Andrew Affleck Kerr
| Dr Andrew Affleck Kerr | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Kerr, Andrew Affleck.jpg | |||||||
| Born | 1872 | ||||||
| Died | 1929 | ||||||
| Residence | University of Utah, Salt Lake, Utah, USA | ||||||
| Occupation |
academic educator | ||||||
| |||||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1923.05.15 nominated; proposed by G.P. Lestrade, seconded by C.O. Blagden
death noted in the Report of the Council for 1929
Notes From Elsewhere
Elmer R. Smith began his teaching career early. In 1932, as a graduate student, he taught the Anthropology classes of Andrew A. Kerr, when the latter was ill. ... Early work and study with Andrew A. Kerr and Julian H. Steward served to focus his interest on Utah archeology for almost a decade
KERR, ANDREW AFFLECK (1872-1929)
To whom it may concern,
I am working on a master’s thesis in History and am looking to confirm a long ago supposed member. His name was Andrew Affleck Kerr, from the University of Utah in the United States and he claimed to have been made a fellow of your institute in 1924. He was apparently a terrible anthropologist in practice, so it led me to wonder if perhaps he was claiming honors he had not earned or received?
Thank you!
Shannon Montez [30 September 2019]
The Knight Belnap Kerr Papers included a report by Winston Hurst for the State of Utah Division of History called “The Kerr Collection Study: An Archaeological Tale of Woe, And A Study of Burial-associated Anasazi Ceramics From the Westwater Drainage.” This report, along with a letter to Kerr’s nephew, was very critical of Kerr’s work. One paragraph of the letter summed up Hurst’s opinion of Dr. Kerr’s archaeological work:
Your Uncle Andrew was indeed a good man, and highly respected…There is however, a tragic side to Andrew Kerr’s legacy, the consequences of which have been brutal and destructive to the archaeological record in San Juan County. Despite his impeccable academic qualifications, his membership in scholarly societies, and his skill as a teacher, he was a disaster as a field archaeologist, even for his time… To my unending amazement, your uncle never documented even a specific site for any one of his approximately 1500 museum quality artifacts collected from San Juan County. I have never found a shred of evidence for even a cursory note of field documentation, or any attempt at a map, any concern for stratigraphy, or any thought for archaeological association or context…the one photograph that I know of from his half-decade of collecting in San Juan county is the one that you graciously gave me showing two men churning the burial area of an unidentified ruin…even the untrained cowboys of Colorado’s Wetherill family, who did much damage to our sheltered cave sites during the 1890’s, kept records in which they assigned numbers to the sites, drew sketch maps showing artifact locations, and so forth.
I found it interesting that a man with such high honors and qualifications seemed to disconnected from the actual work and actually caused a great deal of damage. Perhaps this was because he was doing archaeology but was trained in anthropology?
Thanks,
Shannon [1.11.19]
Publications
External Publications
The early history of the textile industry in Utah,: Flax, silk, cotton and wool
1907
by Andrew Affleck Kerr
House Publications
Related Material Details
RAI Material
Other Material
Utah Division of State History: Photographs taken by Harry Shipler, Andrew A. Kerr and others of National Parks, Southern Utah, Bear Lake area and life in the West. The collection also contains miscellaneous portraits of the Shipler family and others.
Weber State Univ. : Ker family collection
