Born: Unknown (possibly 28 June 1909), United States (assumed)
Died: Unknown (possibly 1 January 2003)
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Winiford Brett
The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
During the earliest excavations at Fort Vancouver between 1947 and 1952, at least three women contributed to the project to relocate and interpret the fort. This is notable given the barriers to female archaeologists at the time. Archaeologist Louis Caywood led the excavations during this period, and while most of his crew were men, there is mention of two women helping with the excavations and a third hired on as part of the crew.
The first was Winifred Caywood, Louis Caywood’s wife, who helped excavate a trash pit in 1950 that was discovered unexpectedly during pre-season demonstration excavations for visiting National Park Service officials. The find was made on a Friday and, fearing that the site would be vandalized if they left it unattended over the weekend, Caywood and his wife excavated the pit over the weekend. This excavation resulted in “more than two pickup truckloads of boxes of artifacts” (Caywood 1955: 23).
During the 1950 season, six university students were hired as archaeological aides, including Florence Jean Howard from the University of Washington. Howard is recorded as performing archaeological laboratory and cataloging work (Caywood 1950: 1, 1955: 23). The third woman to participate in the excavations is only briefly mentioned in Caywood’s records. Caywood reported a “Miss Tony Howard,” who found “Pit No. 7” and “worked one full day at the excavations” (Caywood 1955: 23).