American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Hyde Exploring Expedition; Hyde Expeditions; Hyde Exploring Expeditions
birth: 1893
death: 1899
The Hyde Exploring Expeditions to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico excavated ancient Anasazi cliff dwelling civilizations and discovered an earlier "Basketmaker" civilization beneath the canyon floor. The expeditions were sponsored by Benjamin Talbot Babbitt (B.T.B.) Hyde and and his younger brother Frederic Erastus Hyde, Jr., were conducted under the auspices of Frederic Putnam, Curator of Anthropology in the American Museum of Natural History. Richard Wetherill was the expedition leader and guide. George Hubbard Pepper was the lead archaeologist. The Hyde expeditions also included ethnological studies by Aleṧ Hrdlička, who set up a laboratory in Pueblo Bonito.
The Hyde Exploring Expeditions (1893-1899) conducted anthropological and archaeological fieldwork in the Four Corners region of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. The first expedition in the winter of 1893-1894 explored the civilization of the ancestral Pueblo cliff-dwelling people, then referred to as “Anasazi.” This expedition made the stunning discovery of an earlier civilization, the “Basketmakers” beneath the canyon floor of the cliff houses. A second expedition (aka the “Whitmore Exploring Expedition”) was conducted in the winter of 1896-1897 to further explore burial grounds, kivas, and cliff houses in the region. The Hyde brothers (Benjamin Talbot Babbitt Hyde and his younger brother Frederic Erastus Hyde, Jr.) financed the first expedition, purchased the finds from the second expedition, and donated the collections to the American Museum of Natural History in 1897. The Hyde brothers continued to finance archaeological work, anthropological studies, and trading posts throughout the region. These excavations of the American southwest were the first ones conducted under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History. The Hyde Exploring Expedition was incorporated and a variety of commercial ventures were launched under its aegis, including a journal (The Papoose), stores, and an export trade to market ancient and modern Native American objects and artistry.
Frederick W. Putnam, Curator of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, supervised the Hyde Exploring Expeditions. He appointed George Hubbard Pepper as field director for the expedition that set out for Chaco Canyon during the summers from 1896-1899. The local guide and excavator for the Hyde Expeditions was Richard Wetherill, a rancher and self-taught archaeologist with knowledge of the region and fluency in the native Ute and Navajo languages. The physical anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička conducted ethnological research by comparing human skeletons with native peoples living in the region, including laborers on the archaeological digs. Geographical mapping of the region and analysis of the antiquity of the ruins in Chaco Canyon was assigned to Richard E. Dodge, a professor at Columbia University.
Over time, the trove of objects collected through the Hyde Exploring Expeditions were separated from their documentary and descriptive information as significant portions of the collections were dispersed, first to the University of Pennsylvania and then to George Gustav Heye’s Museum of the American Indian in New York City. The American Museum of Natural History’s original specimen numbers on objects excavated by the Hyde Exploring Expeditions were effaced and replaced by new numbers in a re-inventory by the Museum of the American Indian. The context and provenance of archaeological finds were lost in this shift of custody; the significance of objects and their research value was diminished.
Reconstruction of the history of the Hyde Exploring Expeditions has been an iterative process. In 1909, the museum launched the Huntington Southwest Survey to develop a timeline of human habitation of the Southwest, building and verifying discoveries by the Hyde Expeditions. In 1916, the museum’s Curator of Ethnology, Pliny Goddard, wrote to Clayton Wetherill to ask for help interpreting his brother’s catalogue references to locate caves and rooms referred to by numbers. In 1920, the Cartier Expedition led by Nels C. Nelson, Curator of North American Archaeology, accompanied by B.T.B. Hyde, went to Grand Gulch in an attempt to identify the particular cliff-houses and canyons from which the museum’s collection was taken. Annual Report 52 for the year 1920 states: “Completion of the reports of the Hyde explorations on the Pueblo Bonito between 1895 and 1900 has been rendered possible through two years’ special labor of Mr. B. Talbot B. Hyde of this Museum, who was the chief donor, and the active cooperation of Mr. George H. Pepper of the Museum of the American Indian, who was in charge of the excavations.” In the 1930s, the Works Project Administration put unemployed people to work, including Ms. Henrietta Jonas, who typed the Hyde Expedition correspondence in the Division of Anthropology. Today, more than a century after the Hyde Expeditions, the Wetherill-Grand Gulch Research Project continues the painstaking process of “reverse archaeology” tracing dispersed museum artifacts back to the canyon recesses and alcoves from whence they came.
1889 MayAn “Ancient Aztec Relics Collection ” excavated by Richard Wetherill and companions is displayed in Durango and later Denver, Colorado. The Colorado Historical Society purchases this “First Wetherill Collection” to prevent its removal from the state.
1888 DecemberRichard Wetherill and Charles C. Mason rediscover Cliff Palace while searching for a stray calf.
1892 August 12Fred Hyde Sr., Fred Hyde Jr., and Benny Talbot Babbit Hyde visited cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde, Guided by “Richard.”
1893Meeting
1894 SummerRichard Wetherill takes the Hyde brothers on an expedition to Grand Gulch.
1895Hyde brothers donate collection to AMNH.
1896George Pepper named Assistant Curator of the Department of the Southwest and field director for Hyde Expeditions in Pueblo Bonito from 1896-1899.
1897Hyde brothers donate second collection to AMNH
1900Sante Fe Historical Society passes resolution against Hyde Exploring Expedition for “spoliation” of ruins.
1902Meeting
1902Federal Land Office restraining order against Hyde Exploring Expedition.
1902 OctoberAMNH hosts International Congress of Americanists and displays finds from Hyde Exploring Expedition.
1903Hyde Exploring Expedition incorporated in New Mexico.
1906Antiquities Act.
1907Chaco Canyon National Monument established.
1908B.T.B. Hyde transfers part of collection deposited with AMNH to the University of Pennsylvania.
1910Richard Wetherill is murdered.
1916B.T.B. Hyde sells part of his collection to Gustav Heye, founder of the Museum of the American Indian in New York.
1920Cartier Expedition goes back to Grand Gulch with B.T.B Hyde in effort to identify provenance of items remaining in AMNH collection.
1930sWorks Progress Administration hires workers to type field notes in AMNH Anthropology Department from Hyde Exploring Expeditions.
1987Chaco Canyon named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
1990Wetherill-Grand Gulch Research Symposium.