Administrative History note
The Southwest Society was an active branch of the Archaeological Institute of America from 1903-1917. The Society was founded by Charles F. Lummis with the intent of eventually opening a museum of artifacts of the Southwest. The Society succeeded in this goal in 1907, when the Southwest Museum was founded. At that point, the mission of the Southwest Society was entirely geared towards supporting the museum. The Society separated from the Archaeological Institute of America in 1914. Once the Southwest Museum established a staff of its own, the Southwest Society was dissolved in 1917. Lummis was still adamant that some sort of society needed to exist separate from the Museum, so he founded the Institute of the West in 1917, which then dissolved in 1918.
From the guide to the Southwest Society Institutional Archives, 1903-1917, (Autry National Center, Braun Research Library)
