Murray L. Wax papers
Scope and Content of the Collection
Fieldwork, correspondence, publications of Murray L. Wax, and secondarily of Rosalie Hankey Wax, 1944-1992, but dating mainly from the 1960s.
Includes field notes, interviews, and manuscript drafts of project reports for U.S. Office of Education-funded Indian education field projects directed by Murray Wax and focusing on the Pine Ridge Reservation Oglala Sioux, 1962-1964, and rural and urban schools among the Oklahoma Cherokee, 1966-1968. There is material on a University of Chicago Cherokee project directed by Sol Tax, a Rough Rock Demonstration School visit by Wax in 1966, and a National Indian Health Board project on which Wax consulted. There are copies of published and unpublished reports and articles by Murray and Rosalie Wax, as well as work by several of their students (Robert Breunig and Marilyn Henning), research assistants, and other anthropologists relating to the Sioux, Cherokee, and other Native American subjects; numerous newspaper clippings concerning topics of Wax's research and the projects themselves; and miscellaneous field notes. Also included are files relating Rosalie Wax's fieldwork in the Japanese internment camp at Tule Lake, Calif., 1944-1945.
Dates
- Creation: 1944-1989
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1962-1969
Creator
- Wax, Murray Lionel, 1922- (Person)
Language
Materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
The Murray L. Wax papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).
Interview and field note files contain details about living persons that, if revealed, would constitute an invasion of personal privacy. Researchers must sign the Newberry Library's Murray Wax Papers Access Statement form before gaining access to these materials.
Ownership and Literary Rights
The Murray L. Wax papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections at reference@newberry.org.
Biography of Murray L. Wax
American anthropologist and sociologist; author of numerous articles and studies on Native American education and other topics.
Murray L. (Murray Lionel) Wax was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1922. He attended the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania, attaining a Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1959. After taking a position at Emory University, he and his wife, Rosalie directed a project studying the education of the Oglala Sioux of Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota in 1962-63. He later directed several more projects, including an Indian Education Research Project (1965-68) and Project on Early Childhood Education among North American Indians (1967-68). In her book, Doing Fieldwork, published in 1971, Rosalie Wax describes her own and her husband's field experiences in South Dakota and Oklahoma among other locations.
After spending several years at the University of Kansas, Wax moved to Washington University in St. Louis in 1973, where he continued to teach as a professor in the department of Sociology. In 1993 he became a Professor Emeritus of Anthropology.
Murray Wax married Rosalie Amelia Hankey (born November 4, 1911 in Des Plaines, IL) in 1949. They had no children and were later divorced. She earned her Ph. D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1950. Her fieldwork began in a Japanese internment camp at Tule Lake, California in 1944. Rosalie Wax died November 4, 1998.
Extent
16.3 Linear Feet (39 boxes)
Abstract
Fieldwork and correspondence of anthropologist-sociologist Murray L. Wax, primarily between 1962 and 1969. Also copies of published articles and unpublished papers by other anthropologists, newspaper clips, and serials pertaining to Native Americans; field notes of Rosalie Hankey (later Rosalie Wax) from Japanese relocation camp at Tule Lake, 1944-45.
Organization
Papers are organized in the following series:
- Series 1: Correspondence and Related Material, 1960-1989
- Boxes 1-2
- Series 2: Pine Ridge, 1961-1964
- Boxes 3-9
- Series 3: Pine Ridge Dropout Project, 1964
- Box 10
- Series 4: Pine Ridge Schools, 1958-1972
- Box 11
- Series 5: Sioux Monographs and Related Material, approximately 1945-approximately 1975
- Boxes 12-14
- Series 6: Head Start, 1965-1966
- Box 15
- Series 7: Miscellaneous Fieldwork, 1965
- Box 16
- Series 8: Rural and Urban Schools, 1965-1969
- Boxes 17-20
- Series 9: Carnegie Cross-Cultural Education Project, 1965-1968
- Box 21
- Series 10: Cherokee-Related Material
- Boxes 22-23
- Series 11: Rough Rock Demonstration School, 1966-1977
- Box 24
- Series 12: National Indian Health Board Project, 1983-1985
- Box 25
- Series 13: Professional Files
- Boxes 26-28
- Series 14: Student Work, 1968-1979
- Boxes 29-31
- Series 15: Tule Lake, 1944-1945
- Box 32
- Series 16: Wax Works, 1963-1978
- Box 33
- Series 17: Material on Canadian Native Peoples, 1965-1972
- Box 34
- Series 18: Serials by or concerning Native Americans, 1968-1974
- Box 35
- Series 19: Newspaper Clippings, 1962-1992
- Box 36
- Series 20: Miscellaneous Material, 1945-1977
- Boxes 37-38
- Series 21: Oversize Material
- Box 39
Collection Stack Location
3a 57 5-8
Provenance
Gift of Murray L. Wax, 1996.
Separated Materials
The following items were removed from the Murray L. Wax papers:
Processed by
Morag Stewart, 2001
Subject
- Wax, Murray Lionel, 1922- (Person)
- Breunig, Robert (Person)
- Dumont, Robert V. (Person)
- Feraca, Stephen E., 1934- (Person)
- Head Start Program (U.S.) (Organization)
- Henning, Marilyn Jadene, 1937- (Person)
- Holy Rock, Roselyn (Person)
- National Indian Health Board (Organization)
- Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (S.D.) (Organization)
- Rough Rock Demonstration School (Organization)
- Tax, Sol, 1907-1995 (Person)
- Thomas, Robert K., 1925-1991 (Person)
- Tule Lake Relocation Center (Organization)
- United States. Office of Education (Organization)
- Wax, Rosalie H. (Person)
Genre / Form
- Field notes -- Arizona -- 1951-2000
- Field notes -- California -- 1901-1950
- Field notes -- Oklahoma -- 1901-1950
- Field notes -- South Dakota -- 1901-1950
- Interviews -- Oklahoma -- 1901-1950
- Interviews -- South Dakota -- 1901-1950
Occupation
Topical
- Anthropology -- Field work
- Cherokee Indians -- Education
- Concentration camps -- United States
- Hopi Indians -- Education
- Indian students
- Indian teachers
- Indians of North America -- Education -- Oklahoma -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
- Indians of North America -- Education -- South Dakota -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
- Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
- Manuscripts, American
- Oglala Indians -- Education
- Title
- Inventory of the Murray L. Wax papers, 1944-1989, bulk 1962-1969
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Morag Stewart, 2001
- Date
- ©2004.
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the The Newberry Library - Modern Manuscripts and Archives Repository
60 West Walton Street
Chicago Illinois 60610 United States
312-255-3512
reference@newberry.org