Definition: American archaeologist Waldo R. Wedel was a pioneer of Plains archaeology during the WPA days, and a practioner of the 'direct historical method'. He was well-grounded in ethnography, studying under Ralph Linton, William Duncan Strong, and A.L. Kroeber. Wedel was a "born archaeologist", who began hunting arrowheads while still a boy in Kansas. He was educated at the universities of Arizona, Nebraska, and California at Berkeley. He finished his PhD in 1936 and began work at the Nebraska State Historical Society, but shortly thereafter was hired at the Smithsonian Institution where he remained for the next forty years, eventually becoming Party Chief of the Smithsonian Missouri River Basin River Surveys.
In 1938, Waldo Wedel had the great fortune to marry Mildred Mott, an ethnohistorian and archaeologist who remained his partner in all things until her death in 1995.
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David M. Gradwohl. 1996. Obituary: Waldo R. Wedel 1908-1996. Plains Anthropologist 41(158):317-322.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Additional sources for the term include the references listed on the front page of the Dictionary, and the websites listed in the sidebar.
In 1938, Waldo Wedel had the great fortune to marry Mildred Mott, an ethnohistorian and archaeologist who remained his partner in all things until her death in 1995.
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David M. Gradwohl. 1996. Obituary: Waldo R. Wedel 1908-1996. Plains Anthropologist 41(158):317-322.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Additional sources for the term include the references listed on the front page of the Dictionary, and the websites listed in the sidebar.
