This item consists of handwritten texts of traditional and historical topics written in Wasco-Wishram with English translation on lined loose-leaf paper. The stories were apparently gathered by Peter McGuff; there are also a few personal notes and ethnographic observations sprinkled throughout. The seven stories are designated by teller and by subject as follows: "This story told by an old lady how they went short of provisions some seventy years ago, at the Cascades" (2 pages); "This is parts of the sk'u li yE story that Louie [Simpson] missed, Given by Yaryarone (Wicxam [Wishram])...." (5 pages); "From Sophia Klickitate (age 64) What happened at Cascades before any white person known of in that part of the country...." (2 pages); "From Jane Meachum Age 80 years (Wicxam [Wishram])" (2 pages); "Raccoon, Pheasant, Coyote, and Crow" (7 pages); "Racoon Continued" (3 pages--at the bottom of the third page is a personal note from Pete to Ed asking for feedback on the quality of the work and noting that he can't make a living from it unless Ed makes a guarantee of steady work); and "from an E wi' kers age 65" (6 pages). Louis "Louie" Simpson and Peter "Pete" McGuff were both Wishram language consultants who worked with Edward Sapir; Sapir described them in Sapir (1909), and Michael Silverstein discussed them both in Natural Histories of Discourse (1996), a volume co-edited by Silverstein and Greg Urban.

Hymes wrote the introduction for The Origin and Diversification of Language by Morris Swadesh, edited by Joel Sherzer.

Part of a festschrift for Kenneth Goldstein.

This is Hymes' doctoral dissertation for Indiana University.

In 1983, the Society for Linguistic Anthropology was formed as a section of the AAA with the goal of advancing the "study of language in its social and cultural context and to encourage communication of the results of such study." It has published the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology semiannually since 1991, and since 2001 they have given out the Edward Sapir Prize for the book making the most significant contribution to the understanding of language in society. The Society's records consist of 0.5 linear feet of administrative correspondence, newsletters, and minutes of the executive committee, 1983-1986, representing the formation and earliest years of the Society. The files are arranged chronologically, and then alphabetically.

The papers of anthropologist Ward Goodenough cover his whole career, most of it spent in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. After service in army during WW II, Goodenough received a Ph.D. from Yale in 1949. He conducted field research from 1947 to 1965, working at Chuuk (Truk), the Gilberts, Papua New Guinea, and New Britain. The collection is particularly important in showing how linguistic theory can help further anthropological theory.

The Virginia D. Hymes Papers focus primarily on the Sahaptin language research of Virginia Hymes and several others between the 1970s and 1980s. They contain several extensive lexical card files of Sahaptin, original field notes, Sahaptin texts and a dictionary, notes toward an unpublished dissertation, works by others (especially Eugene Hunn, David and Kathrine French, and Bruce Rigsby on Sahaptin, and Noel Rude on Nez Perce/Niimi'ipuutímt), and smaller amounts of teaching files, conferences, correspondence, and personal and administrative files.

Dell Hymes' doctoral research on Kathlamet Chinook (Indiana University, 1955) grew into a lifelong interest in the relationship between ethnography and linguistics. Following academic appointments at Harvard University (1955-1960) and the University of California, Berkley (1960-1965), Hymes joined the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. During twenty-two years tenure at Penn he was a professor of folklore, linguistics, sociology and education. In 1975, he was promoted to Dean of the Graduate School of Education (1975-1987). A principal proponent of the emergent field of sociolinguistics, his most influential works include Reinventing Anthropology and Language in Culture and Society. The Hymes papers cover all aspects of Dell Hymes' professional life. Subcollection I is concentrated on his years at the University of Pennsylvania, his presidencies of the American Association of Anthropology and the Linguistic Society of America, and his editorship of the journal Language in Society. Subcollection II is broader, focusing much more on published and unpublished linguistic work on dozens of languages, mostly of North America. Of particular interest is his rich correspondence with colleagues and students on linguistic issues. The papers reflect Hymes' interests in the history of linguistics and anthropology, Native American languages (especially oral literatures), and his comparative ethnographies of communication.