Cynthia Irwin-Williams papers

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