Arthur Randolph Kelly (October 27, 1900 – November 4, 1979) was an American professional archaeologist. He made numerous contributions to archeology in Georgia, which began with directing excavations at the Macon Plateau Site in 1933, part of the federal archeology program that provided jobs while undertaking studies of important sites. During his career, he also worked at the Etowah Mound and Village site, Lamar Mounds, the Lake Douglas Mound, the Oliver and Walter F. George River Basin surveys, the Estatoe Mound, the

Chauga Mound The Chauga Mound ( 38OC1) is an archaeological site once located on the northern bank of the Tugaloo River, about north of the mouth of the Chauga River in present-day Oconee County, South Carolina. The earthen platform mound and former village s ...

, and the Bell Field Mound, among others in Georgia. After completing his graduate education with master's and doctoral degrees at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, Kelly had a career spanning academic service, and professional excavations under the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

and other organizations. He also directed operations at national monuments for the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

and served as its chief archeologist for several years. In 1947 he was selected by

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

to be founding chairman of a Department of Anthropology there, serving in that role until 1963, followed by several years as a professor.

Early life and education

He was born in

Hubbard, Texas Hubbard is a city in Hill County, Texas, United States. It was named for Texas Governor Richard B. Hubbard. The city is by road south of Dallas. The population was 1,423 at the 2010 census, down from 1,586 at the 2000 census. History Hubbard ...

, to Thomas Lucius Kelly and Mamye Lewis (Atwood) Kelly on October 27, 1900. He attended a public high school and earned his bachelor's degree in 1921 from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. There he had become interested in the field of physical

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

while taking classes under anthropologist G.C. Engerrand. The latter suggested that Kelly go to Harvard for graduate study under anthropologist

Earnest Hooton Earnest Albert Hooton (November 20, 1887 – May 3, 1954) was an American physical anthropologist known for his work on racial classification and his popular writings such as the book ''Up From The Ape''. Hooton sat on the Committee on the Negro, ...

. He earned his M.A. in anthropology in 1926 and his Ph.D. in 1929; both from Harvard.

Career

From 1929 to 1933, Kelly taught as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

. While there he also worked on the

Cahokia The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in south- ...

Mound site, the center of the Mississippian culture that influenced much of North America through the Ohio and Mississippi waterways and trade routes. He was let go from his position at the university due to the Great Depression. Kelly was hired in 1933 by the

as director of excavations at the Macon Plateau Site near Macon, Georgia, on the

Ocmulgee River The Ocmulgee River () is a western tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi (410 km) long, in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the westernmost major tributary of the Altamaha.

. This was being explored as a part of the Federal relief archaeological program, which provided jobs to workers to help excavate the sites. The Smithsonian assigned James A. Ford as an assistant to Kelly. While at Macon Plateau, Kelly was in charge of between 700 and 1000

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

laborers. On December 23, 1936, the

formally designated the Macon Plateau site as

Ocmulgee National Monument Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park (formerly Ocmulgee National Monument) in Macon, Georgia, United States preserves traces of over ten millennia of culture from the Native Americans in the Southeastern Woodlands. Its chief remains are majo ...

. The same year Kelly was hired by the National Park Service as Superintendent of the Ocmulgee National Monument. (When the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

was later established in the 1970s, this monument was added to it.) In 1939 Kelly was promoted to chief archaeologist of the National Park Service, and served at NPS headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1941 he was selected as superintendent of the Custom House National Monument in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

. In 1943 Kelly returned to his former job as superintendent at

in Macon. In September 1947 he was invited by the

to start a Department of Anthropology there and started full-time at the university. Kelly served as founding Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia from 1947 until 1963. He continued to serve as a professor there until 1969. Kelly’s archaeological work in Georgia include the Etowah Mound and Village site, Lamar Mounds, the Lake Douglas Mound, the Oliver and Walter F. George River Basin surveys, the Estatoe Mound, the

, and the Bell Field Mound, among others. Kelly and his wife, Rowana, had four daughters together: Sheila, Joanna, Patricia, and Cora Lewis.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Arthur, Randolph 1900 births 1979 deaths University of Texas at Austin alumni Harvard University alumni University of Georgia faculty Works Progress Administration workers People from Hubbard, Texas 20th-century American archaeologists Historians from Texas