Museum Records and the History of Archaeology

One cannot help but think of museums when contemplating the historyof archaeology. For those of us who work in museums, contact with past research andformer ways of thinking about and doing archaeology happens on almost a daily basis. Notonly do museum collections contain the information and things collected by oldercolleagues, these materials embody the thoughts, theories, methodologies, and techniquesof these individuals and of the discipline's past paradigms. The records associated withmuseum collections are one major class of records made by archaeologists in the courseof their research, and are distinct from scholar's personal papers. Museum recordscontain invaluable information for understanding not only the work of individualarchaeologists, but detailed information on the practice of archaeology. Introspectivestudies of the discipline using museum records have the potential to significantlybroaden our perspectives, especially regarding the conduct of field research, butgetting access to these records is often a problem due to poor management