Oliver Garrison Ricketson, Jr.

Archaeologist Oliver Garrison Ricketson, Jr., 1894-1952 was a pioneer in the study of pre-classical Mayan culture. He was best known for his excavations of Mayan ruins at Uaxactun, Chichen Itza, and Baking Pot. He was also recognized for his long-term involvement with the Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) programs in Central America.

Ricketson was born September 19, 1894 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Oliver Garrison and Margaret Carnegie Ricketson and spent his childhood on Cumberland Island in Georgia. From 1907 to 1912, he was a student at the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. In 1912, he entered Harvard College, earning his A.B. in 1916. At Harvard, he became interested in archaeology while taking E. A. Hooton 's physical anthropology course.

In 1920, Ricketson traveled to Arizona and began working on his first expeditions. The following year, he traveled to Central America for the first time, accompanying Sylvanus G. Morley of the Carnegie Institution of Washington on an expedition across the Yucatan Peninsula. Throughout the 1920s, Ricketson spent each dry season in Central America, excavating at Tulum, Uaxactun, Baking Pot, Chichen Itza, and other sites. His final Central American expedition was a 1929 air-reconnaissance expedition over the Yucatan Peninsula with Charles A. Lindbergh. When not conducting fieldwork, Ricketson continued his education at Harvard, receiving an A.M. in 1924 and a Ph.D. in 1933.

Most of Ricketson's fieldwork was conducted through the Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW); in 1926, he was appointed head of the Uaxactun program. Ricketson was the first Carnegie relative (his mother was a Carnegie) to work for a Carnegie foundation and later became one of the institution's longest-serving staff members. However, his affiliation with the CIW ended under difficult circumstances in 1941, when he resigned and vowed to retire from archaeology.

While working for the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Ricketson met Edith Hill Bayles, Morley's secretary during his 1925 excavations at Chichen Itza. They soon married in August 1925 and later had three children: Margaret, Mary, and Oliver. In 1941, the couple divorced, and Oliver Ricketson married Anne Riggs that same year.

After his retirement, Ricketson moved to Ricketson's Point in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. During 1949 and 1950, he went on his last expeditions, traveling with his wife by boat from New Bedford to Florida and back. In 1951, he conducted his final excavation, a restoration of the Russell Garrison for the Old Dartmouth Historical Society. The following year, on October 17, 1952, Ricketson died in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Sources: Dr. Ricketson Dies; Archaeologist, 58. New York Times. October 19, 1952. Lothrop, S.K. Oliver Garrison Ricketson, Jr. 1894-1952. American Antiquity. 19.1 (July 1953): 69-72.

From the guide to the Ricketson, Oliver Garrison, Jr., 1894-1952., Papers and Photographs, bulk: A Finding Aid, 1920-1946, (Peabody Museum Archives, Harvard University)