Bulk Collections

J.W. Best Archaeological Collection

Accession Number: 1973–2
DescriptionA collection of several hundred artifacts donated by James William Best of Dallas, Texas.  Items in the collection are primarily from the U.S. Midwest and Southeast.

James M. Collins Archaeological Collection

Accession Number: 1992–1
Description: This collection comprises several hundred boxes of artifacts collected or purchased by James M. Collins, an American businessman, Republican representative for the Third Congressional District of Texas (1968–1983), and the namesake of the James M. Collins Executive Education Center at SMU’s Cox School of Business.

Gilbert Floyd Archaeological Collection

Accession Number: 1932-1
Description: The Gilbert Floyd collection consists of a mixture of flaked-stone artifacts, unmodified stone, and “eoliths” from various localities in England.  The collection also includes two Bronze Age grommet axe heads attributed to Normandy, France.  The collection was given to the Geological Museum at SMU in or prior to 1932, and transferred to the Department of Anthropology by the Shuler Museum of Paleontology at an unknown date.  The collection is specifically mentioned in volume 4 (1932) of the Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society (pp. 49). This collection has not yet been fully inventoried, though items are inked with numbers prefaced with “GF.”

Lloyd Harper Archaeological Collection

Accession Number: NA
Description: Lloyd Harper was proprietor of Harper’s Book Shop in Deep Ellum, and an amateur archaeologist who was involved with both the Dallas Archaeological Society and the Tarrant County Archaeological Society.  This collection was not assigned an accession number, and no documentation of when it arrived has yet been located in our records. This collection comprises 55 boxes of artifacts, mostly from localities and Texas, as well as a series of Texas highway maps showing collection localities.  This collection has not yet been fully inventoried.

Cyrus N. Ray Collection from Fort Phantom Hill (41JS8)

Accession Number: 1967-1 (X41-101-22)
Description: Cyrus Newton Ray was an amateur archaeologist and founder of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society (now the Texas Archeological Society) who lived in Abilene.  After he died in 1966, his private collection was donated to the Museum of Texas Tech University.  In 1967, SMU’s Texas Archaeological Salvage Project assisted with the inventorying of a portion of Ray’s collection, and was allowed to retain a sampling of military artifacts from Fort Phantom Hill (41JS8).

E. Blount Wallace Archaeological Collection

Accession Number: 1979–2
Description: This collection comprises 773 artifacts donated by Eugenia Blount Wallace and her husband Charles B. Wallace of Dallas.  All of the artifacts derive from the P. L. Garrison Ranch in Bandera County, Texas.

A. H. Witte Archaeological Collection

Accession Number: 1986–1
Description: This collection comprises 29 boxes (Riker mounts) of artifacts collected by Adolph H. Witte of Henrietta, Texas, an amateur archaeologist active in North Texas during the first half of the twentieth century.