MS 6 William H. Kelly Papers, 1900-1980 (bulk 1940-1960)

Materials from MS 6 William H. Kelly grouped by cultural affiliation. To access the full collection guide on Arizona Archives Online, click here.

To access archival materials, contact larc@arizona.edu.

Biographical Note

William Henderson Kelly was born in 1903 in Arizona and died February 9, 1980 in Tucson, Arizona. He worked as a newspaper editor and owner from a young age, including the editor and publisher of the Tombstone Epitaph after taking over from his father, also named William Kelly. Kelly Jr. worked in newspapers until he attended the University of Arizona to pursue a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology with a specialty in the American Southwest which he earned in 1936. In the early 1940s, Kelly attended Harvard University pursuing his PhD in anthropology. His thesis, "A Preliminary Study of the Cocopa Indians of Mexico," was written using historical research and ehtnographic research gathered while Kelly and his wife worked with members of the Cocopah tribe who live in the southwest United States and northwest Mexico.

After successfully defending his thesis, Kelly worked as a professor of anthropology at Harvard before returning to Tucson, Arizona in 1952. Once Kelly returned to Tucson, he continued working as an anthropology professor at the University of Arizona and founded the Bureau of Ethnic Research in Arizona.

Kelly was a member of various national and international organizations related to the study and well-being of Indigenous populations including the Inter-American Indian Institute (IAII) and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). Following the founding of the Bureau of Ethnic Research, Kelly participated in a number of studies and reports on the Indigenous Peoples who lived within the borders of the modern state of Arizona until he retired six years before his death.