Albert H. Schroeder

Albert H. Schroeder was an American archaeologist and historian born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 23, 1914, and he spent much of his adult life in New Mexico. After hearing archaeologist Byron Cummings speak in New York in the early 1930s, he went on to study at the University of Arizona, earning both his bachelor's and master's degrees. His master's work focused on the stratigraphy of Hohokam trash mounds in the Salt River Valley, an area that remained central to his early research.

He later directed the WPA-era Salt River Valley Stratigraphic Survey, which recorded 104 sites, and after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he joined the National Park Service as an archaeologist. Over a 30-year Park Service career, he worked in roles that included archaeologist, park ranger-naturalist, interpretive specialist, and eventually Chief of the Division of Interpretation in the Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe.

Schroeder was also known for his deep knowledge of Spanish Colonial and American Territorial records, and he served as an expert witness for the Department of Justice. A prolific writer with more than 200 publications to his name, he wrote on archaeology, Indigenous history, and the American Southwest, and he coauthored A Brief History of New Mexico, published by the University of New Mexico Press in 1975.