Charles Reuben Keyes
(May 5, 1871-July 23, 1951)
--educator, archaeologist, ornithologist, professor of German language and literature at Cornell College (1903-1941), and director of the Iowa Archaeological Survey (1922-1951)--has been called the founding father of Iowa archaeology. His personal surveys and work for the State Historical Society of Iowa resulted in the accumulation of more than 108,000 artifacts and a correspondingly large set of notes, photographs, maps, correspondence, manuscripts, and memorabilia now known as the Keyes Archaeological Collection. Shortly after Keyes's death, Smithsonian Institution archaeologist Waldo R. Wedel described the Keyes Collection as "the largest and most comprehensive extant assemblage of Iowa archaeological materials." Former State Archaeologist Marshall McKusick observed that the collection "contains numerous outstanding specimens of aesthetic and interpretive importance."
The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa, edited by David Hudson, Marvin Bergman, and Loren Horton
