Nels C. Nelson

He rode a cattle car to California, saved money from odd jobs, and entered Stanford University in about 1903.

[1] Nelson became interested in anthropology, and went to work for John C. Merriam surveying middens around San Francisco Bay and on the California coast.

[3] In 1911, Nelson was hired by Clark Wissler, Curator of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, to conduct archaeological work in the upper Rio Grande valley of New Mexico.

This project, funded by philanthropist Archer Milton Huntington, was intended to develop archaeological methods to establish the chronology of historic and indigenous sites.

Nelson served in a number of curatorial positions at American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), ultimately as Curator of Prehistoric Archeology.

Nels C. Nelson (second from right), a long-term employee of the American Museum of Natural History , was photographed in a museum exhibit with other AMNH staffers, including (L-R) George Vaillant , Harry L. Shapiro , Nelson, and Clark Wissler . Margaret Bourke-White photo, 1937.