Carolyn O'Bagy Davis, a fourth-generation descendant of Utah pioneers, has written ten books on the history of archaeology, quilting, and western history. Her book, Hopi Summer, was named One Book Arizona 2011. She earned her B.A. degree in Anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1971. Carolyn lectures extensively to history, archaeology, and quilting groups around the country, and has curated many traveling museum exhibits including: Goldie Tracy Richmond: Quiltmaker and Indian Trader, Hattie Cosgrove's Mimbres Archaeology in the American Southwest, Quilting from the Hopi Mesas, and Quilted All Day: The Quilts and Prairie Journals of Ida Chambers Melugin. Carolyn is a member of the Arizona Humanities Council's Speakers Bureau, www.azhumanities.org
Carolyn was the founding president of the Tucson Quilter's Guild (1976) and also Old Pueblo Archaeology Center (1994). She has served on the board of the American Quilt Study Group, the Treasure Hill Foundation (Mimbres Culture preservation), the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society, and was recently inducted into the Society of Women Geographers (the women's association affiliated with the Explorer's Club; she was profiled in They Made Their Mark: An Illustrated History of the Society of Woman Geographers). Davis has appeared on Simply Quilts, a feature program on HGTV, American Quilter on Lifetime, and assisted with a film documentary on the history of Hopi Indian quilting produced with support from PBS. In September 2010, she was inducted into the Arizona Quilter's Hall of Fame.
Carolyn recently finished a book on the Hopi people, co-authored with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, The Hopi People, as well as a biography of Goldie Tracy Richmond, Indian trader, trapper, and quiltmaker. She is currently researching biographies of a Hopi quilter and basket maker; Editha Watson, an early anthropologist for the Navajo Tribe; and Willard J. Page, a landscape artist who lived and worked in the Southwest in the 1930s and 1940s.
In a new venture, Davis is also collaborating with descendants of John Wetherill, discoverer of Mesa Verde, on a book about the discoveries and adventures of John and Louisa Wetherill, and their lives among the Navajos of northern Arizona.