SAR RESEARCHERS / Former Senior Scholars

DOUGLAS W. SCHWARTZ

Senior Scholar — 2001 to 2016
President Emeritus – 1967-2001

IN MEMORIAM

Donate to the Douglas W. Schwartz Memorial Fund

Douglas W. Schwartz, a towering figure in the history of SAR and American archaeology, died on June 29 in Santa Fe. He was one month shy of his eighty-seventh birthday.

Doug Schwartz served as president of the School for Advanced Research (formerly the School of American Research) between 1967 and 2001. Although SAR had existed for six decades prior to his appointment as the institution’s leader, it had undergone a long period of drift. Doug is credited with transforming SAR from a venerable but unfocused institution into one of the nation’s most important research centers in anthropology, archaeology, and Native American arts and cultures. Under his charismatic leadership, SAR relocated from the Palace of the Governors to its present campus on Garcia Street, an estate formerly belonging to Martha and Amelia Elizabeth White. His fundraising efforts led to the construction or expansion of numerous campus buildings, including the Indian Arts Research Center, SAR’s Reception Center, the Douglas W. Schwartz Seminar House, and the Dubin Artist Studio, as well as the development of SAR Press. It would be impossible to exaggerate his central role in SAR’s 110-year history.

Doug Schwartz received his BA from the University of Kentucky in 1950 and a PhD in anthropology from Yale University in 1955. He was hired by the University of Kentucky, where he rose through the ranks to become professor of anthropology and director of the university’s Museum of Anthropology prior to his appointment at SAR.

Douglas Schwartz and crew at Grand Canyon

Douglas Schwartz (front, center) and crew excavating at Grand Canyon

His principal archaeological research was focused on the Grand Canyon, where over a period of twenty years he undertook a pioneering survey and the first major excavations in the canyon and on the North Rim. After moving to Santa Fe, he launched a major excavation of Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, a thousand-room fourteenth-century settlement located only five miles from the Santa Fe plaza, a project that resulted in nine monographs published under Schwartz’s editorship.

Arroyo Hondo Field Trip with Doug Schwartz, videography by John Sadd

Doug’s research and leadership of SAR were honored by multiple academic and civic organizations. He was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of New Mexico and the University of Kentucky, the Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association, and designation as a Luminary by the New Mexico Community Foundation.

His service positions include the presidency of the Society for American Archaeology, and service on the boards of the Jane Goodall African Wildlife Research Institute, the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, Santa Fe Preparatory School, and the First National Bank of Santa Fe, among others.

Doug Schwartz looking for artifacts at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo

Between 2001 and 2016 he held the position of senior scholar at SAR, during which time he pursued his longtime interest in the career of Charles Darwin and developed a website for The Arroyo Hondo Pueblo Project that was launched in 2016 to considerable acclaim.

Aside from these prodigious accomplishments, Doug will be remembered by family and friends for his personal warmth, his high standards and strategic thinking ability, and his love of performing magic tricks.

View Douglas W. Schwartz’s Vita:

Education

BA, University of Kentucky, 1950
Ph D, Yale University, 1955

Honorary Degrees

Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of New Mexico, 1981
Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Kentucky, 1989

Honors

Award of Merit
American Association for State and Local History,
for Conceptions of Kentucky Prehistory, 1968
Distinguished Service Award
Santa Fe Rotary Club, 1980
Distinguished Service Award
Society for American Archaeology, 1991
Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology
American Anthropological Association, 1992
Luminary, New Mexico Community Foundation, 2007

Professional History

Professor of Anthropology and Director,
Museum of Anthropology,
University of Kentucky, 1956–1967
Academic Assistant to the President,
University of Kentucky, 1963–1964
President and CEO, School for Advanced Research,
Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1967–2001
Senior Scholar, President Emeritus
School for Advanced Research, 2001–to present

Anthropological Field Research

Southeastern US Archaeology, 1947–1957
Southern Italy, Ethnography, 1965–1966
Grand Canyon archaeology, 1949–1971
Northern Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico, 1971–1975
The Nurturing of Darwin’s Genius, 1985–2009

Other Professional Activities

Current:

State of the Parks, Advisory Board,
National Parks and Conservation Association
Board Member, First National Bank of Santa Fe
Board Member, Witter-Bynner Foundation for Poetry

Past:

President of the Board, Jane Goodall
African Wildlife Institute, 1986–1987
President, Society for American Archaeology, 1973–1974
Chairman, Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry
Chairman, Harvard University Overseers’
Committee on the Peabody Museum
Chairman, Secretary of the Interior’s Advisory Board on
National Parks, Historic Sites and Monuments, 1978
On National Board 1973–1978
Chairman, Anthropology Panel, Fulbright-Hays
Postdoctoral Awards, 1967–1968
Director, Carnegie Foundation and Southern Regional
Educational Board Seminars on
“Creativity in the College Classroom”
President of Board, Santa Fe Preparatory School, 1973–1974
Vice-President, Archaeological Conservancy, 1979–1980
Vice-President, University of Kentucky
Association of University Professors, 1956–1966
Program Chairman, Pecos Archaeological Conference, 1969
Program Chairman, Society for American Archaeology, 1960
Board Member, First United Bank Group,
New Mexico and Texas, 1982–1994
Member, Grand Canyon Science Advisory
Board Member, National Trust for the Humanities
Member, Long Range Planning Committee,
American Anthropological Association, 1999–2000
Memoir Editor, Society for American Archaeology, 1965–1966
Member, Honorary Board, National Museum of the
American Indian, Smithsonian Institution
Member, Finance Committee, American Anthropological Association
General Editor, University of Kentucky Studies in Anthropology
General Editor, School of American Research,
Advanced Seminar Series, 1972–2001

Publications

Books, monographs, articles, chapters and forewords separated by topic below on: Kentucky archaeology; Grand Canyon archaeology; Northern Rio Grand archaeology; North American prehistory; social consequences of human migration; the history and sociology of American archaeology; the history of Chinese poetry; and forewords to over 40 volumes of scholarship in the School of American Research Advanced Seminar series.

Kentucky Archaeology

1951, Archaeological Survey of Celina Reservoir Project,
Monroe County, Kentucky, River Basin Surveys,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1956, “Prehistoric Man in Mammoth Cave,”
Scientific American, 203:1:130-40.
1957, “A Key to Prehistoric Kentucky Pottery,” in
Transactions of the Kentucky Academy of Science
22:3-4:1-13.
1958, “Appraisal of the Archaeological Resources of the
Rough River Basin, Kentucky,” (with T. Sloan);
Department of the Interior, National Park Service,
Richmond, Virginia (Mimeographed Report).
1958, “Survey of the Archeological Resources of the
Barkley Reservior, Kentucky,: (with T. Sloan)
Department of the Interior, National Park Service,
Richmond, Virginia.
1958, “Agency Seeks Out Relics of States Ancient Past,”
The Commonwealth, Vol. 2(1) 6
1960, “Archaeological Survey of the Nolin River Reservoir,”
Department of the Interior, National Park Service,
Richmond, Virginia, (Mimeographed Report).
1960, “Archeological Survey of the Barkley Reservior.”
1960, “Archeological Base Map and Survey of Mammoth
Cave National Park.”
1960, “Prehistoric Man in Mammoth Cave,” Scientific
American, July, Vol. 203, No. 1, pp. 130-140.
1961, The Tinsley Hill Site; A Late Prehistoric
Stone Granve Cemetary in Lyon County, Kentucky.
Studies in Anthropology, No. I, Univeristy of Kentucky.
1962, The Driskill Site: A Late Woodland Occupation
In the Lower Cumberland River Valley, Transactions
of the Kentucky Academy of Science, 23(1-2):1-13.
1962, “An Archeological Survey of Fishtrap Reservior,”
National Park Service (Mimeographed Report, 10pp.).
1963, “Archeological Survey of the Laurel River Reservior,”
Department of the Interior.
1964, Prehistoric Man in Mammoth Cave.
National Park Service, Washington, D.C.
1967, Conceptions of Kentucky Prehistory,
1661-1957: A Care Study in the History of
Archaeology. University of Kentucky Press, Lexington.
1991, “An’ Stuff Like That There” in Appreciation of William
G. Haag. Louisiana Archaeology, Bulletin of the
Louisiana Archaeological Society, No. 18.
1992, “Foreword” to Kentucky Prehistory, ed. R. Barry Lewis,
University Press of Kentucky. Lexington, Kentucky.

Grand Canyon Archaeology and Ethnography

1951, “Structures: (with Jeremiah Epstein): Chapter 8 in
The Cohonina Culture of Northwestern Arizona, pp55-86
ed. by John McGregor, University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
1955, “Havasupai Prehistory: Thirteen Centuries of Cultural
Development. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven Connecticut.
1955, “Split-Twig Figurines in the Grand Canyon”
(with Arthur L. Lange and Raymond DeSaussure)
American Antiquity 23:3:264-741.
1956a, “Demographic Changes in the Early Periods of
Cohonina Prehistory”, in Prehistoric Settlement Patterns
in the New World, pp. 26-31. edited by Gordon R. Willey,
Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, New York.
1956b, “The Havasupai 600 A.D. – 1955 A.D.: A Short
Culture History,” Plateau 28:77- 85. Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff.
1957a, “Climate Change and Culture History in the
Grand Canyon Region,” American Antiquity 22:4:372-377
1957b, “A Cohonino Cremation” Plateau, 29:3:63-65.
(with Milton Wetherill). Museum of Northern Arizona. Flagstaff, Arizona.
1958, “Prehistoric Man in the Grand Canyon”
Scientific American, 198:2:97-102.
1959, “Culture Area and Time Depth: The Four Worlds of
the Havasupai,” American Anthropologist, 61:6:1060-70.
1960, “Archaeological Investigations in the Shinumo Area
of the Grand Canyon National Park” Plateau 32:3:61-67.
1963, “An Archaeological Survey of Nankoweap Canyon,
Grand Canyon National Park,” American Antiquity, 28:3:289-302.
1965, “Nankoweap to Unkar: An Archaeological Survey
of the Upper Grand Canyon,” American Antiquity, 30:3:278-96.
1966a, “Cultural Consequences of Migration: An Archaeological
Test. Grant application to the National Science
Foundation. Manuscript n file, Grand Canyon National
Park Museum Collections, Grand Canyon, Arizona.
1966b, “An Historical Analysis and Synthesis of Grand
Canyon Archaeology,” American Antiquity, 31:469-84.
1969a, “Grand Canyon Prehistory. In Geology and History of
the Grand Canyon Region, edited by Donald L. Barnes,
pp. 35-40, 5th Field Conference, Powell Centennial River
Expedition, 1969. Four Corners Geological Society, Durango, Colorado.
1969b, “Archaeology” in Grand Canyon River Guide, Westwater
Books, Evergreen Colorado. pp. 70-75.
1970, “The Post-migration Culture: A Basis for
Archaeological Inference” Reconstructing Prehistoric
Pueblo Societies. William Longacre, ed.
School of American Resarch, Advanced Seminar Book,
University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
1978, “Archaeological Investigations in the Grand Canyon,”
National Geographic Society Research Reports (1969 Projects) Washington, D.C.
1979, Archaeology of the Grand Canyon: The Bright Angel Site
(with Michael Marshall and Jane Kepp. Grand Canyon
Archaeological Series, Vol. I, School of American Research. Santa Fe.
1980, Archaeology of the Grand Canyon: Unkar Delta
(with Richard Chapman and Jane Kepp) Grand Canyon
Archaeological Series, Vol. 2. School of American Research, Santa Fe.
1981, Archaeology of the Grand Canyon: The Walhalla
Plateau (with Richard Chapman and Jane Kepp)
Grand Archaeological Series, Vol. 2. School of American Research, Santa Fe.
1983, “Havasupai,” in Handbook of North American
Indians, Vol. 10, edited by Alphanso Ortiz, Smithsonian
Institution, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.
1989, On the Edge of Splendor: Exploring Grand Canyon’s
Human Past, School of American Research, SAR Press, Santa Fe.
2007, “Archaeology” in Grand Canyon River Guide, Westwater
Books, Evergreen Colorado. (revised from 1969, in press)
2008, “Archaeology of the Grand Canyon: A Personal Look Back”
In Reflections of Grand Canyon Historians: Ideas, Arguments,
and First-Person Accounts. Ed. by Todd R. Berger,
Grand Canyon Association. Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Northern Rio Grande Archaeology

1971, “Background Report on the Archaeology of Arroyo
Hondo: First Arroyo Hondo Field Report”. School of
American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1972, “Archaeological Investigations at the Arroyo Hondo Site:
Second Field Report 1971”. School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1973, (with R.W. Lang) “Archaeological Investigations at the
Arroyo Hondo Site: Third Field Report”. School of
American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1980–2004, Principle Investigator, Project Director and
General Editor, and Forewords to Arroyo Hondo Archaeological Series,
Volumes 1 – 9, School of American Research Press. Santa Fe.
1981, “Population¸ Culture and Resources: A Rio Grande
Pueblo Perspective.” Geoscience and Man. Vol. XXII.
2007, “Origins of the Great Southwestern Pueblos”
Anthronotes. Vol. 28, No. 1 Spring. Museum of Natural
History, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

General Archaeology

1964, “North American Archaeology in Historic Perspective”
Proceedings of the International Congress of the
History of the Sciences. Warsaw.
1970, “An Overview and Initial Analysis of a
Conceptual Inventory of American Archaeology” in
Proceedings of the Eighth Congress of Anthropological
and Ethnological Sciences. Tokyo, Japan.
1977, “New Lands, New Lives: A New World Revealed:
An Overview of Discovery and Development in
American Archaeology,” in Clues to America’s Past.
National Geographic Society. Washington, D.C.
1981, “A Conceptual Framework for the Sociology of
Archaeology,” in Essays in Honor of Irving Rouse,
Mouton & Co, London.
1985, “The Colonizing Experience: A Cross-Cultural
Perspective” in Interstellar Migration and the
Human Experience. ed. by Ben Finney and Eric Jones.
University of California Press. Berkeley.
1991, “An’ Stuff Like That There” in Appreciation of William
G. Haag. Louisiana Archaeology, Bulletin of the
Louisiana Archaeological Society, No. 18.
2001, “Introduction” to An Introduction to the Study of
Southwestern Archaeology” by Alfred Kidder,
New edition of 1924 original. Yale University Press.