William E. Barnes, Forgotten Booster: Documenting Why Archaeology Came to the University of Arizona

Abstract

William E. Barnes, Forgotten Booster:Documenting Why Archaeology Came to the University of Arizona David R. Wilcox (bio) It is now well known that the new president of the University of Arizona (UA) as of January 1915, Rufus Bernhard von KleinSmid [1875–1964] (figure 1; see Bio Sketch 11), soon after indirectly hearing in mid-March 1915 from Byron Cummings [1860–1954] (figure 2) that he was interested in a position in archaeology at the UA, hired him in late June 1915 to be the founding professor of a Department of Archaeology and director of the Arizona State Museum (ASM) (Thompson 2005, 2015a, 2018a,b; Wilcox 2005, 2016a,b; Bostwick 2006; Ferg 2014, 2017). New research, however, shows that a movement in the direction of establishing these two institutions on an archaeological footing began with a public appeal by a businessman, W. [William] E. Barnes2 [1869–1916], the traveling freight and passenger agent of the Southern Pacific Railway Company headquartered in Tucson. Barnes in the fall of 1913 BC (Before Cummings) began to lobby the Arizona governor and the Arizona legislature to found a School and Chair of Archaeology at the UA and also an ASM there dedicated to archaeological studies. This was done without his apparently knowing that ASM as a natural history museum already had been authorized at the UA in 1893 via a bill introduced by then legislator (and later seven-time governor of Arizona, 1912–1917, 1923–1929, 1931–1932) George Wiley Paul Hunt [1859–1934] (figure 3) (Thompson 2005, 2018b; Wilcox 2005; Ferg 2014, 2017). To explain why Barnes succeeded so well—but not as well as he hoped—requires first a deeper examination of earlier efforts that built up public support that Barnes was able to capitalize upon. The forces in play included antiquarian interest in Arizona's prehistoric remains, which were at first regarded as curiosities or "curios" and "relics" of a mysterious race that attracted an audience locally but also nationally [End Page 143] and internationally. Gradually, concerned citizens of Arizona Territory began to realize that they were "losing" these resources to outside exploiters, and there then was a growing recognition that action was needed to find ways to keep these "resources" in the territory for the benefit of Arizona's citizens. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Rufus Bernhard von KleinSmid. (UA Biographical File, KleinSmid, Rufus B. von, Special Collections Library, University of Arizona) [End Page 144] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Byron Cummings. (UA Biographical File, Cummings, Byron, Special Collections Library, University of Arizona) [End Page 145] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 3. Governor George Wiley Paul Hunt in his office, March 1915. (AZ SW Photographic Collection, People, folder 60, HUG–HZ, Special Collections Library, University of Arizona) Following the building of the railroads through Arizona to California, and the housing boom in California in the 1880s, the economics of tourism became increasingly important in Arizona and the West (Pomeroy 1965, 1990 [1957]; Rothman 1998). By the 1890s, efforts to draw tourists' attention to some of Arizona's prehistoric "attractions" had begun in earnest by the Arizona Antiquarian Association. With the formation of women's clubs, however, highly valued civic reasons for the preservation of Arizona's ruins were formulated involving the importance of education, heritage preservation, and access for local benefit. By the early twentieth century, even more ambitious efforts along these lines were happening in adjacent western states or territories that also influenced public opinion in Arizona. By the time W. E. Barnes came to Tucson in August 1911, his employer, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, was increasingly interested in promoting local growth, increasing traffic on their routes, and publicizing the attractions and educational opportunities to be seen nearby. In the middle 1910s the [End Page 146] automobile also had become a vitally important factor, and the Good Roads Movement was promoting many interests parallel to those of the railroads (Devine 1997). It was fertile ground for a talented booster and publicist like Barnes to bring "sunshine" to the communities along the Southern Pacific's Sunset Line, one result of which was the creation of a...