Laves was probably the first person trained in modern linguistic fieldwork and analysis to study Australian languages.
After his fieldwork he returned to Chicago, married [1932] and followed his mentor, Edward Sapir, to Yale in New Haven, CT where he continued his graduate studies.
Laves never returned to linguistics or anthropology and only published two notes based on his work on Australian languages (listed below).
His collection of materials from his fieldwork sat in storage until Mark Francillon (an anthropology student at the University of Chicago) heard about it and made contact with Laves in 1983.
He arranged for the collection to be copied and deposited (as were the originals, sometime later) in the library at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.