Jean McWhirt Pinkley

Archeologist, interpreter, supervisor

NPS

Quick Facts

Place of Birth:

Miami, Arizona

Date of Birth:

August 6, 1910

Place of Death:

Houston, Texas

Date of Death:

February 18, 1969

Jean McWhirt Pinkley was a archeologist and interpreter who worked for the National Park Service her entire career. She steered Mesa Verde National Park to implement a rich and complex interpretive program before leading critical archeological and stabilization work at Pecos National Monument.

Jean was born in Miami, Arizona. She graduated cum laude with a degree in Anthropology and Archaeology in June 1933 from the University of Arizona, then earned her Master's degree in archeology there in 1936. After graduation, Jean went to work at the National Park Service. Her first assignment for NPS was Museum Assistant at Mesa Verde National Park in 1939, for which she was selected from the Civil Service Register of Junior Park Archaeologists.

Jean married Addison Pinkley, the son of Frank "Boss" Pinkley of the Southwestern National Monuments, in 1942. Jean left her NPS position to accompany Addison when he joined the Navy. In 1943, Addison was killed when Japanese forces destroyed his submarine.

Returning to Mesa Verde, where she worked for the next 26 years, Jean was selected over a number of men to become Chief of the Interpretive Division. Her responsibilities covered all aspects of park interpretation, including advising the Superintendent, supervising research about the park, operating museums, creating exhibits and visitor programs, and excavation and stabilization of Mesa Verde's ruins. She participated in and coauthored a report on one excavation led by James A. Lancaster, the chief of maintenance. She directed the interpretive program through profound changes at the park and American society, including the post-World War II era and Mission 66. Between 1946-1959, Jean contributed to the development of the archeology museum at Mesa Verde, which featured a broader presentation of the people who had lived in the area. She played a significant role in planning and carrying out the Wetherill Mesa Archeological Project, a joint undertaking of the National Park Service and the National Geographic Society.

In April 1966, after an abrupt reorganization at Mesa Verde, NPS transferred Jean to the Southwest Archaeological Center. Her first assignment was to supervise the excavation and stabilization of the church and convento of Pecos National Monument. She led excavators to rediscover a large, circa A.D.1600 church which contemporary observers had recorded but which historians had written off as a myth. Interpretation at Pecos was thus enriched by Jean's archeological work.

In recognition of her outstanding career and her success as a woman in the Federal Service, the First Lady, Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, invited Jean to lunch at the White House on March 22, 1966. She was the only Federal career woman present, and was honored along with about a dozen other women from other professions in the U.S. and foreign countries. In October, 1967, Jean was given the Department of the Interior's Meritorious Award "in recognition of outstanding professional archaeological services and contributions to interpretive programs of the National Park Service."

Mrs. Pinkley worked at the Southwest Archaeological Center for the last three years of her life. It was at this desk where she was striken. She died at a hospital a few days later.

Publications:

Lancaster, J.A. and J. M. Pinkley
1950 Excavation at Site 16, Mesa Verde National Park, of Three Pueblo II Mesa-Top Ruins. National Park Service. Washington DC.

Lancaster, J.A., J. M. Pinkley, P. F. van Cleave, & D. Watson
1954 Archeological Excavations in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, 1950. Archeological Research Series, No. 2. National Park Service. Washington DC.

Pinkley, Jean M.
n.d Pueblos and the Turkey: Who Domesti-Cated Whom? Mesa Verde National Park.
1965 “The Pueblos and the Turkey: Who Domesticated Whom?” Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, no. 19, pp. 70–72.

For more information about Jean McWhirt Pinkley:

Ivey, James E.
2005 The Spanish Colonial Architecture of Pecos Pueblo, New Mexico: Archaeological Excavations and Architectural History of the Spanish Colonial Churches and Related Buildings at Pecos National Historical Park, 1617-1995. Professional Paper No. 59. History Program, Division of Cultural Resources Management, Intermountain Region, National Park Service.

Thomas, Chester A.
1969 "Jean McWhirt Pinkley, 1910-1969." American Antiquity, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 471-473.