Byron Cummings, Founding Father

Thompson - Bryon Cummings, Founding Father 21 Byron Cummings, Founding Father Raymond H. Thompson, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Former Director of the School of Anthropology & Arizona State Museum University of Arizona On a typically hot late summer that program, the sixth oldest in day in 1915, a slight but athletic the nation after Harvard, Penn- man, already of an age to qualify sylvania, Columbia, Chicago, and him for senior citizen status, arrived Berkeley, it is appropriate that we in Tucson, Arizona. He had come to honor him for his seminal role in develop a newly established De- creating our intellectual home, for partment of Archaeology and to being our founding father. revive the dormant Arizona State Although I met him only once Museum at the University of Arizo- and very briefly, I am arrogant na. He brought to these challenges enough to attempt such an hom- a solid education in the Classics; age because of the respect and a keen interest in past cultures; deep sense of debt that I have for twenty-two years of teaching him. It is not my purpose to chron- and administrative experience at icle the details of his life. Rather, I the University of Utah; an estab- want to call attention to the suc- lished reputation as a pioneering cesses, as well as the setbacks and archaeologist; a deep sense of frustrations, he experienced while responsibility toward his fellow trying to meet the challenges he human beings; stern Presbyterian had accepted on that hot summer moral standards and ethical prin- day one hundred years ago. We ciples; a sincere respect for truth are fortunate that Todd William and honor; enormous energy; a Bostwick and the U of A Press strong will; and great vision. have provided us with an excellent That man was Byron Cummings, biography of Cummings replete who not only set the stage for an in- with delightful stories about him. I ternationally respected program in shall be gratefully and shameless- anthropology, but also trained some ly taking advantage of Todd’s fine of the leading archaeologists of the scholarship as I attempt to express last century. As we commemorate my appreciation for that remark- the one hundredth anniversary of able man who was known to one Arizona Anthropologist Centennial Edition: 21-27. © 2015 Arizona Anthropologist 22 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL and all as “the Dean.” students experienced the excite- Byron Cummings, the young- ment of archaeological discovery est of the eight children of Moses as they explored one of the last and Roxana Hoadley Cummings, unknown regions of the country was born on 22 September 1860, in around Navajo Mountain on the the small farming community of Utah-Arizona border. From 1906 Westville in upstate New York. His to 1909 they discovered many father died during the Civil War, spectacular cliff ruins such as but his mother carried on, teaching Betatakin and Kiet Siel. In 1910 Byron and his siblings the values Cummings continued his own of self reliance, perseverance, hard education at Chicago and Berlin work, truth, courtesy, and kindness. and visited the archaeological Cummings followed those maternal treasures of Greece and Rome. guidelines throughout his long life. In March 1915, he, and ultimate- He received a good education in the ly fourteen other faculty mem- Classics at Rutgers, BA 1889, MA bers, resigned from the University 1892, and developed a special inter- of Utah over a long smoldering est in ancient cultures. issue of freedom of speech. He In 1893 he accepted a position at had heard that the University of the University of Utah and on the Arizona was interested in estab- way West he stopped in Chicago to lishing “a program in anthropolo- visit the World Columbian Exposi- gy” – his very words – and offered tion with its many exhibits on Na- his services. Newly appointed UA tive American life. That exposition President, Rufus Bernhard von led to the founding of the Field KleinSmid, gave him a part-time Columbian Museum in 1893, the position as Head of a brand new same year that the Territorial leg- Department of Archaeology and islature in Arizona established the Director of the Arizona State Mu- museum that became his respon- seum, beginning 15 September sibility twenty-two years later. 1915. Although Cummings had ap- At the University of Utah, plied for a position in anthropology, Cummings became a popular von KleinSmid was following a com- teacher, a skilled administrator, mon practice of the time in naming and a famous archaeological ex- the new department. In the more plorer, much like his contempo- conservative regions of the country, rary at Yale, Hiram Bingham, the anthropology was closely linked to discoverer of Machu Picchu in the deeply unpopular concepts of Peru in 1911. Cummings and his evolution and racial equality, so Thompson - Bryon Cummings, Founding Father 23 new programs in anthropology were tions; personally catalogued both often either named archaeology or old and new specimens; created buried in a Department of Sociology. the Arizona Archaeological and Cummings, President von Historical Society as a support KleinSmid, and long-time Dem- group for the museum; and gave ocratic Governor of Arizona, dozens of highly popular public George W. P. Hunt were advo- lectures, all with the help of only cates of the Progressive policies his oldest sister, Emma, who kept of President Theodore Roosevelt. the museum open and explained They worked together very ef- the exhibits to visitors. fectively to expand Arizona’s He enthusiastically support- fledgling university and to make ed von KleinSmid’s efforts to anthropology a key player in that promote cooperation with Latin effort. In spite of these favorable American universities and served conditions, Cummings was faced as Acting President when von with a Herculean task and there KleinSmid was on tour in Latin were many demands on his time. America. That experience led to During his first five years at Ar- Cummings’ excavation in the mid izona he developed and taught a twenties of the lava engulfed pyr- half dozen new courses in general amid of Cuicuilco south of Mexico anthropology, American, Europe- City, which further enhanced his an, Greek, and Roman archaeology; reputation as an archaeologist. taught all of the UA courses in Greek All of this hard work paid off, as and Latin until Frank Hamilton his mother had taught him. The US Fowler arrived in 1920 to develop the Department of Education reported Classics Department; served as Dean in 1922 that the archaeological work of the College of Letters, Arts, and at the UA was noteworthy and Sciences and Dean of Men; contin- praised the completion of the Stew- ued his archaeological explorations ard Observatory, setting the stage in northern Arizona every summer; for UA President Richard Harvill converted his 1919 summer field trip who, some twenty years later, built into the first Archaeological Field his effort to make the UA a nation- School for credit as a contribution to ally ranked research institution on von KleinSmid’s newly created Sum- the long-established excellence of mer School; unpacked the collections anthropology and astronomy. of the Arizona State Museum and Although Cummings’ idea of a arranged them for public viewing; museum was rather antiquarian, solicited new items for the collec- he had a good understanding of 24 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL the nature of anthropology and He was especially concerned about kept abreast of trends in this the lack of physical or biological fairly new and rapidly devel- anthropology, a subfield in which oping academic discipline. He he had no experience. knew that in order to create a In 1931 he and Dean Emil well-rounded program in anthro- Riesen (who supported the effort pology he needed faculty special- to broaden the “program in an- ists in ethnology, linguistics, and thropology”) sought the advice of physical anthropology. Alfred Louis Kroeber at Berkeley In 1927, while also serving as who commiserated with him that President of the University, he re- physical anthropologists were in cruited Thomas Talbot Waterman, short supply, but commented that a 1914 Columbia PhD teaching at he had found that it was possible Berkeley, to offer courses in ethnol- to get along without one. That, of ogy and linguistics. Waterman’s course, was possible for Kroeber departure for Hawaii the following for he had earned his doctorate year frustrated that early effort to from Franz Boas at Columbia in broaden the curriculum. Although 1901 and was probably the first Cummings, with his background master of all the subfields of an- in Classical philology, could men- thropology. However, it was not tor students interested in language, much consolation for Cummings. he lacked a grounding in the new In fact, anthropologists of all scientific linguistics. That subfield of kinds were in short supply at that anthropology did not again become time. Between the 1890s and 1930, available in the curriculum until just only about eighty PhDs in anthro- before the Second World War. pology were produced in the en- In 1928 the UA awarded the tire country. first MA degrees in Archaeolo- Undaunted, Cummings turned gy to Clara Lee Fraps (Tanner), in 1932 to the University of Chicago Emil Walter Haury, and Florence and employed doctoral candidate May Hawley (Ellis). Cummings John Henry Provinse to teach phys- immediately enlisted their help in ical anthropology and ethnology. teaching courses in archaeology. A pioneer applied anthropologist, Although only Clara Lee stayed on Provinse left after four years to work to become a permanent member of for the Soil Conservation Service on the faculty, their assistance freed the Navajo Reservation. Once again him to seek out the specialists he Cummings persevered and in 1936 needed to round out the program.

Load more