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Finding Aid for the William Armand Lessa papers, 1943-1985
1499  
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  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography/History
  • Scope and Content
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: William Armand Lessa papers
    Date (inclusive): 1943-1985
    Collection number: 1499
    Creator: Lessa, William Armand.
    Extent: 9 boxes (4.5 linear ft.)
    Abstract: William Armand Lessa (1908-1997) was assigned to the postwar allied administration of Italy as a military government official administering towns and other population units. In 1947, he joined the UCLA Anthropology Department. He investigated comparative religion, myth and ritual, while doing field work in Oceania, China and Hawaii. The collection consists of papers relating to the postwar allied administration of Italy. Includes notes for and a copy of Lessa's book, Spearhead governatore: remembrances of the campaign in Italy (1985).
    Language: Finding aid is written in English.
    Language of the Material: Materials are in English.
    Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
    Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
    Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

    Administrative Information

    Restrictions on Access

    Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

    Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

    Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

    Provenance/Source of Acquisition

    Gift of William A. Lessa, 1986.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], William Armand Lessa papers (Collection 1499). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 1973123 

    Biography/History

    Lessa was born in 1908; he received his Ph.D from the University of Chicago; joined the UCLA Anthropology Department in 1947; investigated comparative religion, myth and ritual, while doing field work in Oceania, China and Hawaii; books include An appraisal of constitutional typologies (1943), The ethnography of Ulithi Atoll (1950), and More tales from Ulithi Atoll: a content analysis (1980); Lessa retired in 1970; he died on October 14, 1997 in Los Angeles.

    Scope and Content

    Collection consists of papers relating to the postwar allied administration of Italy, in particular to Lessa's assignments in Italy as a military government official administering towns and other population units. Includes notes for and a copy of Lessa's book, Spearhead governatore: remembrances of the campaign in Italy (1985). Also contains documents, maps, memorabilia, publications, notes and accounts contributed by others, and postwar correspondence.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

    Subjects

    Lessa, William Armand --Archives.
    Allied Military Government.
    University of California, Los Angeles. Dept. of Anthropology --Faculty --Archival resources.
    Italy --History --Allied occupation, 1943-1947 --Archival resources.