University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

Born on August 2, 1911 on Nantucket Island, Alfred Kidder II was named after his grandfather, Alfred Kidder. The eldest child of famous archaeologist Alfred Vincent Kidder, he was the only one of his four siblings to follow in his father’s footsteps. Kidder attended Harvard University where he earned his B.A. in 1933, M.A. in 1935, and Ph.D. in 1937. After graduating, he taught at Harvard until 1950, when he was appointed Associate Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. The records of Alfred Kidder II Chiripa, Bolivia records measure 2 linear feet and contain professional correspondence, field notes, plans and drawings, reports, artifact analyses, catalogs, and travel diaries.

The American Section was one of the first to evolve during the early development of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The University Archaeological Association established in 1887 and later, the American Exploration Society, established in 1892, exhibited several small collections in College Hall before the building campaign for the museum began. Charles Abbott was the first curator of the section succeeded by Henry C. Mercer and then Stewart Culin who was also named Director in 1899. Each succeeding curator was responsible for adding collections, many of them representing their own expeditions in the United States, Alaska, Mexico, Central America and South America. Records in the files are dated from 1826 through the 1980s. The transfer of materials to the Archives took place piecemeal and without a central organization. The current re-processing placed the files into three series, Deaccessions and Loans, Collectors and Collections and Exhibits.

William R. Coe , Curator American Section of The University Museum, ran the excavation site at Tikal Guatemala, which was active from 1956-1970. At this time the Museum wished to maintain a site in Guatemala, specifically a place which could be dated to the post-classic Mayan period. Tayasal was the ethnohistoric capital of the Itza family (as in Chichen Itza) see by Cortez in 1525 while traveling in the Peten area of Guatemala which fell to the Spanish in 1697 and disappeared from the records. When the Itza were driven out of the area in Classical times, they were also driven out of the Chichen Itza area. They returned and built a town somewhere around Lake Peten. Excavations at Tayasal occurred during the summer of 1971, and in a sense are a continuation of work at Tikal. The field work records from the Tayasal project contains notebooks, drawings, notecards, correspondence and images. There are also oversized plans, maps and drawings.