Call Number:

1127

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives

Extent:

2.5 linear feet

Language:

English

Date:

1951-1958 (inclusive)

Creator:

Kidder II, Alfred, 1911-1984

Abstract:

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.

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. He attended Noble and Greenough School from 1922-1928 and Phillips Academy in Andover from 1928-1929. From there, He served in this position until 1967, when he took over as Curator of the American Section – a job he retained until his retirement in 1971. He married Mary Barbour Kidder in 1934. She died in 1977. Alfred Kidder II died on February 2, 1984. They had no children.

Having decided to specialize in South American archaeology, Kidder undertook his first expedition to the continent in 1933 when Rafael Requena, the secretary to Venezuelan president General Gómez, invited North American archaeologists to study in that country. His research on this trip and subsequent visit in 1934 formed the basis for his Ph.D. thesis. Kidder also participated in an expedition to Honduras in 1936. Accompanied by his wife and William Duncan Strong, he was researching the problems of the frontiers of Maya civilization and its relationship with the lowland tropical forest cultures. In 1937, he went to Peru on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for his class on Andean archaeology and saw the site of Pucará for the first time; he returned to excavate it in 1939. Subsequent trips to the Lake Titicaca basin occurred in 1941 and 1955, when he excavated sites at Tiahuanaco and Chiripa in Bolivia and Qaluyu in Peru. University of Pennsylvania graduate student William Coe, Alan R. Sawyer, and Kidder’s wife accompanied him on the latter trip.

Kidder’s archaeological legacy derives largely from his fieldwork in the Lake Titicaca Basin; his was the first extensive excavation at Pucará, where he revealed human remains, architecture, and midden deposits. Although no complete report on his 1955 expedition was ever published, he did publish articles concerning earlier expeditions, and University of Pennsylvania graduate students later attempted to analyze his findings. Also, intent on establishing a chronology for the Lake Titicaca Basin cultures, Kidder pioneered the use of thin-section analysis for Andean pottery. For his expeditions in 1937 and 1939, he was appointed Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Andean Research.

At the University of Pennsylvania Kidder taught undergraduate and graduate courses in archaeology, assisted Museum Director Froelich Rainey, and attempted to make archaeology accessible to the public. He gave frequent lectures to local libraries and organizations and also participated in the Museum television show “What in the World?” broadcast on WCAU (CBS). In his spare time, he enjoyed fishing and collecting bull figurines.

The records of Alfred Kidder II measure 2 linear feet and contain professional correspondence, field notes, plans and drawings, reports, artifact analyses, catalogs, and travel diaries. A portion of the records (correspondence relating to the Lake Titicaca Basin expedition and some professional correspondence) were transferred to the Archives from the American Section around 1979, but all other materials were in the possession of Karen Mohr-Chavez, one of Kidder’s graduate students, until 1998. The materials have been sorted into three series: Student Notes and Journals, Professional Correspondence, and Lake Titicaca Basin Expedition. The photographs and oversize drawings, which relate to the Lake Titicaca Expedition, are stored separately.

The first series consists of a number of notebooks containing field notes, collections notes, and travel notes dating mostly from Kidder’s time as a student at Harvard and covering expeditions to Central and South America from 1933, 1934, 1937, and 1939 (Kidder was no longer a student on the latter expedition). Most of them were damaged by water, and though they were freeze-dried in the early 1980s, they were still affected by mold and dirt, and some of the pages had begun to disintegrate. Some text had also washed out. A few were in good condition, but most were poor to very poor. An effort has been made to preserve the notebooks from Kidder’s travels, but his class notes have been discarded. The dirt has been cleaned from the pages on the former group, and in some cases the pages of journals in very poor condition have been cut out and the journal covers discarded. See Appendix 2 for the original listing of notebooks.

The professional correspondence covers Kidder’s tenure at Harvard University and at the University of Pennsylvania and is grouped accordingly. It consists mostly of correspondence with students, university staff, and colleagues, but also includes correspondence with members of the general public. Additional correspondence from Kidder’s tenure as Associate Director are filed in the records of the Director’s Office— Froelich Rainey. Correspondence from the Lake Titicaca Basin Expedition was retained with other expedition materials, as found. Relating to Kidder’s 1955 archaeological expedition, they contain correspondence with Bolivian and Peruvian contacts. Letters concerning Karen L. Mohr’s research, originally placed with the Lake Titicaca Basin materials, have been moved to Professional Correspondence – University of Pennsylvania. Most of the letters are in good condition, but some have been photocopied for preservation purposes and the originals discarded. Other fragile originals are housed in plastic sleeves. The Lake Titicaca Basin Expedition series contains two sub-series, based on the two main sites excavated: Tiahuanaco and Chiripa. Most documents pertain to either one site or the other, but some comparative notes, relating to both sites, may be found in either group. The field notes remain in their original order, but some re-organization of the artifact notes, plans & drawings, and reports & class study was necessary. They are now arranged by topic under their site name. Most documents were in good condition, with the exception of Sawyer’s plans, which were thermofax copies. These have been photocopied again, onto acid-free paper, and the original copies have been discarded.

The photographic negatives have been catalogued and entered in the database. They are stored in the photo archives and contain 4”x5”, 8”x10”, and 35mm safety negatives. The IK negatives are missing their descriptions, and the Leica images (probably 35mm slides) are missing. Prints of views and pottery are stored with Standard Size Prints— South America.

Oversize drawings and plans are stored in the map cases, and consist of original field sections, plans drawn by William Coe, plans drawn by students, and drawings of artifacts by Kidder, Coe, Karen Mohr Chavez, and Virginia Greene.