Exchanging Objects: Nineteenth-Century Museum Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution

Catherine A. Nichols

Published by Berghahn Books 2021

Exchanging Objects

Nineteenth-Century Museum Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution

Catherine A. Nichols

Volume 12 in the series Museums and Collections

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800730533

Overview
Contents

About this book

As an historical account of the exchange of “duplicate specimens” between anthropologists at the Smithsonian Institution and museums, collectors, and schools around the world in the late nineteenth century, this book reveals connections between both well-known museums and little-known local institutions, created through the exchange of museum objects. It explores how anthropologists categorized some objects in their collections as “duplicate specimens,” making them potential candidates for exchange. This historical form of what museum professionals would now call deaccessioning considers the intellectual and technical requirement of classifying objects in museums, and suggests that a deeper understanding of past museum practice can inform mission-driven contemporary museum work.

Author / Editor information

Catherine A. Nichols is an Advanced Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology and Museum Studies at Loyola University Chicago, where she serves as Director and Curator of the May Weber Ethnographic Study Collection. Previously she was the Assistant Curator at Arizona State University's Museum of Anthropology. Her work on exchanges at the Smithsonian Institution and Field Museum has been published in Museum Anthropology, Museum and Society, and History and Anthropology. In addition to curatorial work, she is currently developing critical digital projects with museum databases and archival systems.

Reviews

“This is an excellent and important contribution to scholarship…(Nichols) has also done a fine job of explaining how a focus on duplicate exchange transforms our entire (mis)understanding of museums as places only for accumulation and preservation.” • Ira Jacknis, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations and Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Chronology. Lists of Relevant Smithsonian Institution/ US National Museum Personnel Publicly Available Download PDF	xiv
Introduction. A Bowl’s Journey, There and Back Again Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. The Museum through the Lens of Specimen Exchange
Chapter 1. The Smithsonian and the Museum: Specimen Exchange as a Bridge between Joseph Henry’s Research Institution and Spencer Baird’s Grand Cabinet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Chapter 2. Spencer Baird’s US National Museum and Early Trends in Exchanging Anthropological Duplicates (1861–1880) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
Chapter 3. Networking the US National Museum: Exchanging Anthropological Duplicates (1882–1920) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Chapter 4. Giving and Receiving: Specimen Exchange between Curators, and the Shaping of Anthropological Collections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Part II. The Duplicate
Chapter 5. Duplicates: Specimens in Motion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Chapter 6. Catalogs, Classifi cation, and Contingency: Designating Duplicates Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Conclusion. Museum Pasts and Futures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Appendix. Smithsonian Institution/USNM Table of Distributed Specimens (1854–1880) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	236
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	252