W.C. Holden Expedition papers
Photograph of a Yaqui girl gardening in Mexico, 1938-1949. The caption on the back of the photograph reads "Rural education in Mexico includes Gardening."
Collection area: Borderlands
Collection dates: 1938-1949
The collection contains letters from Ramon Torry, Vicam, Sonora. Torry was a Yaqui interpreter for the expedition to Rio Yaqui. The letters describe: the murder of Jesus Rahju, a Yaqui village leader, by a group of men from Potam Village; a flood on the river and the effect on some of the villages; and letters in relation to personal matters between Torry and Dr. Holden.
There are four letters from Dr. Holden to Mrs. C.J. Wagner as well as letters from others who were on the expedition to the Rio Yaqui.
Four 8x10 photographs of Yaquis, including one of the Matachines dancing.
William Curry Holden (also known as Curry Holden) was born in Coolidge, Limestone County, Texas, in 1896. W. C. Holden attended high school in Rotan, Texas. He received B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Texas. In 1929, Holden joined the faculty of Texas Technological College to teach history and anthropology. He remained there for more than four decades, becoming chairman of the history department in 1936, dean and director of anthropological, historical, and social-science research in 1938, and in 1945, dean of the Graduate School, a position that he retained until 1950. In 1965 Dr. Holder was granted the status of Professor Emeritus of History.
His main interests were the West Texas history and prehistory and, later, the Yaqui Indians of Sonora. In 1934 and 1936 Holden took students on an expeditions to Sonora to study the Yaqui. These expeditions lead to the books
Dr. Holden past away in April 1993 at the age of 96.
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