Fairbanks Interview Summary

Charles H. Fairbanks UF 125ABC

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

INTERVIEWER: ROBERT WILSON

PLACE OF INTERVIEW: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

DATE OF INTERVIEW: September 16, 1982

Charles H. Fairbanks was born in 1913 in Bainbridge, New York, one of four children to Lewis and Henrietta Fairbanks. Mr. Fairbanks attended Swarthmore College and the University of Chicago, graduating from the latter in 1939. This interview concerns Fairbanks career as a prominent Florida archeologist and anthropologist.

While going to school in the 1930s at Chicago, Fairbanks also worked for the federal government as an archeologist. He worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and for the Park Service at Kennesaw Mountain National Park, Fort Frederica National Monument, and Ocmulgee National Monument. During these years, he was forming a southeastern archeology society and writing several articles and books as well as raising a family.

From 1954 to 1963, Fairbanks was a professor at Florida State University. He then transferred to the University of Florida where he remained until his retirement. During these years, Fairbanks established graduate programs at both schools and directed the graduate work of many students. He continued to write and publish.

In the last part of the interview, Fairbanks talks about important individuals, students and professors, in archeology and anthropology, who he has known. He gives his opinion as to their professional capabilities and personal characteristics. Dr. Fairbanks died in 1984.