Katharine Bartlett

Katharine Bartlett
Born	(1907-11-30)November 30, 1907 Denver, Colorado
Died	May 22, 2001(2001-05-22) (aged 93) Sedona, Arizona
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	physical anthropologist, museum curator
Years active	1930–1981
Known for	organizing the holdings of the Museum of Northern Arizona

Katharine Bartlett (1907-2001) was an American physical anthropologist who worked from 1930-1952 as the first curator of the Museum of Northern Arizona, cataloging and organizing the museum's holdings. She participated in a survey of the Navajo Nation's reservation in the Little Colorado River basin and established the cataloging system used by the Glen Canyon Archaeological Project. She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association and of Fellow the Society of American Archaeology, as well as the first Fellow of the MNA. Honored in an exhibit of the Smithsonian institution in 1986 and a recipient of the 1991 Sharlot Hall Award for her contributions to Arizona history, she was posthumously inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame in 2008.

Biography

Katharine Bartlett was born on November 30, 1907 in Denver, Colorado to Louise Erina (née Leedom) and George Frederick Bartlett. Unable to afford her first choice of Smith College, Bartlett obtained her Master's Degree in physical anthropology from the University of Denver, studying under Etienne Bernardeau Renaud. In 1930, she took a summer position to assist with the Hopi Craftsman Exhibition of the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA). At the invitation of Harold Sellers Colton, who at the time was the preeminent expert in Southwestern US archaeological and ethnological research, Bartlett stayed on in Arizona to organize the two-year-old MNA, which Colton and his wife had founded.

Bartlett organized, cataloged and preserved the museum's anthropology collection serving from 1930 to 1952 as the museum curator. In 1931, she and Colton made an archaeological survey of the Navajo Reservation covering 250 miles of the reservation which lies in the Little Colorado River basin. They plotted 260 archaeological sites in their survey. In 1952, when Gene Field Foster, Bartlett's housemate, began recording archaeological sites in the area where the Glen Canyon Dam was being built, she invited Bartlett and the MNA to participate. Bartlett established the catalog system for the archaeological collection of the Glen Canyon Project which was the largest project sponsored through the Interagency Archeological Salvage Program (IASP) in the Santa Fe Regional Office of the National Park Service. The surveying in Glen Canyon continued for more than five years.

Bartlett was a charter member of the Arizona Academy of Science and the Arizona Association of University Women. She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the American Anthropological Association and of the Society of American Archaeology, as well as the first Fellow of the MNA. She was honored by an exhibit which appeared at the Smithsonian in 1986, entitled “Daughter of the Desert” and a 1991 recipient of the Sharlot Hall Award for her contributions to Arizona history.

Bartlett died on May 22, 2001 in Sedona, Arizona and was posthumously inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame in 2008.

Sources

• Banks, Kimball M; Czaplicki, Jon S (2014). Dam Projects and the Growth of American Archaeology: The River Basin Surveys and the Interagency Archeological Salvage Program. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press. ISBN 978-1-61132-174-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Browman, David L. (2013). Cultural Negotiations: The Role of Women in the Founding of Americanist Archaeology. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-4547-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Category:1907 births Category:2001 deaths Category:University of Denver alumni Category:Articles created via the Article Wizard Category:American anthropologists Category:American women anthropologists