Cynthia Irwin-Williams papers
odd: label: List of commonly used abbreviations
content: This list includes abbreviations commonly used by Irwin-Williams. Many, but not all, of them have been altered in folder titles to the extended version.

AAA - American Anthropological Society

AMQUA - American Quaternary Association

AOPI - Anasazi Origins Project

AOPII - Archaic Oshara Project

BIA - Bureau of Indian Affairs

BLM - Bureau of Land Management

CIW - Cynthia Irwin-Williams

DRI - Desert Research Institute

ENMU - Eastern New Mexico University

EPSCoR - Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, National Science Foundation

HTI - Henry T. Irwin

HUD - Department of Housing and Urban Development

INAH - Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia

INQUA - International Quaternary Association

JWP - Journal of World Prehistory

LECAPSR - The Llano Estacado Center for Advanced Professional Studies and Research, Eastern New Mexico University

NEH - National Endowment for the Humanities

NSF - National Science Foundation

PMOA - Programmatic Memorandum of Agreement

PRP - Puerco River Project

QSC - Quaternary Science Center

SAA - Society for American Archaeology

SAR - School of American Research

SJVAP - San Juan Valley Archaeological Project

SOPA - Society of Professional Archaeologists

SSC - Social Sciences Center

SWAA - Southwestern Anthropological Association

UNR - University of Nevada Reno
name: label: Creator
content: Irwin-Williams, Cynthia
label: Names
content: Eastern New Mexico University (Portales, N.M.)
label: Names
content: San Juan Valley Archaeological Project
label: Names
content: Society for American Archaeology
label: Names
content: University of Nevada. Desert Research Institute
place: label: Place
content: Valsequillo (Puebla, Mexico)
label: Place
content: Hell Gap Site (Wyo.)
label: Place
content: Salmon Site (N.M.)
label: Place
content: Rio Puerco River (New Mexico) -- Archeology
topic: label: Topic
content: Archaeology
label: Topic
content: Lithics -- American Indian
label: Topic
content: Paleo-Indians
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Received from George Agogino, Michael Bradle, and C. Vance Haynes Jr.
creator: label: Creator
content: Irwin-Williams, Cynthia
culture: label: Culture
content: Southwest (archaeological)
label: Culture
content: Oshara Archaic Tradition (archaeological culture)
label: Culture
content: Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) (archaeological)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Cynthia Irwin-Williams papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: Cynthia Irwin-Williams was a pioneer for women in the field of archaeology. Her main interest was the Paleo-Indian culture of North America (specifically the Southwest), but she also did extensive work in Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) culture. This collection includes materials related to Irwin-Williams' research; her work at Eastern New Mexico University and The Desert Research Institute; her coursework at Radcliffe and Harvard; and her work for the Society of American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association, the American Quaternary Association, Africa Tomorrow, and other organizations.
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Cynthia Irwin-Williams was a pioneer for women in the field of archaeology. Her main interest was the Paleo-Indian culture of North America (specifically the Southwest), but she also did extensive work in Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) culture. She was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1936 and suffered from severe asthma for the first ten years of her life (Williams, 4). She and her brother, Henry Irwin, spent several summers during their childhood living with the Hopi in northeastern Arizona, which helped her to develop an interest in archaeology. She began taking part in amateur archaeological investigations through the Colorado Archaeological Society when she was in 5th grade and continued to do so through high school (Williams, 6). She organized an archaeology club while in high school and persuaded H. Marie Wormington, Herbert Dick, and Ruth Underhill to assist (Williams, 7). Irwin-Williams and her brother also volunteered for Dr. Wormington at the Denver Museum of Natural History throughout high school, eventually assisting Wormington at a dig in western Colorado (Williams, 7). Dr. Wormington became a friend and role model for Irwin-Williams, advising her on her education and career. Irwin-Williams had a close relationship with her mother, Eleanor "Kay" Irwin, who frequently travelled and worked digs with her daughter, and her brother, Henry Irwin, with whom she worked many archaeological sites and published numerous papers.

Irwin-Williams earned her BA (1957) and MA (1958) in Anthropology from Radcliffe College and was one of the first three women, in any field, to earn her PhD (1963) from Harvard University. She had difficulty gaining a place in a fieldschool during her graduate work due to her gender but eventually gained a place as a volunteer graduate student on the dig of one of her professors at L'Abri Pataud in France in 1958 (likely under Dr. Hallam Movius). She was disappointed that, unlike the male students, she was expected to perform secretarial work and menial tasks (Williams, 10). As a result of this experience, she chose to run her own excavations and stated that it taught her "how not to run a project" (Williams, 10). This experience also caused her to change her field of study to the New World and her advisor to J. O. Brew (Williams, 11).

While Irwin-Williams and her brother were in college and graduate school, they and their mother, under the supervision of H. Marie Wormington, spent summers excavating the LoDaisKa site in Colorado, providing their own equipment (Williams, 9). The first major excavation which she headed was at Valsequillo, where she worked from 1962 to 1966. Valsequillo, in Puebla, Mexico, is a Stone Age site dated to approximately 25,000 years ago (the dating of the site has been controversial). Her largest excavation was at Salmon Ruin; the San Juan County Museum Association, a local non-profit, purchased the site and selected Irwin-Williams to run the excavations in 1969 (Irwin-Williams, 20).

In addition to her fieldwork, Irwin-Williams taught anthropology, first at Hunter College (1963-1964), while holding a fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History and commuting from Princeton where her husband worked, and then at Eastern New Mexico University (1964-1982), at which time "she commute[d] nearly five hundred miles each weekend between her home in Albuquerque, where she live[d] four days a week with her husband, and her apartment in Portales, where she [taught] three days a week." (Williams, 1). She then became Executive Director of the Social Sciences Center, Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada. Under her supervision, the Social Sciences Center (later renamed the Quaternary Science Center) expanded substantially, eventually employing more than five times the staff it had when she began (Teague, 90). Irwin-Williams also held numerous professional offices including President of the Society for American Archaeology (1977-1979).

After going into recovery for alcoholism, Irwin-Williams became an accredited counselor and served as a part-time substance abuse counselor from 1982 through 1989. She also brought this interest to her research, studying the genetic and environmental causes of alcoholism as well as the effects of alcoholism on families, conducting a study funded by the Stout Foundation entitled "Breaking the Chain: Defining Effective Education for Adult Children of Alcoholics." She also researched the causes and treatments of migraine in a study entitled "Biochemistry, Population Parameters, and Treatment of Migraine Headache."

During the final few years of her life, she suffered from a respiratory illness which interfered with her work, causing her to step down from her position as director of the Quaternary Science Center at the Desert Research Institute in 1988 and to take a sabbatical in 1989. She died in 1990 at the age of 54.

Sources Consulted

Curriculum Vitae, circa 1964-1990, undated, Cynthia Irwin Williams papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Irwin-Williams, "How Salmon Ruin Was Saved." Early Man (Autumn 1981): 18-23.

"Profile of an Anthropologist: Research Archeologist Begins Career Looking for Supplementary Income." Anthropology Newsletter (May 1981): 7.

Teague, Lynn. "Cynthia Irwin-Williams." Kiva 56, no. 1 (1990): 87-91.

Williams, Barbara. "Cynthia Irwin-Williams." In Breakthrough: Women in Archaeology. New York: Walker and Company, 1981.

Wormington, H. M. and George Agogino. "Cynthia Irwin-Williams: 1936-1990." American Antiquity 59, no. 4 (1994): 667-671.

Chronology

1936 April 14 -- Born in Denver, Colorado

1957 -- BA from Radcliffe College in Anthropology, Magna Cum Laude

1958 -- MA from Radcliffe College in Anthropology Excavations in France

1958-1960 -- Excavations at LoDaisKa Site, Colorado

1959-1960 -- Director, Central Mexico Project, Harvard University Co-Director, Magic Mountain Project, Peabody Museum Excavations at Magic Mountain, Colorado

1960-1961 -- Co-Director, UP Mammoth Kill Site, Rawlins, Wyoming

1961-1966 -- Co-Director, Hell Gap Paleo-Indian Project in Wyoming, Peabody Museum

1962-1966 -- Excavations at Valsequillo in Puebla, Mexico Excavations at Hell Gap, Wyoming

1962-1968 -- Co-Director of Research on the Archaeology, Geology, and Paleontology of the Valsequillo Region, Pueblo, Mexico

1963 -- PhD from Harvard University in Anthropology

1963-1964 -- Lecturer in Anthropology, Hunter College Ogden Mills Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, American Museum of Natural History

1964-1967 -- Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Eastern New Mexico University

1964-1973 -- Director, Eastern New Mexico University Project on Anasazi Origins

1966 -- Director, Valsequillo Project (Harvard University, Eastern New Mexico University, University of Puebla)

1967-1972 -- Associate Professor of Anthropology, Eastern New Mexico University

1969-1970 -- Member of the Executive Council, American Quaternary Association

1969-1972 -- Director, Eastern New Mexico University Program of Early Agriculture in the Tularosa Valley, New Mexico

1969-1974 -- Member of the Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology, American Anthropological Association

1970-1979 -- Excavations at Salmon Ruins

1970-1980 -- Director, Eastern New Mexico University - San Juan Museum Association - San Juan Valley Archaeological Program; Salmon Ruin Project

1970-1981 -- Director, Eastern New Mexico University Program on Pueblo Settlement in the Puerco River Valley, New Mexico

1972-1977 -- Professor of Anthropology, Eastern New Mexico University

1973-1975 -- Member of the Executive Committee, Society for American Archaeology Member of the Committee on the Status of Women in American Archaeology, Society for American Archaeology

1973-1976 -- Member of the American Anthropological Association Nominations Committee Member of the Committee on Native American Relations, Society for American Archaeology

1974-1976 -- Director, Agency for Conservation Archaeology, Eastern New Mexico University Director, Division of Conservation Archaeology, San Juan County Museum

1974-1978 -- Member of the Executive Council, American Quaternary Association

1977-1979 -- President, Society for American Archaeology Member of the Coordinating Council of American Archaeological Societies Member of the Research Panel, Anthropology Program, National Science Foundation

1977-1982 -- Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Eastern New Mexico University

1978-1980 -- Member of the Research Panel, Integrated Basic Research Program, National Science Foundation

1978-1990 -- Member of the Board of Advisors, Center for Field Research

1979-1981 -- Member of the Museum Development Panel, National Endowment for the Humanities

1979-1985 -- Chairman of the Committee on Federal Archaeology, Society for American Archaeology

1980-1982 -- Member of the Media Panel, National Endowment for the Humanities

1981-1983 -- Member of the Research Panel, Archaeometry Program, National Science Foundation

1982-1988 -- Executive Director, Social Sciences Center/Quaternary Sciences Center, Desert Research Institute

1982-1989 -- Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno Principal Investigator, Desert Research Institute Archaic Oshara Project

1983-1985 -- Chairman, Society for American Archaeology/Bureau of Land Management/National Coal Association and Surface Mining Committee Conference on Archaeology

1983-1986 -- Member of the Executive Committee, Nevada Council on Professional Archaeology

1984 -- Member of the Nominations Committee, Society of Professional Archaeologists

1984-1986 -- Coordinator and Organizer of Regional Conferences on Cultural Resource Management, Society for American Archaeology

1985-1990 -- Principal Investigator, Desert Research Institute-Bureau of Land Management, Project on Climactic Stress and Human Population on the Middle Puerco River, New Mexico Co-Director, Investigations on Prehistoric Water Harvesting Devices near Fallon, Nevada, and their contemporary applications Member of the Executive Board, Africa Tomorrow Inc.

1986 -- Chairman, Society for American Archaeology Summary Symposium on Cultural Resources Management

1986-1990 -- Co-Principal Investigator, Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research Program, Desert Research Institute Social Sciences Center

1987 -- Member of the Long-Range Planning Committee, Society for American Archaeology

1987-1990 -- Principal Investigator, Desert Research Institute Project on PaleoIndian Occupation of Northern Nevada Co-Principal Investigator, Nevada State Museum Sunshine Wells Paleo-Indian Project

1989-1990 -- Sabbatical from professorship at the Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno

1990 June 5 -- Died in Reno, Nevada
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 84.33 Linear feet (147 document boxes, 1 half document box, 4 oversize boxes, 18 shoeboxes, 1 index card box, 4 small index card boxes, 4 negative boxes, 5 map folders, 30 rolled items, and 5 restricted boxes)
label: Extent
content: 3 Floppy discs
label: Extent
content: 9 Cassette tapes
label: Extent
content: 1 Sound tape reel (3")
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1936-1990
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.1999-09
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Floppy discs
label: Type
content: Cassette tapes
label: Type
content: Sound tape reels
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: This collection is arranged in eight series: 1) Research, 1936-1944, 1954-1990, undated; 2) Writings, 1940-1990, undated; 3) Associations and conferences, circa 1962-1989, undated; 4) Professional, 1957-1990, undated; 5) Coursework, 1952-1971, undated; 6) Correspondence, 1940-1990, undated; 7) Photographs and Artwork, 1939, 1964-1990, undated; and 8) Sound recordings, 1980, undated
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Irwin-Williams' papers were rehoused in acid free folders and boxes. Reprints and newsletters without annotations and duplicate materials were removed from the collection. Materials not related to Irwin-Williams' work as an anthropologist (predominately materials related to her family or her work with Alcoholics Anonymous) were also removed from the collection. Grant applications by individuals other than Irwin-Williams were removed unless they were made by her subordinates or a review of the proposal by Irwin-Williams was also included. Post-it notes were photocopied onto acid free paper and then removed. Paper clips and staples were removed; if the relationship between the newly separated papers was not clear or if the papers could be easily disordered, they were grouped together within a folded sheet of acid free paper. Titles in square brackets were supplied by the archivist. Abbreviations in folder titles have been expanded in the finding aid for clarity.

Processed by Susan McElrath, July 2004, and Katherine Christensen, September 2024

Encoded by Katherine Christensen, September 2024
bibliography: label: Selected Bibliography
content: 1957. "The Upper Paleolithic Cultures of Spain and Portugal." BA/MA thesis, Radcliffe College, Harvard University.

1959. with Irwin, Henry.  -- Excavations at the LoDaisKa Site -- . Denver Museum of Natural History Technical Series, no. 8. Denver: Denver Museum of Natural History.

1963. "Excavations at Magic Mountain: Plains/Southwest Relations in Prehistory." PhD dissertation, Harvard University.

1966. with Irwin, Henry.  -- Excavations at Magic Mountain: A Diachronic Study of Plains-Southwest Relations -- . Denver Museum of Natural History Proceedings, no. 12. Denver: Denver Museum of Natural History.

1970. with Haynes, C. Vance, Jr. "Climatic Change and Early Population Dynamics in the Southwestern United States."  -- Quaternary Research --  1, no. 1: 59-71.

1972. Edited.  -- The Structure of Chacoan Society in the Northern Southwest: Excavations at the Salmon Site 1972 -- . Eastern New Mexico University Contributions in Anthropology, vol. 5, no. 2. Portales: Eastern New Mexico University.

1973.  -- The Oshara Tradition: Origins of Anasazi Culture -- . Eastern New Mexico University Contributions in Anthropology, vol. 5, no. 3. Portales: Eastern New Mexico University.

1973. with Henry Irwin, George Agogino, and C. V. Haynes. "Hell Gap: The Sequence of Paleo-Indian Occupation on the High Plains."  -- Plains Anthropologist --  18: 40-53.

1974. "The Seasonal Strategy."  -- Proceedings of the XL International Congress of Americanists -- , Rome.

1977. "A Network Model for the Analysis of Prehistoric Trade." In  -- Exchange Systems in Prehistory -- , edited by J. Ericson and T. Earle, 141-151. New York: Academic Press.

1978. "Summary of Archaeological Evidence from the Valsequillo Region, Puebla, Mexico." In  -- Cultural Continuity in Meso-America -- , edited by D. L. Browman, 7-22. New York: Academic Press.

1979. "Post-Pleistocene Archaeology in the Southwest." In  -- Southwest -- , edited by A. Ortiz, 31-42. Vol. 9 of  -- Handbook of North American Indians -- , edited by William Sturtevant. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

1980. Edited with Shelley, Phillip H.  -- Investigations at the Salmon Site: The Structure of Chacoan Society in the Northern Southwest -- . Portales: Eastern New Mexico University Publications in Anthropology.

1990. "Women in the Field: The Role of Women in Archaeology Before 1960." In  -- Women of Science: Righting the Record -- , edited by G. Kass-Simon, P. Farnes, and D. Nash, 1-41. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

1991. Edited with Baker, Larry L.  -- Anasazi Puebloan Adaptation in Response to Climatic Stress: Prehistory of the Middle Rio Puerco Valley -- . On file, Bureau of Land Management, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Cynthia Irwin-Williams papers contain fieldnotes, photographs, maps, notes, computer analyses, drafts of articles, articles and papers, grant proposals, index cards, personal and professional correspondence, administrative materials, lecture and research notes, student papers and theses, certificates and awards, biographical and autobiographical materials, and sound recordings. These materials relate to her research (primarily archaeological), associations of which she was a member (including the Society of American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association, the American Quaternary Association, and Africa Tomorrow), conferences at which she participated, and coursework from Radcliffe and Harvard.

Irwin-Williams was a prolific letter writer and many folders include multiple drafts of her correspondence. Of particular interest is the correspondence between Irwin-Williams and her mother, Eleanor "Kay" Irwin. The two were very close and corresponded almost daily during the two years when Irwin-Williams lived in Massachusetts and her mother lived in Colorado. Of special note in the collection are materials which relate to the difficulties faced by women in the field of archaeology, such as the autobiographical section of her CV.

The collection does not include much material on her work at Magic Mountain, as these papers are housed at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Many of the materials related to her work at Salmon Ruins are housed at the San Juan County Research Center and Library. The only expedition for which this collection holds extensive fieldnotes for Irwin-Williams and her team is Valsequillo.
label: Sensitivity statement
content: Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives but is available in its original form to facilitate research.

Please note that this collection contains images of human remains.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The San Juan County Research Center and Library at Salmon Ruins holds the Salmon Pueblo Archaeological Research Collection.

The American Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology Archives holds the Cynthia Irwin-Williams papers, which relate to the manuscript "Pre-ceramic and Early Ceramic Development in Central Mexico."

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University holds the Magic Mountain Expedition Records.

The Anthropology Department of the University of Wyoming holds the Hell Gap expedition records.

The University of Wyoming Archaeological Repository holds C. Vance Haynes' field notes and photographs from the UP Mammoth Kill site.

The National Anthropological Archives holds the Hannah Marie Wormington papers and the Dennis J. Stanford and Margaret A. (Pegi) Jodry papers.