255

William A. Ritchie.

Report on archaeological digs at Algonquian sites in western New York.

New York, 1919-1928
7 printed maps, 48 photographs, 36 manuscript leaves, 53 typescript leaves (some heavily annotated), and a 41-page manuscript notebook, unbound but laid into a spring-back binder with Ritchie's name in gilt on front board; moderate edge wear to the typescript leaves. 

William Augustus Ritchie (1903-1995) was raised in Rochester, NY, and apparently had an interest in archaeology from an early age. He graduated from the University of Rochester and by 1925 was the curator of anthropology at the Municipal Museum of Rochester, and was soon serving as secretary of the New York State Archaeological Association. He was later the chief archaeologist at the New York State Museum in Albany for many years until his retirement. This packet, including a loosely drafted report which was apparently intended for publication but never published, documents some of his earliest work and collaborations.

A section titled "General Field Notes" lists 45 "certain prehistoric sites intensively explored." 21 of these sites (#1-16 and #24-28) are accompanied by typescript or manuscript reports, including 47 photographs laid down or mounted with corners as "plates" numbered I through XXV. Most of the photographs show the site terrain, some with archaeologists at work; a few show excavated skulls. All of the sites are in western and northern New York, with almost all of them within 20 miles of Rochester. 

A more miscellaneous section includes 7 folding printed maps, including a large folding 1920 map of New York, annotated with a color-coded count of known archaeological sites by county, with the highest red and blue counts clustered near Rochester. A series of topographical maps are annotated with different types of sites in red ink. A printed form for "Data Relative to Indian Sites and Relics" is completed for a site in Montour, NY. 

A small 41-page manuscript notebook is headed "Catalogue of Indian Relics," listing 94 relics gathered from 1917 to 1920, mostly near Rochester. The finders of each artifact are noted in a key at the end, with the ones bearing a check mark found by "R" (presumably Ritchie). 

Provenance: purchased from the estate of William Ritchie's son Galen Blaine Ritchie (1935-2023) of Delmar, NY. 

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