Premium
COLLECTING FOR A COLLEGE MUSEUM: Exchange Practices and the Life History of a 19th‐Century A rctic Collection
Author(s) -
Margaris Amy V.,
Grimm Linda T.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
museum anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.197
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1548-1379
pISSN - 0892-8339
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1379.2011.01112.x
Subject(s) - late 19th century , history , natural history , cultural exchange , anthropology , sociology , ethnology , art , period (music) , aesthetics , ecology , biology
The central role of exchange in museum collecting merits greater scholarly attention. We present an anthropological framework for analyzing exchange practices that illuminates the complex and shifting meanings collections accrue through their life histories. We illustrate this by examining the series of late 19th‐century exchanges that produced a small, but historically important, ethnological collection at the O berlin College Museum from the N orth A merican A rctic. The analysis sheds new light on the uneasy development of ethnology from its natural history roots, and on the role of small colleges in furthering the modern sciences curriculum. Examining collection life histories by way of exchange practices also highlights new interpretive challenges that accompany old collections.