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Grenville Goodwin Papers1929-1939

MS 17

Biographical Note

Grenville Goodwin (1907-1940) was a self-taught ethnographer who worked among the Western Apaches in the 1930s, assembling what is still the single largest body of documentation anywhere on pre- and early-reservation history, life-ways, and material culture of that group.

Goodwin was born in 1907 in South Hampton, Long Island. He originally came to Arizona to attend the Mesa Verde Ranch School, taking courses in field archaeology with Byron Cummings who encouraged Goodwin’s growing interest in making a study of the Western Apache. In 1927, Goodwin went to live with an Anglo family in Geronimo near the San Carlos Reservation. He began learning the Apache language and compiling a dictionary at this time. Though he spent only 22 months in intensive fieldwork, Goodwin stayed in contact with the Apaches from 1929 to 1939. In 1939, Goodwin went to the University of Chicago to take courses in ethnology. Dr. Fay-Cooper Cole, head of the Anthropology Department, told Goodwin that the University of Chicago Press intended to publish his manuscript on the Social Organization of the Western Apache. In spring 1940, Goodwin died of inoperable brain cancer. He was 33 years old. His book was published in May 1941 after being readied for publication by his wife, Janice, and his colleagues Fay-Cooper Cole, Fred Eggan, Harry Hoijer, and Edward Spicer. It was republished by the University of Arizona Press in 1969.

The Goodwin family donated the bulk of this collection to the Arizona State Museum in 1968 together with artifacts and photographs. Keith Basso acted as liaison for the Museum in this transaction. Basso later published Western Apache raiding and warfare from the notes of Grenville Goodwin in 1971. In 1989, Basso donated photocopies to the Arizona State Museum of additional material on several subjects including Goodwin’s research on Apache religion. The religion materials are subject to special restrictions on access and use.

Scope and Content

This collection is organized into eight series.

Collection consists of word lists, field notes, watercolor drawings, manuscripts, and other documentation related to the Western Apache culture. The handwritten field journals include over 2,000 pages of information on the Apache including informant-supplied cultural information on linguistic data, place names, warfare, botany, and biographies. The collection also includes over 200 sheets of watercolors and sketches, along with several dozen black-and-white photographs produced by Goodwin. The photographs, watercolors, and sketches focus on Western Apache material culture, architecture, geographic locations, and people.

After the Goodwin materials were acquired, ancillary research materials were added to broaden the research potential of this collection. These include typed transcripts and copies of documents at other repositories. Of special interest is a copy of Goodwin’s “Apache Ethnobotany Manuscript” with additional materials by Alfred E. Whiting from the originals on file at the Museum of Northern Arizona.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Conditions Governing Access

Access to Folders 83 through 95 and some pages in Folder 96 are restricted by the Arizona State Museum Archives. Contact the ASM Archivist with any questions.

Conditions Governing Use

The Arizona State Museum may not own copyright to all parts of this collection. It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors) if the materials are not already in the public domain. The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for the University of Arizona, Arizona State Museum, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.

Related Material

Correspondence between Grenville Goodwin and Morris Opler is in Collection Number 14-25-3238, Morris Opler Papers, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.

"Harry Hoijer's Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache texts" are available online at etext.lib.virginia.edu/apache.

The Harry Hoijer Collection, Mss. 497.3.H68, at the American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, contains related materials.

Sound recordings at the Arizona State Museum include tapes on Silas John Edwards and the Apache by Keith Basso and William B. Kessel. Some of these tapes may be restricted.

All of Goodwin’s photographs and negatives have been transferred to the ASM Photographic Collections.

Controlled Access Terms

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Grenville Goodwin Papers, 1929-1939 (MS17) Arizona State Museum Library and Archives, University of Arizona.

Acquisition Information

Negatives made by Grenville Goodwin in the 1930s (AP 1968-2004).

Grenville Goodwin Papers donated by Mrs. Janice Goodwin (AP 1968-2021).

Photographs made by Grenville Goodwin in the 1930s (AP 1968-2023).

Typed transcriptions of Goodwin notes used by Keith Basso for his book Western Apache raiding and warfare / from the notes of Grenville Goodwin, University of Arizona Press, 1971.

Copies of ancillary research materials in the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Laboratory of Anthropology were donated by a variety of sources including ethnobotanist Seth Pilsk and archivist Willow Roberts Powers. (AT-94-128; AP-94-135; ASM ACC 95-100)

Other associated accession numbers: Goodwin's papers on religion, LA #89-8; ACC #89-28.

Processing Information

Jeanne Armstrong, Alan Ferg, and Amy Rule processed this collection and contributed to writing the finding aid.

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