Mrs. Charles Halsey Allen contacted Connecticut’s first State Archaeologist Mr. Douglas Jordan in 1966 to ask whether he might be interested in the donation of some “Pre Columbian shards, heads, torsos, damaged bowls, etc., for study?” That letter began several years of correspondence between Dr. Jordan and Mrs. Allen, who spent much of her time in Cuernavaca, Mexico. On her return to the U.S. Jordan accepted the collection which also included a number of Egyptian pieces collected during Mrs. Allen’s travels. Mrs. Allen continued to acquire small finds from Oaxaca, Mexico and donated them through about 1970. In further correspondence from 1974 we learn that Mrs. Allen had begun volunteering at an archaeology lab in Oaxaca under Marc Winter. Mrs. Allen, who outlived her husband by over two decades, is an inspirational figure who pursued her passion for the past well into her senior years. Her collection represents materials useful to students interested in the Classic Period ceramic traditions of Oaxaca, Mexico in particular.
