Cartier Expedition 1920

Exist Dates

1920

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract

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.

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.”

Sources

[1] James E. Snead, Ruins and Rivals: The Making of Southwest Archaeology (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001), 22-23.

[1] Catalog Number. H934, The Hyde Expedition, American Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology Archives

[1] Fred M. Blackburn and Ray A. Williamson, Cowboys and Cave Dwellers: Basketmaker Archaeology in Utah’s Grand Gulch (Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research, 1997) 47.

[1] “Outline History of Early Explorations,” Division of Anthropology Archives, American Museum of Natural History, 1895-34.

[1] Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1981) 21, 31.

".” (Catalog Number. H934, The Hyde Expedition, American Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology Archives. )

AMNH Central Administrative Archive, Hyde Collections, Anthropology of the Southwest

American Museum of Natural History, Central Archives, Box 99, Folder 301, 1906-1909.

Anasazi Basketmaker, Papers from the 1990 Wetherill-Grand Gulch Symposium, Cultural Reserouces Series No.24. Bureau of Land Management, Salt Lake City, Utah.

American Museum of Natural History, Annual Report for the Year 1920 (No.52).

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Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

Benjamin Talbot Babbitt Hyde
associated dates: 1893-1920
"B.T.B." Hyde was a sponsor of the expedition and a patron of the American Museum of Natural History. He directly participated in several expeditions to the Southwest and catalogued the collection for the museum until 1920. Grandson of Babbitt Hyde and heir to his Bab-O soap company fortune. Member of The Explorer’s Club, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History. Funded and participated in expeditions to Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon.

Elma Rumsey Cartier
Sponsor of the Cartier expedition

Hyde Exploring Expedition
associated dates: 1893-1899
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.

John Wetherill
Expedition guide

Nels Nelson
Leader of the Cartier expedition

Pierre-Camille Cartier (1878-1964)
Sponsor of the Cartier expedition

Whitmore Exploring Expedition
associated dates: 1896-1897
Second expedition, approximately 1897 January to March. Expedition's focus was to continue the work of the first Hyde Expedition, focusing mainly on the Grand Gultch site.

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