Charles F. Walcott Archaelogical Collection, circa 1960-1970
Collection
Identifier: 029
Collection Overview
Items came stored in a small gift box. The box contained a small curated collection of Native American archeological artifacts comprised of 11 separate envelopes and 2 boxes. Each envelope was numbered, each object within had a numerical label, and the short descriptive label cards inside the envelopes both had the same numeric value assigned to the outer envelope. In total, the items were divided into 13 groups designed to be a small exhibition that was put on display at the Observatory Hill Branch Library (now the Boudreau Branch). No documentation exists to provide evidence as to how most of the objects came into Dr. Walcott’s possession, though he found a few of the items himself at Cambridge’s Fresh Pond in the 1960s and 70s and labeled them as such.
The Charles F. Walcott Archaeological Collection was a gift from Dr. Charles F. Walcott to the Cambridge Public Library sometime in the late 1970s, early 1980s. Items include a variety of Native American tools and implements, mainly arrowheads but also scraping tools for wood, gun flint, quartz, a stone drill, bone, and felcite. Not much is known about the individual items other than what little accompanying information was included – usually at most a single sentence. Some of the items are identified as having come from the American South West, South America, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
The only outlier to the Native American objects in the collection is a box containing two bullets and a minie ball from the Battle of Antietam.
Also accompanying the box is a wooden plaque from a painting of Dr. Walcott’s father, Charles F. Walcott, Sr. A portrait was commissioned, however the location of said portrait is unknown.
The Charles F. Walcott Archaeological Collection was a gift from Dr. Charles F. Walcott to the Cambridge Public Library sometime in the late 1970s, early 1980s. Items include a variety of Native American tools and implements, mainly arrowheads but also scraping tools for wood, gun flint, quartz, a stone drill, bone, and felcite. Not much is known about the individual items other than what little accompanying information was included – usually at most a single sentence. Some of the items are identified as having come from the American South West, South America, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
The only outlier to the Native American objects in the collection is a box containing two bullets and a minie ball from the Battle of Antietam.
Also accompanying the box is a wooden plaque from a painting of Dr. Walcott’s father, Charles F. Walcott, Sr. A portrait was commissioned, however the location of said portrait is unknown.
Dates
- Circa 1960-1970
Creator
- Walcott, Charles F. (Charles Folsom), 1904-1989 (Creator, Person)
Access to Collection
This collection is open to research
Conditions Governing Use
The materials in this collection are in the public domain.
Biography
Charles Folsom Walcott was born in Cambridge on May 14, 1904 to Charles F. Walcott (1875-unknown) and Martha S. Enstos Walcott (ca. 1878-unknown). Walcott, Jr. is a graduate of Harvard College (1926) and Harvard Medical School (1931). Walcott was a general practitioner in Cambridge from 1933 until his retirement in 1986. Walcott was an assistant in medicine at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital until 1944 and an associate physician at Mount Auburn Hospital from 1936 to 1968. He also taught at the Haynes Memorial Contagious Hospital in Roxbury and was a clinical assistant at the medical schools at Boston and Harvard Universities.
Walcott’s hobbies were birding and collecting Native American arrowheads, many of which he found in Concord, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Nuttall Ornithological Society and Massachusetts Archaeology Society. His pioneering study of 50 years of bird life in Cambridge, “Changes in Bird Life in Cambridge, Massachusetts From 1860 to 1864,” was published in the Auk, the American Ornithologist Union’s quarterly (volume 91, number 1, 1974).
He married Susan Cabot Walcott (1907-1998) and they had two sons Charles and Benjamin. The Walcott family lived on Sparks Street in Cambridge, where he conducted his famous bird study, until moving to Hancock, New Hampshire. The Walcott’s also had a summer home in North Haven, Maine.
Walcott died on July 1, 1989. Both he and his wife, Susan, are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.
He married Susan Cabot Walcott (1907-1998) and they had two sons Charles and Benjamin. The Walcott family lived on Sparks Street in Cambridge, where he conducted his famous bird study, until moving to Hancock, New Hampshire. The Walcott’s also had a summer home in North Haven, Maine.
Walcott died on July 1, 1989. Both he and his wife, Susan, are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.
Extent
0.88 Linear feet
0.31 Cubic Feet
3 boxes (1 legal Hollinger box and 2 small clamshell boxes)
71 Items : Objects: 52 Paper items: 19 documents
Language of Materials
English
Organization of Collection
This collection is organized in one series, Archealogical Objects, and two subject folders. There are approximately 50 items, arranged numerically.
Custodial History
Donated by Charles F. Walcott II in the 1970s. No known record of donation.
Processing Information
Processed by Rachel Sietz in November and December 2012 and encoded in EAD by Allyson Doyle in September 2016.
Creator
- Walcott, Charles F. (Charles Folsom), 1904-1989 (Creator, Person)
- Title
- Finding Aid for the Charles F. Walcott Archaeological Collection, circa, 1960-1970
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- The finding aid was created by Rachel Sietz in November and December 2012 under the supervision of Alyssa Pacy and coverted to EAD by Allyson Doyle in September 2016 under the supervision of Alyssa Pacy.
- Date
- November and December 2012 and September 2016
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Cambridge Room, Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections Repository
Contact:
Cambridge Public Library
449 Broadway
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
617-349-7757
apacy@cambridgema.gov
Cambridge Public Library
449 Broadway
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
617-349-7757
apacy@cambridgema.gov