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Ralph C. Michelsen papers
MS 173
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Title: Ralph C. Michelsen papers
Date (inclusive): circa 1881-2004, undated
Collection Number: MS 173
Creator:
Michelsen, Ralph C.
Extent:
3.34 linear feet
(8 boxes)
Repository:
Rivera Library. Special Collections Department.
Riverside, CA 92517-5900
Abstract: This collection contains notes, photographs, articles, manuscripts, maps, published papers, clippings, correspondence, sound
recordings, and other material from cultural anthropologist Ralph C. Michelsen. Materials in the collection mostly pertain
to Michelsen's anthropological research on numerous indigenous tribes in North and Central America, including the PaiPai and
Kiliwa of Baja California, various Luiseño groups in southern California, the Mohave and Cocopah, the Seri of Mexico, and
other groups in Mexico and Guatemala including Cora and Maya.
Languages: The collection is in English, Spanish, and the Kiliwa language.
This collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the University of California, Riverside Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives.
Distribution or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission
of the copyright owners. To the extent other restrictions apply, permission for distribution or reproduction from the applicable
rights holder is also required. Responsibility for obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
[identification of item], [date if possible]. Ralph C. Michelsen papers (MS 173). Special Collections & University Archives,
University of California, Riverside.
Gift of Susan Lobo, 2007.
Initial processing of the collection was completed by Susan Lobo and Nicole Menard in 2006. Additional processing was completed
by Serena Rodholm, Student Processing Assistant, in 2018.
Additional processing of the Ralph C. Michelsen papers was completed by undergraduate students from the University of California,
Riverside as part of the Special Collections & University Archives Backlog Processing Project started in 2015. This project
was funded by the UCR Library and administered by Jessica Geiser, Collections Management Librarian.
Ralph Copeland Michelsen was born August 14, 1913, in Portland, Oregon, and died June 6, 1996, in Ashland, Oregon, of kidney
failure. Having overcome significant childhood adversity, he educated himself and lived an extraordinarily varied, adventurous,
and ultimately rewarding life. He regarded intellect, honesty, and integrity as preeminent values and these were the standards
which he set for himself and others.
Although Ralph did not graduate from high school, he spent many hours of his youth in the public library reading widely and
intensely. He once could name all the spars and lines of a full rigged 18th century sailing ship, and it was in the library
that he began his lifelong interest in other cultures. He credited his failure to become a juvenile delinquent to his time
spent in the library, and to his mother, and the librarian.
After "starving out" of both Fullerton Junior College and UCLA during the depression, Ralph began working in the construction
industry and eventually became a general contractor. In his early adult years he became fluent in Spanish and was later
hired to run a tungsten mine in northern Baja California during the Korean War. Eventually, his love of camping took him
into rural Mexico and various Indian villages, where he began to make friends and learn about what he was seeing-an anthropologist
in the making.
Ralph married Mildred Ecternacht shortly after he left UCLA and they had five children: Claire, Carolyn, Cleo, Cathy, and
Ralph James. There is one grandchild from this family, Carolyn's son Logan Bane. Ralph and his second wife, Mary-Kay Titus
Michelsen, have one daughter, Joan-Marie.
Having ridden the second model Harley Davidson motorcycle as a youth living near the oil fields of Long Beach, California,
Ralph continued his pursuit of adventure in adulthood by learning to fly his own airplane. In his later years, he spent many
happy hours sailing and maintaining a wooden sail boat. From his forties until his death he and his wife owned a series of
campers in which they traveled extensively throughout the Southwest, Mexico and Canada.
Camping with Mary-Kay in northern Mexico during the early 60's Ralph became interested in the Pai Pai Indians of Santa Catarina,
Baja California. A friendship developed there with Roger Owen, an anthropologist who was completing his field work with the
Pai Pai for a PhD from UCLA. Owen soon began to urge Ralph to write about his observations. During these trips, Ralph, a
life long photographer, was also recording photographically many of the activities he observed.
An encounter on the road in Baja California with a Kumeyaay Indian led Ralph to watch, then study, the hand game Peon. His
frequent attendance at games and increasing friendship with one family of players led him not only to play once in a while,
but to write a successful dissertation describing and analyzing the game. His dissertation supports the fact that Peon is
a game of skill and strategy, not chance, as had been previously believed.
When Ralph was admitted to the School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine, he had already published numerous
articles in cultural anthropology. He received his PhD degree in 1981 at the age of 68 and continued to teach at UCI until
he was forced to retire because of his age. These were the happiest years of his long and interesting life.
After retirement he and his family moved to Oregon where he spent many hours building a G Gage rail road in his yard and admiring
the cows in the front pasture. He was content and accepted his final illness without fear or apprehension.
[Written by Mary Kay Michelsen, 2006]
This collection contains notes, photographs, articles, manuscripts, maps, published papers, clippings, correspondence, sound
recordings, and other material from Ralph C. Michelsen, mostly pertaining to the PaiPai and Kiliwa of Baja California, various
Luiseño groups in southern California, the Mohave and Cocopah, the Seri of Mexico, and other groups in Mexico and Guatemala
including Cora and Maya.
Michelsen compiled the material while doing research that led to a Ph.D. in anthropology (1981) from UC Irvine, where he then
taught. The bulk of the collection is comprised of notes and photographs that record a range of native groups' cultural practices
in meticulous and appreciative detail.
The collection is arranged into six series as follows:
- Series 1. Baja California, 1887-1979
- Series 2. Southern California, 1889-1979
- Series 3. Seri, 1965-2004
- Series 4. Mexico, Guatemala, and Indigenous Groups, 1959-1973
- Series 5. General, 1926-1981
- Series 6. Personal, 1974-1996
Books donated with the collection have been separated for cataloging in Special Collections, searchable by title online as
"Ralph C. Michelsen papers."
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Higuera, Petra
Ochurte, Rufino
Anthropology
Baja California (Mexico : State)
Cocopa Indians
Cora Indians
Ethnology
Indians of Central America
Indians of Mexico
Indians of North America
Indians of North America -- Games
Kiliwa Indians
Kiliwa language
Luiseño Indians
Mayas
Mohave Indians
Paipai Indians
Seri Indians
Articles
Audiovisual materials
Correspondence
Field notes
Maps
Photographs