Amerind Museum- Arizona Legacy of William Shirley Fulton

IMAGES OF AMERIND: THE STORY OF AN ARIZONA INSTITUTION

As a young boy searching for arrowheads in summers on Fishers Island, New York, William Shirley Fulton (1880-1964) probably had no idea how far and in what direction his youthful interest in Native American artifacts would take him. Through a Yale University education, marriage, fatherhood, a 25-year career as a manager and director of Waterbury Farrel Foundry in Waterbury, Connecticut, involvement in his father-in-law’s Copper Chief Mine near Jerome, Arizona, Fulton’s fascination with Native American cultures and in archaeology persisted.  In the late 1920s, Fulton took extensive car camping trips through Navajo and Hopi country, making friends with reservation traders and searching for ancient ruins.

Fulton retired from his business in 1930, bought ranch property in Texas Canyon, Arizona, and began to excavate archaeological sites on his own property. He published his findings in three reports for the Museum of the American Indian in New York City. Fulton’s personal collection of Native American objects grew enough to fill a small museum building that he constructed on the ranch. In 1937, Fulton formally incorporated the Amerind Foundation, committing the rest of his life and resources to supporting research into the prehistoric past of the Southwest. That small, private museum has expanded into a multi-building campus on 1900 acres.

The Amerind Museum’s Native American object collection, begun so long ago by Mr. Fulton, is now world famous, as are Amerind’s pioneering archaeological excavations in the Southwest and in Paquime (Casas Grandes) Mexico. Today, the Amerind Museum and Research Center continues to support and encourage the artists and scholars of living Native American cultures with its public outreach programs.