Ripley Pierce Bullen, 1902-1976

Abstract

Antilles, Greater Antilles, and Central America. His bibliography reflects a prodigious investigator whose tireless efforts have substantially advanced the understanding of New World prehistory. Ripley was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, on September 21, 1902, the son of Dana Ripley Bullen and Bessie Louise Pierce. With interests in both archaeology and engineering, he graduated from Schenectady High School, New York, in 1921. Choosing engineering as his major field of study, he entered Cornell University and received an M.E. degree in mechanical engineering in 1925. He began work with the General Electric Company that same year, and for the next 15 years he was involved first in engineering research and then sales in New York and Massachusetts. In Massachusetts he met his future wife, Adelaide Kendall; they were married in 1929. During this time period his earlier archaeological interest persisted and actively manifested itself in the excavation (1939-1940) of a steatite quarry near Worcester, Massachusetts, in his activities as one of the organizers (1939) of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, and in his presentations of research results at local and professional meetings, including the Society for American Archaeology. By 1940 his expanding interest in archaeology was such that he left General Electric for the staff of the Robert S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. He also began graduate work in anthropology at Harvard University and became a Teaching Fellow (1943-1945). During 1941 he attended the University of New Mexico archaeological field school and worked in and around Chaco Canyon. While at the R.S. Peabody Foundation, he undertook, with characteristic energy, numerous excavations and surveys and established the basic cultural chronology for eastern Massachusetts. During his 8 years in Andover, Ripley published a prolific 38 articles covering his Precolumbian and historical excavations, artifact classification, and field methods. His 1944 integration of thorough archival and excavation techniques in the investigation of the eighteenth-century Black Lucy's Garden in Andover constitutes an early model of modern historical archaeology. He also taught classes and made frequent presentations to the Massachusetts Archaeological Society and at professional meetings. In 1948 Ripley accepted the position of Assistant Archaeologist with the Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials in Gainesville, Florida. He began a broad program of research and, in the year of his arrival, helped found the Florida Anthropological Society and its journal, The Florida Anthropologist. During the next 4 years he published 27 papers reporting current investigations throughout the state. In 1952 the Florida Park Service discontinued its archaeological program, transferring its collections and data to the Florida State Museum, which was reorganized and a new Department of Social Sciences established. Ripley was appointed the first curator of Social Sciences and became departme...