Charles R. Keyes

For the Iowa geologist, see Charles Rollin Keyes.

Charles Reuben Keyes (May 5, 1871 – July 23, 1951) was a pioneering Iowa archaeologist and linguist. Charles Keyes attended Harvard University for his Ph.D. in German, and taught German at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa until his retirement in 1941. He is best remembered as the founder of modern Iowa archaeology. While his early work dealt with linguistics, by the 1920s Keyes focused his research almost exclusively on archaeology. Keyes created the Iowa Archaeological Survey in 1922 and led it with Ellison Orr until their deaths in 1951, recording thousands of sites and conducting hundreds of excavations, and helping to create the modern prehistoric theoretical and temporal framework for Midwestern archaeology, and was among the first to describe the Mississippian culture. Keyes was one of the proponents and early booster of the creation of Effigy Mounds National Monument.[1] The Iowa Archeological Society emerged in 1951 as Keyes' brainchild.

The Keyes family

Keyes was born in 5 May 1871 in Mt. Vernon, Iowa to Marsden and Martha Keyes. He attended Cornell College and married Sarah "Sadie" Naumann in 1902. Sadie Keyes died in 1963.[2] Keyes had two daughters, Catherine Ann Keyes and Margaret Naumann Keyes. [3] Keyes was a descendant of Edmund Rice, an English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, [4]

Works about Keyes

Selected works by Keyes

References

  1. Perry, Michael J. (2009). "Keyes, Charles Reuben". The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  2. "Charles Reuben Keyes Papers". University of Iowa Special Collections. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  3. "Keyes Family Papers". University of Iowa Special Collections. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  4. Edmund Rice (1638) Association, 2009. Descendants of Edmund Rice: The First Nine Generations. See: Edmund Rice (1638) Association