List of Lists – Introduction
by Carolyn Spock
This introduction to the "List of Lists" is intended to be only
that, and is not intended to elaborate the history of the Texas Archeological
Society. For a more expanded narrative, interested readers should refer to
the works of E. Mott Davis (1979:159-194) and Jean and Bill Richmond and John
Greer (1985:105-184).
The core of this effort began in 1987-1988 when the author was
chair of the Nominating Committee and felt the Committee needed some
retrospective while deliberating on its choices for officers. As noted
below, the primary sources of data for this compilation were the
Bulletin of the Teas Archeological Society and
Texas Archeology, the TAS newsletter. The synopsis soon developed
into a mission to track all the offices, past and present, to their beginnings,
and then expanded to include information about special honors, Annual Meetings,
and Field Schools. However, even zealousness has its limits; no attempt
has been made to ferret out the various committees, their chairmen or members.
Such an expanded listing, while no doubt intriguing (to some) would be far too
protracted and involved to include in this already lengthy offering.
Nonetheless, some of the trivia unearthed during these literary excavations have
been quite enlightening....
"The Society was organized and chartered in pursuit of a
literary and scientific undertaking; for the study of the history, prehistory
and the major and minor artifacts of man and the fossils representing the past
floras and faunas of Texas; for the encouragement of the proper collection and
preservation of such artifacts and fossils in museums and their study and
classification and the publication of the results of the researches incident
thereto." [Original charter excerpt.]
The Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society was founded
in October 1928 by a group of Abilene business and professional men, listed
herein as founders, after the 1927-1928 archeological discoveries of Cyrus N.
Ray and Edward B. Sayles had begun to generate an interest in the past of the
Abilene area. Membership quickly stretched far beyond the Abilene region,
as Society members of 1928-1929 represented not only Abilene and nearby towns,
but reached from Amarillo to Corpus Christi and from El Paso to Dallas. By
the end of that year, membership had grown to the point where the dues would
support a publication. Three hundred copies were made of the September
1929 edition of the
Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society; the
$348 raised from the 116 memberships more than covered the $245.21 expense of
printing.
During the first year, meetings were held the first Tuesday
night each month, where a scientific paper was read and discussed; several of
those papers were published in the first
Bulletin. At the Society's first Annual Meeting at the Abilene
Hilton Hotel on October 26, 1929, it was decided to hold program meetings only
on the first Tuesday in December, February, and April, with an Annual Meeting to
be held in October. The pattern of holding an annual fall meeting has, of
course, continued through the years, as has the publication of the
Bulletin.
A few notable changes encountered while assembling these
lists.... The spelling of "archaeological" in the Society's name became
"archeological" in 1931. At the Annual Meeting in 1952, it was decided to
drop "and Paleontological" from the Society's name and become "The Texas
Archeological Society." The makeup of the Board (the executive officers,
directors, trustees, regional vice-presidents, editors, etc.) has been altered a
number of times in the Society's 75+ years. For instance, while there have
been Regional Vice Presidents (now called Regional Directors) since the
beginning, their numbers have varied from four through twelve, and they were not
tied to specific, numbered geographic regions until 1966. One of the more
interesting tidbits: through 1946, Annual Meetings were always held in Abilene
because it was thought that this was required in the Society's governing
regulations. When a review of the regulations showed that no such
locational restrictions existed, recommendations were made to meet elsewhere.
The Society has not held an Annual Meeting in Abilene since that time.
Through 1957, the Bulletin printed the fiscal status
of TAS, the names of its officers, and news about the Annual Meetings.
This practice was discontinued with the establishment of a newsletter in 1957,
Texas Archeology, which took on the task. It is primarily from
these two sources, as well as references to Lauretta Corkill's lists of January
1977 (cheerfully provided to the author by Mott Davis after her activities were
recounted, but not received until this List of Lists was well underway),
occasional annual meeting programs, and personal recollections, that the data
for this article were gleaned. Due to the nature of this paper, it was
decided not to attempt specific citations throughout. Also, as the
inclusion of the Annual Meeting information was a relatively last-minute
decision, it has not been researched in such depth as is possible. Please
do consider this work to be informal, a pulling-together of data in the interest
of general expediency. Indeed, the author must further admit to a
dereliction of scholarly duty for not digging through the Society's archives in
San Antonio. Perhaps in a more formal offering....
Following this introduction are lists presenting the founders
(Ray 1935:6), and the names of the individuals who have served as elected
officers of the Texas Archeological Society or received honorary awards from the
Society. It is the primary year or years served which accompany the names;
the initial two months of office immediately following elections at the fall
meeting are not taken into consideration. Also present is a table noting
the sites of Annual Meetings, with their sponsors, featured speakers and topics
(where known) outlined, as well as a table describing the Society’s Field
Schools, with the Field School year, site names and numbers and types of work
done, counties in which the work was done, and the archeologist(s) in charge
outlined. The lists of officers and awardees are provided in tabular form
and are organized numerically by year; individuals are listed last name first,
so those of you who have an electronic copy of this work can sort the material
by name.
Browse through these lists at your leisure; be prepared to
see many familiar and well-known names in Texas archeology.
References Cited
Davis, E. Mott
1979 The First Quarter Century of The Texas
Archeological Society. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society
50:159-194.
Ray, Cyrus N. (editor)
1935 Foreword. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological
and Paleontological Society 7:6.
Ray, Cyrus N. (editor)
1935 Foreword. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological
and Paleontological Society 7:6.
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