically significant cottage industry in the region. The Santa Fe Indian Market
Santa Fe Indian Market
Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA over two days on the weekend after the third Thursday in August and draws an estimated 100,000 people to the city from around the world. The Market was first held in 1922 as the Indian Fair and was sponsored by the...
, probably the world's leading exposition for Native American art, has an economic impact on northern New Mexico estimated at nearly $20,000,000 annually. San Ildefonso (and Santa Clara) black-on-black pottery, some of it by descendants of Maria and Julian Martinez, features prominently to this day among the "Best of Show" award winners at the Market, as well as more pedestrian but still high-quality work that has far transcended the tourist trinkets that were being produced in the pueblos at the beginning of the 20th century.
Academic life
The School of American Archaeology (later School of American Research, and now the School for Advanced ResearchSchool for Advanced Research
The School for Advanced Research on the Human Experience , until 2007 known as the School of American Research and originally founded in 1907 as the School for American Archaeology , is an advanced research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA...
, or SAR) lost little time in establishing itself not merely as a platform for its director, but also as a center for the development of professional archaeologists. Its first professional papers were published the year it opened. Neil Judd
Neil Judd
Neil Merton Judd was an American archaeologist who studied under the pioneering archaeologist of the American Southwest, Edgar Lee Hewett. He was curator of archaeology at the erstwhile United States National Museum, which later became part of the Smithsonian Institution...
, Alfred V. Kidder
Alfred V. Kidder
Alfred Vincent Kidder was an American archaeologist considered the foremost of the southwestern United States and Mesoamerica during the first half of the 20th century...
, Sylvanus Morley
Sylvanus Morley
Sylvanus Griswold Morley was an American archaeologist, epigrapher, and Mayanist scholar who made significant contributions toward the study of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in the early twentieth century....
, and Earl Morris
Earl Morris
Earl Morris became a household word in Morgan County, Alabama high school basketball for 30 years.-Biography:Morris's teams compiled a 590-250 record with three consecutive Alabama state championships 1957-1958-1959 at Austinville, and one at Decatur in 1970...
were among the prominent archaeologists who spent time there, Judd and Kidder in particular contributing to the excavations of many of the same sites that had interested Hewett.
These educational successes aside, Hewett's appointment at the School ruffled feathers among the old school of American archaeology, which was largely centered on the East Coast and took a decidedly condescending stance toward the "amateur" Hewett, Alice Fletcher's backing notwithstanding. One of his most vocal critics was Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
, who had started the first archaeology Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
program in the United States at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Boas and several of his colleagues wanted to control the School and the education it afforded its students, and to have the "incompetent" Hewett sacked. Local pressures sufficed to keep him in the job, and eventually Boas and colleagues were placated through formation of a similar institute in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
.
In 1909 another action of the territorial legislature created the Museum of New Mexico
Museum of New Mexico
The Museum of New Mexico consists of six separate institutions in Santa Fe, New Mexico, including :* New Mexico Museum of Art* Palace of the Governors* Museum of Indian Arts & Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology* Museum of International Folk Art...
. Hewett was a logical choice to be its first director, and was installed in the position. The enabling legislation mandated that the Museum be managed by the SAR, helping to solidify Hewett's grasp on both positions. Hewett staffed the Museum's administrative functions with several of his friends and supporters from the Normal School days, and persuaded Alice Fletcher to take a key advisory role as well. This of course exposed him to complaints from his critics about cronyism
Cronyism
Cronyism is partiality to long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications. Hence, cronyism is contrary in practice and principle to meritocracy....
, but ensured that he at least had a stable power base within the institution. The Museum was empowered by the legislature to acquire land containing some key archaeological sites in the state that were not yet protected by the Antiquities Act, and under Hewett, it did so.
Hewett was able to commingle public (Museum) and private (SAR) resources as he saw fit, but the arrangement was a matter of concern and in 1959 the two institutions were forced to separate. Today, the Museum of New Mexico is a subdivision of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
Hewett remarried in 1911, to Donizetta Jones Wood, who would survive him. During this period he continued to do field work, his growing reputation ensuring that he would be invited to join expeditions ranging far beyond the Southwest. He also continued his politicking; not satisfied with Bandelier National Monument (even though it expanded beyond the land in the original proclamation), he continued to lobby for creation of a Pajarito National Park. Nothing came of this advocacy, however.
As time passed, Hewett's academic credentials came to be more recognized, and he spent time and effort building academic archaeology in the western United States. He organized archaeology and anthropology departments at the University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
and University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. The UNM department, where Hewett spent much of the latter part of his life, would eventually become one of the world's best known. While at UNM, Hewett founded the Museum of Anthropology of the University of New Mexico, which would later become the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology
The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology is an anthropology museum located on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The museum was founded in 1932 as the Museum of Anthropology of the University of New Mexico, becoming the first public museum in Albuquerque...
.
His collaborations with other archaeologists also increased with the passage of time. By 1910 he was collaborating with the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
on work in Frijoles Canyon; Neil Judd
Neil Judd
Neil Merton Judd was an American archaeologist who studied under the pioneering archaeologist of the American Southwest, Edgar Lee Hewett. He was curator of archaeology at the erstwhile United States National Museum, which later became part of the Smithsonian Institution...
was one of the students there. By 1915 he was director of exhibits for the Panama-California Exposition
Panama-California Exposition (1915)
The Panama-California Exposition was an exposition held in San Diego, California between March 9, 1915 and January 1, 1917. The exposition celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and was meant to tout San Diego as the first U.S. port of call for ships traveling north after passing westward...
in San Diego, responsible for assembling the central exhibit "The Story of Man through the Ages". This led in turn to his assuming directorship of the San Diego Museum of Man
San Diego Museum of Man
The San Diego Museum of Man is a museum of anthropology located in Balboa Park, San Diego, California and housed in several historic landmark buildings.-Exhibits:...
, which was created as a permanent institution from the exposition's collections established by Hewett. This museum survives today as one of the institutions in San Diego's Balboa Park district.
Hewett's increasing ties to university life exposed him to the "publish or perish
Publish or perish
"Publish or perish" is a phrase coined to describe the pressure in academia to publish work constantly to further or sustain one's career.Frequent publication is one of the few methods at a scholar's disposal to demonstrate their academic capabilities, and the attention that successful publications...
" mindset of academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
, and here the results were less flattering to Hewett than many of his earlier activities. Much of his later work, or at least his publications, became somewhat repetitive. His 1943 book Ancient Life in the American Southwest, cited below, amounts to a rehashing of a lifetime of archaeology without contributing anything new, and most of it could have been written at least 20 years earlier. Its tone also strikes the modern reader as annoyingly patronizing to (yet still respectful of) the people he studied, but Hewett was, after all, a product of his times.
Later years
Hewett continued to work as a field archaeologist practically until his death. However, by the 1930s his basically romantic approach to field work was looking like more and more of an anachronism. His responsibilities at the University of New Mexico grew less demanding (and conspicuous) over time, although he retained directorship of the Chaco Canyon field school, a particular favorite of his, until 1937. He continued in his roles at the SAR and the Museum of New Mexico until the last year of his life, chairing the joint meeting of the managing board in August 1946.Edgar Lee Hewett died on December 31, 1946. His ashes are interred at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, one of the units of the Museum of New Mexico that he helped create, next to those of his long-time friend and supporter Alice Fletcher.
Books
- Hewett, Edgar L. Campfire and Trail. Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1943.
External links
- Summary of Hewett biography from Texas Tech collection
- Journal of Anthropological Research article on Hewett and colleagues
- National Park Service on-line version of article on Edgar Lee Hewett and the Political Process
- National Park Service Archeology Program article on the Antiquities Act
- Montezuma Castle NM: A Past Preserved in Stone (National Park Service)
- School for Advanced Research history
- Administrative history of Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument (NPS)
- University of New Mexico Hewett collection