National Anthropological Archives

Guide to the Cynthia Irwin-Williams papers, 1936-1990

Summary

Collection ID:: NAA.1999-09
Creators:: Irwin-Williams, Cynthia
Irwin, Henry T.
Dates:: 1936-1990
Languages:: English
.
Physical Description:: 111.67 Linear feet
192 document boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 18 shoeboxes, 4 small index card boxes, 5 negative boxes, 4 map folders, 30 rolled items, and 6 1/2 restricted boxes
3 Floppy discs
9 Cassette tapes
1 Sound tape reel
3"
Repository:: National Anthropological Archives

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.

Scope and Contents

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. The collection also includes some materials which belonged to her brother, Henry Irwin, who predeceased her. These materials are composed of his diplomas and some annotated articles and papers.

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 was in Massachusetts and her mother was 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 complete fieldnotes for Irwin-Williams and her team is Valsequillo.

Sensitivity statement

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.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in 8 series: 1) Research, 1936-1990, undated; 2) Writings, 1940-circa 1990, undated; 3) Associations and conferences, 1962-1989, undated; 4) Professional, 1960-1990, undated; 5) Coursework, 1954-1961, undated; 6) Correspondence, 1940-1941, 1959-1989, undated; 7) Photographs and Artwork, 1939, 1964-1990, undated; and 8) Sound recordings, 1980, undated

Biographical Note

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 also 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 (previously, women could only receive PhD degrees from Radcliffe). She had difficulty gaining a place in a fieldschool during her graduate work due to her gender, despite having experience under the guidance of H. Marie Wormington in high school and college, 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; this site was almost destroyed when the land was purchased by a developer in 1967 who intended to "divide the ruin into 10-foot squares and sell 'digging rights'" (Irwin-Williams, 19). After a local non-profit, the San Juan County Museum Association, saved the site, they asked Irwin-Williams to run the excavations in 1969 (Irwin-Williams, 20).

The excavations she led were known for being inclusive, as her crews included men and women, people of multiple races and ethnicities, and people with disabilities (Williams, 16). She was also known for her ability to work well with volunteers and amateurs (Williams, 19). Another talent of hers was finding grant funding from unusal sources, which she attributed to the limited employment and fieldwork opportunities faced by female archaeologists in the 1960s (Profile of an Anthropologist, 7).

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). She was known for her interdisciplinary work and had an interest in the environmental impact of human society and water harvesting techniques. These interests led her to become a member of the executive committee of Africa Tomorrow Inc., a nonprofit devoted to the Sahel region of Africa, and to lobby Congress to pass a bill to create a pilot project focused on water harvesting (Teague, 90).

Irwin-Williams also had a keen interest in issues which affected women. After going into recovery for alcoholism, she 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." Her interest in studying health conditions which affected women did not end with alcoholism. A sufferer of migraines, she researched their causes and treatments 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 cited

Curriculum Vitae of Cynthia Irwin-Williams, 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.

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

Administration

Author

Katherine Christensen

Sponsor

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the American Women's History Initiative.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Received from George Agogino, Michael Bradle, and C. Vance Haynes Jr.

Processing Information

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 and those containing personally identifiable information were shredded. Titles in square brackets were supplied by the archivist. Abbreviations in folder titles have been expanded in the finding aid for clarity.

When received by the archives, the materials were only roughly organized. Some order was imposed by the archivist, but some organization is still rough.

Processed and encoded by Katherine Christensen, September 2023

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access

Materials containing personally identifiable information (predominately grant applications), student grades, references, grant reviews, and employee evaluations have been restricted for eighty years from their date of creation. Materials containing health information for Irwin-Williams have been restricted for fifty years from her date of death.

Audiovisual materials and computer disks are restricted. Please contact the repository for information on the availability of access copies.

Access to the Cynthia Irwin-Williams papers requires an appointment.

Preferred Citation

Cynthia Irwin-Williams papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Conditions Governing Use

Contact the repository for terms of use.

Related Materials

The San Juan County Research Center and Library at Salmon Ruins holds the Salmon Ruins collection, papers and information on the archaeological development of Salmon ruins by Cynthia Irwin-Williams.

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 University of Wyoming, Anthropology Department holds the UP Mammoth Kill site ﬁeld notes.

Hannah Marie Wormington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Dennis J. Stanford and Margaret A. [Pegi] Jodry papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

More Information

List of commonly used abbreviations

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

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

Selected Bibliography

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,

1961. with Irwin, Henry and George Agogino. "The U.P. Mammoth-Kill Near Rawlings, Wyoming."

Proceedings of Conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

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. "Climactic 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 Irwin, Henry, 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 in 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.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms	Keyword Types
Archaeology	Topical	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Lithics -- American Indian	Topical	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Valsequillo (Puebla, Mexico)	Geographic	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Paleo-Indians	Topical	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Hell Gap Site (Wyo.)	Geographic	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Salmon Site (N.M.)	Geographic	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Rio Puerco River (New Mexico) -- Archeology	Geographic	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Southwest (archaeological)	Cultural Context	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Oshara Archaic Tradition (archaeological culture)	Cultural Context	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Pueblo (Anasazi) (archaeological)	Cultural Context	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Society for American Archaeology	Corporate Name	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
University of Nevada. Desert Research Institute	Corporate Name	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Eastern New Mexico University (Portales, N.M.)	Corporate Name	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
San Juan Valley Archaeological Project	Corporate Name	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid

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