Edward Adamson Hoebel (1906-1993) was an anthropologist and educator best known for his studies of the legal systems of pre-literate societies. Graduating from Columbia, where he had studied with Ralph Linton, Franz Boas, and Ruth Benedict, Hoebel early became a scholar on the legal cultures of the Plains Indians, including the Comanches and Cheyennes. After appointments at New York University and the University of Utah, he spent the majority of his academic career at the University of Minnesota, from which he became emeritus professor in 1972. The E. Adamson Hoebel Papers (1925-1993) contain correspondence, subject files, manuscripts of published and unpublished works by Hoebel, papers by colleagues and students, Hoebel's research notes, course materials, and photographs.

Elsie Clews Parsons (1875-1941) was trained as a sociologist at Columbia University, but made her greatest achievements in the fields of anthropology and folklore. Parsons' early works in the field of sociology dealt primarily with gender roles, conventions of society, and the effect of society's pressures on the individual. After a trip to the American Southwest with her husband in 1910, Parsons' interests turned to anthropology. She began making field trips to Arizona and New Mexico and, under the influence of her friend Franz Boas, Parsons recorded in meticulous detail data on social organization, religious practices, and folklore of the Southwest Indians. Concurrently, Parsons conducted research in folklore, concentrating on folk tales of Afro-Americans and Caribbean peoples. She was active in a number of professional associations and was the associate editor of the Journal of American Folklore from 1918 until her death. The Parsons Papers were acquired as two separate accessions and remains organized in two distinct subcollections. Subcollection I (572 P35), acquired in 1949, contains approximately 12 linear feet of materials focused on Parsons' career in anthropology. Subcollection II, acquired in 1985, consists of 26.25 linear feet of materials divided into ten series, covering a larger scope of Parsons' life, including family and personal correspondence.