Biography

The United States De Soto Expedition Commission was established by a joint resolution of the Seventy-Fourth Congress on August 26, 1935, to commemorate the quadricentennial of the expedition. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was charged with appointing a commission to carry out the mandate of the Congress. He appointed John R. Swanton of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., as chairman of the committee. Swanton had become associated with the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution in 1900. He served as an assistant ethnologist from 1900 to 1903, and he served as an ethnologist until the early 1940s. Swanton specialized in the history and languages of various Indian tribes of the United States, and he published numerous books and monographs on these and other tribes. Other committee members included W. G. Brorein, Tampa, Florida; Caroline Dorman, Chestnut, Louisiana; John R. Fordyce, Hot Springs, Arkansas; V. Birney Imes, Columbus, Mississippi; Andrew O. Holmes, Memphis, Tennessee; and Walter B. Jones, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. W. G. Brorein died on December 12, 1937, and he was replaced by Carl D. Brorein, Tampa, Florida.

The findings of the commission were published in the Final Report of the United States De Soto Expedition Commission (76th Congress, 1st Session, House Document No. 71), 1939. John R. Swanton authored the majority of the report and served as its editor, although he was not directly cited as such in the original report. The final report was later revised to include the most recent scholarship on the De Soto expedition and reprinted by the Smithsonian Institution in 1985. Swanton's report remains a definitive work in the continuing study of the De Soto expedition, despite revisionist scholarship in this area. Charles H. Elias worked closely with Swanton in gathering information pertaining to Mississippi for publication of the final report in 1939.

Scope and Content Note:

Series Identification and Description

1. Correspondence (Incoming and Outgoing). 1937–1940; 1947–1948; 1980; 1983; 1985–1986; n.d. (46 items) This series contains the incoming and outgoing correspondence of Charles H. Elias pertaining to the United States De Soto Expedition Commission or continuing research on the actual route of the De Soto expedition. Principal correspondents include Moreau B. Chambers, Dr. William A. Evans, Carl E. Guthe, Charles Hudson, Jesse D. Jennings, Harold Lackey, Dan F. Morse, Frank M. Setzler, M. W. Stirling, and John R. Swanton. A letter dated December 31, 1938, written by John R. Swanton to Charles Elias identifies possible locations where De Soto may have crossed the Mississippi River into present-day Arkansas. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 1.
2. Photographs. [1940]; n.d. (8 items) This series contains identified and unidentified black-and-white photographs of archaeological sites associated with the De Soto expedition. The two identified photographs show Moreau B. Chambers, Charles H. Elias, Dr. William A. Evans, et al., inspecting an archaeological site in Pontotoc County, in 1940. Handwritten and typewritten annotations accompany these two photographs. There are also four photographs of archaeological sites that are unidentified. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 2.
3. Negatives. [1940]. (3 items) This series contains photographic negatives of Moreau B. Chambers, Charles H. Elias, Dr. William A. Evans, et al., inspecting an archaeological site in Pontotoc, County, associated with the De Soto expedition. Box 1, folder 3.
4. Maps. 1934; n.d. (4 items) This series contains maps that pertain in some way to the continuing study of the actual route of the De Soto expedition. Included are a photographic reproduction of a 1934 map drawn by Kermit Roosevelt Ray entitled The Route of the Expedition of Hernando de Soto through the Southeastern States, 1539–1543; a reproduction of an undated manuscript map entitled "Golfo y Costa de la Nueva Espana" from the Archivo General de Indies showing the location of various sixteenth-century Indian civilizations throughout the southeastern United States (an undated black-and-white photograph of Charles H. Elias, Dr. William A. Evans, John R. Fordyce, Frazier Furr, and John R. Swanton accompanies this map); an undated manuscript map of Monroe County, showing townships and ranges, roads, bridges, railroads, towns, post offices, gas-drilling sites, and supervisors' districts; and an undated manuscript map of Chickasaw, Itawamba, Lee, and Monroe counties showing townships and ranges, roads, railroads, towns, rivers, and property owners. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 4.
5. Printed Material. 1933; 1937; 1939; 1940–1941; 1985–1986. (15 items). This series contains a variety of journal and magazine articles that pertain in some way to the continuing study of the De Soto expedition; Natchez Trace Parkway bulletins from 1940 and 1941; and a 1937 list of publications available from the Geological Survey of the Louisiana Department of Conservation. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 5.
6. Graphic Images. n.d. (2 items) This series contains two graphic images, one of which is a caricature, of Dr. William A. Evans, a prominent physician from Aberdeen, who was interested in the continuing study of the De Soto expedition. The Evans Memorial Library in Aberdeen is named in his honor. Box 1, folder 6.
7. Newspaper Clippings. 1939; 1948; 1965; 1985–1986. (6 items) This series contains newspaper clippings of articles pertaining to the De Soto expedition and the Natchez Trace Parkway and obituaries of John R. Fordyce and Dr. William A. Evans. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 7.