A new biography of archaeologist Byron Cummings [1860-1954] has been published by the University of Arizona Press. Written by Todd W. Bostwick, Byron Cummings: Dean of Southwest Archaeology chronicles the professional life of a man known for his scholarship--and championship--of the antiquities of the American southwest. In addition to enhancing the universities, the state legislature, and the local amateur societies of the American southwest, Cummings excavated well over 100 archaeological sites, wrote over forty books and articles, and shepherded hundreds of students into the profession. Bostwick's book takes the reader through Cummings' life, beginning with his childhood in New York and New Jersey, his somewhat capricious choice to move to Utah in 1893 as a professor of Latin and Greek, and his transition into archaeologist, working closely with Edgar Lee Hewett. Cummings took to the new career with enthusiasm, conducting his first excavation for the American Institute of Archaeology at Nine Mile Canyon, Utah in the summer of 1906.
Long associated with the University of Arizona, Cummings' students included Emil Haury, Florence Hawley, John C. McGregor, William S. Stallings, Gordon R. Willey and Margaret Murray. His career, as seen through this biography, was long, fulfilling, and full of conflict, resulting from an obstreperous nature and the love of the profession of archaeology.
Todd W. Bostwick. 2006. Byron Cummings: Dean of Southwest Archaeology. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. ISBN 0-8165-2477-7. 292 pp, black and white photographs, end notes, bibliography and an index.
Byron Cummings, page at Arizona University Press
Archaeologist Cummings not fully explored, Tom Harvey in the Salt Lake City Tribune
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