The Archaeological Research Center

Abstract

In 1947, Dr. Ricardo Alegría Gallardo, then recent graduate of the University of Chicago and professor at the College of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, created the Archaeological Excavations Project (Proyecto de Excavaciones Arqueológicas). Alegría stressed the need for creating an excavations program that would complement his classes and enrich the archaeological collections in the small museum operated by history professor Rafael W. Ramírez in the same college.

The Archaeological Research Center (ARC), officially acknowledged by the university‘s Board of Directors in 1948, replaced the functions of the Archaeological Excavations Project. The center was later assigned to the UPR-RP‘s Museum of History, Anthropology and Art (MHAA) in 1951 although it kept its fiscal independence with an annual budget for research projects. Initially located in the Pedreira building  on campus, and, later, in the Registrar‘s building, the ARC was physically separate from the MHAA, which was located on the north side of the historic quadrangle, where the Philosophy Seminar Room now resides. As of 1955, Alegría began his tasks as director of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, and, because of this, his field assistant, Mr. Laureano Fuentes, remained in charge of the ARC. In 1964, almost a decade later, Dr. Osiris Delgado officially assumed the direction of the MHAA and the ARC.