Specimen exchange saw widespread use in the nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries among museum-based anthropologists as a means of collections growth and refinement. This paper examines organizational aspects of specimen exchange at the Field Museum, and presents a case study of exchanges between anthropology curator Paul Martin and Harold Gladwin of Gila Pueblo. The Field Museum’s specimen exchange policies and procedures establish norms of the practice. I use this case to demonstrates how individuals with cultural knowledge and capital are able to achieve desired outcomes for their exchange partners within bureaucratic organizations. Attention to specimen exchange contributes to the greater literature on the value of collections and deaccessioning, as this practice is essentially the movement of collection objects out of museums.
Abstract The museum catalogue has historically been used to classify artifacts based on their material and contextual features. The use of natural history, catalogue‐based classifications in nineteenth‐century museums resulted in curators designating some anthropological museum specimens as duplicates. These items were then used in specimen exchanges among museums and collectors, which served to extend each recipient's scope of collections. This article explores how cataloguing techniques recontextualized anthropological artifacts into specimens, which then circulated based on networks of correspondence. I compare the purpose and goals of three exchanges carried out by the Smithsonian Institution to the Rijks Ethnographic Museum in Leiden, the Historical Department of Iowa, and U.S. Congressman Joel P. Heatwole. Specimen exchange highlights the interconnections among institutions and emphasizes how approaches to collecting by one museum can affect the content of collections in other museums.
Elements of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP), or teaching and learning in the Jesuit tradition, can be successfully integrated into both formal anthropology courses and informal environments such as museum exhibits to advance anthropological pedagogy. This article discusses how I integrated the IPP into the design of an anthropology course on museum exhibit development and into the exhibit itself. Students benefitted from direct activities such as opportunities to study and interpret material culture, and they were asked to reflect on the experience of applying their anthropological knowledge and interests in a public venue. Visitors to the exhibit were provided opportunities for reflection, which may lead to changes in their actions.
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