Edgar Lee Hewett

Abstract

We are called upon to record the loss of one of the last of the “early greats” in American Archaeology, Edgar Lee Hewett, who took his eternal place on December 31, 1946 with his illustrious contemporaries in the science— Lewis H. Morgan, Frederic W. Putnam, J. Wesley Powell, William H. Holmes, J. Walter Fewkes, Adolf F. Bandelier, Alice C. Fletcher, and Charles F. Lummis. Philosopher, teacher, world traveler and explorer, Doctor Hewett leaves an enviable record which includes: the founding and direction for thirty-seven years of the Archaeological Institute's School of American Research; the establishment of departments of anthropology in two leading universities (University of New Mexico and University of Southern California); the building of two important museums (Museum of New Mexico and San Diego Museum); the development and training of several distinguished professional archaeologists; and the endowment of “The Humanities” with numerous essays, papers, and books comprising more than two hundred titles—archaeological, philosophical, sociological, historical, and pedagogical—readable yet scholarly.