Margaret McKelvy Bird

Margaret McKelvy was born in New York, the daughter of Florence Gloninger Orth and Robert McKelvy, vice president of the Tidewater Oil Company (founded by his father).[3] She attended Brearley School, followed by St. Timothy's School, and Bryn Mawr College, graduating in 1931.[3]

McKelvy met archaeologist Junius Bird in 1931, and the pair married in 1934.[2] They went on to have three sons: Robert McKelvy, Harry Bouton, and Thomas Lee.[4][5] Upon their marriage, the couple travelled to Hopedale, Labrador, where Junius Bird was undertaking archaeological work.[3][6]

Following their time in Labrador, the Birds travelled to Southern Chile.[7] Writing to the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin in 1935, Margaret's mother reported:

My daughter, Margaret McKelvy Bird, is in Southern Chile with her husband, Junius Bird, both being sent to do archaeological work by the American Museum of Natural History — to be away two years. They left on the 9th of November. They have their own sailing boat on which an engine has been installed, which they bought at a port south of Valparaiso. They are cruising among the islands in the inland waters — expecting to reach Magellanes very soon, — their objective being to discover remnants of the earliest civilization in that part of South America.[8]

This was the beginning of a lifelong partnership in archaeological work, during which Margaret went from observer and supporter to active planner and participant.[2] Gordon Willey wrote in a biographical sketch of Junius Bird that Margaret "proved herself a formidable ally right from the start, flourishing under the conditions of a 1,300-mile trip in a nineteen-foot sailboat as well as journeying across the flats of far southern South America in a wind-driven Ford car."[1] Additionally, she kept detailed field journals on the couple's expeditions, her "witty, charming, and personable" writings conveying "the more human aspects of [Junius] Bird’s research while reinterpreting his theoretical ideas."[1]

With Junius Bird, Margaret worked on excavations in Argentina, Patagonia, Peru, and Chile, including at Canadon Leon, Cueva Fell and Pali-Aike.[1]

Junius Bird died in 1982 at the age of 74.[4] Margaret McKelvy Bird died on 28 December 1996, and was buried with her husband in Greenwood Union Cemetery, Westchester County, New York.