Harvard Peabody Museum Collections (2024)

The blog has moved!

Please visit us on the Peabody’s websitefor new content.

Marshall Family Archives Digitization Project

Gift of Laurence K.Marshall and Lorna J. Marshall,2001.29.621

In June of 1950, Laurence K. Marshall, former chairperson ofRaytheon Company, and his 17-year-old son John trekked into the deserts of Southern Africa seeking the famed “Lost City of the Kalahari.” They did not find a lost city, but this expedition began a life-longrelationship between the Marshall Family and people of the Kalahari Desert. Tenyears, eight expeditions, and close to 40,000 images resulted in one of themost significant anthropological field projects of the twentieth century.

Gift of Laurence K.Marshall and Lorna J. Marshall, 2001.29.500

The relationship between the Marshalls and the PeabodyMuseum of Archaeology and Ethnology started at the onset of the expeditions.Laurence and John met with J.O. Brew, then director of the Peabody, to request institutionalbacking for their trip. Brew agreed and set up an advisorycommittee, minor financial support, and permit sponsorships.In 2001 Lorna Marshall, the family matriarch, donated the expedition slides andphotographs to the Museum.

Gift of Laurence K. Marshall and Lorna J. Marshall, 2001.29.876

Fast forward to 2020 when the Peabody Museum received anInstitute of Museum and Library Science (IMLS) grant to digitize and make thecollection available through its public database. To complete this work, a team in the Peabody’s Archives departmentwas formed (see bios below). By the end of the project, the archives team willcreate close to 50,000 new media files from the negatives, prints, slides,stereoscopic transparencies, and paper records.

Angela (Kyung Ah) Lee scans Marshall collection items

We work to scan high resolution images, edit databaserecords, and create culturally sensitive and accuratedescriptionsof the expedition negatives and prints. We chose to start in the middle of thecollection, working with the materials from the 1955 expedition, whichgenerated a prolific amount of published work from films, articles, and books including Elizabeth MarshallThomas’1959publication,The Harmless People.The team also meets regularly to discuss best practices for describingphotographed individuals from the Kalahari and their cultural objects.

The Marshall Family Archives Digitization Project will notonly support the preservation and ethically responsible stewardship of thisunique collection, but will also allow us to form new partnerships across theglobe, including in Southern Africa.The Peabody will be providing support for a permanent exhibition of MarshallFamily photographs at the !Khwattu San Heritage Centre in Yzerfontein,South Africa, as well as an exhibition component at Tsumkwe, Namibia, where theMarshalls worked and where some of the Ju/’hoansi they photographed are stillliving. The Museum is also working to collaborate with universities in SouthAfrica and Botswana to disseminate the newly digitized material among the Kalahari peoples whose photographs are part of the collection.

Meet the team working on the project!

Kim Allegretto, Assistant Archivist

I have a PhD in Anthropology from Brandeis University, andworked as a student assistant in the archives when I was there. I graduatedfrom Simmons University in May 2013 with a master’s degree in Library andInformation Science, concentration in Archives Management. I started working atthe Peabody in August 2013, digitizing the Corpus of Maya HieroglyphicsInscriptions negatives collection.

Elise Riley, Archives Scanning Assistant

I am from Philadelphia, PA and have lived in Boston for thepast three years. I have a BA in Linguistics from Haverford College andgraduated from Simmons University with an MA in History and an MLIS with aconcentration in Archival Management. Before coming to the Peabody Museum, Iinterned with the Cambridge Historical Commission and the Boston Red Sox andworked at MIT’s Distinctive Collections and Harvard Business School’s BakerLibrary. My archival interests lie in anti-oppressive description, open access,and collection outreach.

Angela (Kyung Ah) Lee, Scanning Technician

I am from South Korea. As a scanning technician for theMarshall Project, my responsibility includes the digitization of the MarshallFamily Archives in line with increasing public awareness of the collection. Asa recent graduate of Simmons University Graduate School of Library andInformation Science (LIS) with an Archives Management Concentration, I havevaluable experience in academic libraries and institutional archives. I havealways been interested in archives as a powerful social asset that connects thepast and the present in addressing issues of accountability, social justice,and diversity. My professional goals lie in the documentation of culturalheritage and collective memory, making archival materials more accessible. Inthat regard, I am more than thrilled to be able to contribute to unearth thevoices of Kalahari peoples through digitization.

Gloria Shin, Scanning Technician

I am fromPhiladelphia, PA and I have a B.A. inAnthropology and Political Science. I will be graduating from SimmonsUniversity in May with my master’s degree in Library and Information Science. Ihave previously worked in archives at the Andy Warhol Museum, the ArnoldArboretum, and Boston Children’s Museum.My work at the Peabody includesscanning black and white negatives and creating records for these negatives inour database, TMS (The Museum System).

This project [MA-245387- OMS-20] was made possible in partby the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Author: Elise Riley

Inman Portrait Collection

JaidynProbst with a portrait of Rant-che-wai-me (Female Flying Pigeon), Iowa. 82-51-10/57030

Aguest blog post from Jaidyn Probst, a second year Harvard student and member ofthe Lower Sioux Indian community. Jaidyn is a concentrator in CognitiveNeuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology who worked with the Peabody remotelythis past January break as a “wintern.” The Arts & Museums winternship program,run by the Harvard Office of Career Services, offers students a chance to learnmore about what it’s like to work in a cultural institution.

ThePeabody Museum’s collection includes twenty-six 19^th-century oilpaintings by Henry Inman (1801-1846). These portraits depict Native Americandelegates. Inman was chosen by the then Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs,Thomas McKenney, to copy the original collection of paintings by Charles BirdKing (1785-1862). The history of the paintings is something that I learned abit about while taking a freshman seminar in 2019 with Professor Shawon Kinew.Working as a “wintern” for the month of January, I realized I wanted to divedeeper into the paintings, specifically to learn about their existence at thePeabody. I was able to speak with Meredith Vasta, Collections Steward, andCristina Morilla, Special Projects Conservator, about their work with thecollection.

Left: Portrait of Wadt-he-doo-kanna, Wichita. 82-51-10/28280. Right: Portrait ofAt-te-conse(Young Reindeer), Ojibwa.82-51-10/28279.

Regardingthe collection, I learned that the composition of the paintings is somethingthat has been stirring up conversation. Meredith and Cristina took time to talkwith me about how the stereotypes of the paintings have been in discussionlately and showed me a presentation they had put together delving into thisissue

Historically,the skin color of sitters within portraits has been divided by gender, socialclass, and race. Native American portraits typically have less complex palettesin terms of skin color. This relates to literature of the time where racialissues were endorsed by scientific studies. Cristina shared with me that thex-rays of the Inman paintings reveal less white pigment in the flesh and morereds and ochres instead.

Itis questioned whether Inman enhanced the redness of the skin to portray thesitter as non-white, or as a way to “other” the sitter. This is an importantconversation in modern society, as Native Americans are continuously winningthe fight against racist representations of our people as mascots and brandfaces. Cristina explained that, from her level of expertise, she believes thestereotype of a redder skin tone was built on purpose by Inman, based on thelayers of the pigments and results from technical analysis. Something else toconsider is that a few of the Inman paintings depict the sitter wearing red pigmentson their face, which is visibly contrasted against the skin tone. The color redoften has significant cultural meanings which varies across tribes andcommunities.

Left,Harvard Art Museum conservation fellow Julie Wertz uses x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to conduct a non-invasive analysis ofthe pigments used in the painting of an Ojibwa chief whose name is currently unknown 82-51-10/28266. Right, CristinaMorilla removes varnish from the portrait of Ojibwa chief Kit-chee-waa-be-shas(The Good Martin). 82-51-10/28285

Onefinal piece of interesting information I was able to learn from Meredith andCristina concerning this collection was that a conservator in the 1930s put ared varnish over the paintings, which would not have happened had the sitterbeen white. Overall, this experience was very educational and I thank Meredithand Cristina for meeting with me and talking about their work!

Author: Jaidyn Probst

Egyptian Collections Research

Mesa'eed, one of the sites excavated by George Reisner and hisassociates.Mohammedani Ibrahim Ibrahim (expedition photographer), Mesaid,Cemetery from West, April 1, 1913, Harvard University-Boston Museum of FineArts Expedition photograph A886_NS

The Peabody Museum curates a collectionof human skeletal remains from the Nile Valley in Egypt, most of which are fromthe joint Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Boston expeditions led byGeorge Reisner in the early 20^th century. The Museum of Fine ArtsBoston (MFA) holds the documentation for these expeditions, as well as themajority of the artifacts, while most of the human skeletal remains, datingfrom the Predynastic to the Ptolemaic period, are stewarded at the Peabody.

Last year, before museums closeddue to the pandemic, we spent a few days at the MFA looking through the recordsfor the expedition, both for our own documentation and so in the future we willbe able to tell researchers at the Peabody more about the expedition recordsthat are available at the MFA to help them decide if they want to visit. Manythanks to the staff at the MFA who helped us!

Kora photographs a tomb card at the MFA

The expedition documentation at theMFA includes diaries written by Reisner and his associates, packing lists,individual tomb cards with illustrations and notes, and photographs of thesites and tombs. Over the past few months we have been cross-referencing thenumbers in the diaries, tomb cards, and images with Peabody Museum records to improvedocumentation. We are now working to input this information into our databaseso that it’s easily accessible in the future.

Authors: Loring Burgess, Associate Osteologist, and Kora Welsh, Collections Assistant

Peruvian Collections Research

Today’s post from Collections Technician, Zach Williams, tellsus about archaeological cataloging and digitization to support research use ofthe collection:

The Peabody serves as a repository for cultural materialfrom around the world, and my work cataloging often supports colleagues,descendant communities, professors, students, and researchers who are accessingthese collections. Collections research visits vary and can range from viewingobjects to more in-depth research analysis with analytical sampling, andeverything in between.

I recently assisted one of our Collections Stewards bypreparing ceramic sherds from Pachacamac, Peru for a research visit from a PhDcandidate at another university.

Pachacamac, named after the “Earth Maker” creator god, was agrand city covering 1,500 acres, near modern Lima, Peru. It was a politicalcenter for the Yschma polity and a major pilgrimage destination throughoutprehistory. Pachacamac flourished from CE 200 - CE 1500, with Lima, Wari, Yschma,and Inka occupations, before being conquered by the Spanish in CE 1532.

Pachacamac excavation, 1944-47: PM 49-22-30/11821.112

In an effort to better understand ceramic production atPachacamac, 55 sherds were approved for thin section petrography and neutronactivation analysis. These studies are aimed at better understanding thecomposition and manufacture of the ceramic. Preparation for this research visit included updating and creating database records (illustrated below) for each of the 55 sherds, photographing each sherd through the variousstages of analysis, and labeling each sherd with its catalog number using inertmaterials and a specialized reversible method of attachment.

While this process is fairly straight forward, it iscritical that each step is documented and follows the object through analysis.By setting these systems in place, we ensure that the entire life cycle of theobject is documented and tracked, and ready for research and analysis, now andin the future!

Author: Zach Williams, Collections Technician

Salt prints research

As a research institution, the Peabody Museum hosts hundreds ofresearch visits every year. This post from our Senior Archivist, KatherineSatriano, tells us about a past visit from Dr. Arthur McClelland of Harvard’sCenter for Nanoscale Systems.

Arthur visited the Peabody Museum Archives this past spring tostudy salted paper prints, a rare early photographic format, as part of a researchproject he developed with Elena Bulat of the Harvard Library’s WeissmanPreservation Center.

Introduced byWilliam Henry Fox Talbot in 1839, salt prints were created by the firstphotographic technique to use a negative to create a positive image onsensitized paper. The “salt” refers to the sodium chloride solution used incombination with silver nitrate to coat the paper, making it sensitive tolight.

The goals of Arthur’s research are to increase knowledge ofhistorical photographic processes and help inform their preservationtoday.One of the salt prints he studied is the portrait of a Ponca man, Wi-ga-sa-pi,seen above, photographed by Julian Vannerson.

Arthurperformed non-invasive, specular reflectance Fourier transform infrared(FTIR) analysis to determine the chemical compositionof coatings applied to the salt prints by the photographers for protective andaesthetic purposes. FTIR is used to examine organic or inorganicmaterials that have large reflective surfaces–the technique measures the energythat is reflected off a surface to determine the chemical composition andbetter understand the morphology. The initial proof of concept for this analysis technique on coated saltprints was demonstrated using the Harvard class albums in the Harvard University Archives and was published by Arthur and Elena inthe Journal of the American Institute ofConservation in October 2019.

This optical micrograph of one of the salt prints shows the coatingon the paper fibers.

And the spectral library match seen below shows that the photograph’s coating is comprised of beeswax with lavender oil.

Thank you to Arthur for this fascinating close look at someof the Peabody’s collections. You can learn more about salt prints in Harvard’s collections on theSaltPrints at Harvardwebsite.

Wi-ga-sa-piportrait by Julian Vannerson, PM 2004.1.125.33

Authors: KatherineSatriano and Arthur McClelland
Micrograph andspectral library images courtesy of Arthur McClelland

Conservation for Publication Photography

Welcome to the Peabody Museum’s conservation lab! In the labwe treat and care for objects for a variety of reasons including exhibits, loans,and publication photography. For publication photography, we workcollaboratively with curators and the Associate Registrar for Rights and Reproductions toprepare objects so they can be safely and appropriately photographed forexhibit catalogs, Peabody Museum Press publications, and use in other print anddigital media.

Currently, we are treating a series of 59 objects for theforthcoming Peabody Museum Press publication, The Spirits and the Forest:Dances and Rituals in Colombia’s Northwest Amazon. Although publicationwon’t happen for a while, the conservation department has already been busy treatingobjects for photography, which typically takes place at least one year beforeproduction.

Objects selected for the publication include a series of masks withbark cloth hoods and long tassels of very fragile plant fibers. The attachedfaces are made with a foundation of carved balsa wood or basketry covered with blacktree resin and painted designs in yellow and white organic pigments. The hoodedmasks represent animals, spiritual creatures, and the devil. They were used ina dance of celebration of plenty and fertility and to bring happiness tochildren in Colombia.

The masks have been kept for many years in tightly compactedstorage and had become flattened and distorted over time. In order to devise a treatment plan, we consulted with the author, Felipe Cárdenas-Arroyo, and examined published images of how the masks were traditionally worn. Before any treatment was carried out, each mask’s condition was carefully documented in writing and digital images.

Conservation treatment included a number of steps:

1. Surface cleaning with a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA)filtered vacuum and soft brushes, followed by cosmetic sponges in selected stableareas. A HEPA filter vacuum with variable speed was chosen to safely remove anysurface particles that may potentially cause damage to the object. The HEPAfilter is used to mitigate exposure to any hazardous particles on thesurface such as mold. The vacuum is equipped with a small nozzle covered incheese cloth and is held at a slight distance to collect debris while directingdust into the vacuum with a soft brush. Cosmetic sponges (latex-freepolyurethane foam) provide a smooth, soft surface for collecting very fineparticles of dust.

2. Consolidation of losses and friable (crumbling) areas with diluteconservation adhesives. Adhesives were first tested in discrete areas to ensurethat they were safe and that no color changes would occur. After testing it wasdetermined that 10% Paraloid B-72 (an acrylic copolymer) was suitable for thecracking resin and 3-5% isinglass (a solution made from dried Sturgeon bladder dissolvedin warm water) worked well on the matte pigmented areas.

3. Gaps and losses in the mask were filled with a pigment-tinted conservationadhesive bulked up with micro-glassballoons. Micro-glass balloons are tiny, hollow glass microspheres that areadded to adhesives to change the characteristics. They are used in conservationto thicken and improve strength and make a light-weight stable fill material.

4. Local humidification was carried out on the bark cloth. Thistechnique was chosen so that the water sensitive mask could be isolated duringtreatment and only the bark cloth would come in contact with moisture. Alayered sandwich of Gore-Tex(Polytetrafluoro-ethylene, or PTFE) and damp blotter paper was covered inplastic to allow the moisture to penetrate the bark cloth and relax the fibers.After sufficient time the bark cloth was slowly reshaped. This process wasrepeated in areas needing reshaping until the desired shape was achieved. Tohold the shape of the bark cloth an internal support was made from carved ethafoam(a closed-cell polyethylene foam material) covered with cotton knit fabric orhigh-density polyethylene film. Holes in the bark cloth used for the eyes andmouth of the wearer were left as originally intended.

5. The very fragile fiber tassels were repaired with tonedJapanese tissue and starch paste in areas needing stabilization. When needed,local humidification was used to safely realign the fragile, brittle fibersbefore mending.

6. Archival containers were made for safe transit and storage ofthe fragile masks (mask shown below: PM 50-2-30/7216).

Now that the masks have been treated in the conservation lab,it is time to devise a plan with the Associate Registrar for Rights andReproductions and the author for how they will be photographed for the publication.Since the masks are very fragile, the Peabody is waiting to photograph all ofthem in one photo shoot with enough staff present for handling. Mounts, similarto the ones depicted below, will be used for some of the masks during photography.This will ensure the safety of the object and make it easier to photograph themask from different angles. Masks that are not able to be placed on mounts willneed to be photographed flat; however, the goal is for all of the images to be similarin appearance, with consistent background and lighting, as they will appear inthe same publication.

Three masks after treatment (left to right): PM 53-47-30/7520.9; 53-47-30/7511; 53-47-30/7520.2

Below is a “before and after” example of a headdress (PM 53-47-30/7499) that was treated and photographed for the publication. On the left is the original inventory image which is a documentary image used in our database to visually identify the object. The image on the right is the image taken for the publication, which shows how the headdress was worn.

For more information on the Peabody’s collections fromColombia, see the online exhibition The Spirits and theForest: Dances and Rituals in Colombia’s Northwest Amazon.

Authors: Judy Jungels, Conservator and Cynthia Mackey, Associate Registrar for Rights and Reproductions

Collections Management highlights

The Peabody Museumis currently closed due to socialdistancing protocols and most Museum staff have shifted to working from home.During this time when the team is physically away from the collections, we willshare some of the projects we have workedon recently. While Harvard classeshave all transitioned online, this post from Sarah Johnson, one of ourCollections Technicians, highlights an in-person class visit from the fall semester:

As collectionstechnicians, we spend most of our time cataloging archaeological collections,but we always enjoy the chance to share our work with Harvard students. Thispast fall semester, we spent some time with an introductory archaeology course,GenEd1105: Can We Know Our Past? As part of that course, students visited theMuseum’s archaeological collections storage, known as the Peabody Annex, wherewe introduced them to the range of projects we work on as we care for andimprove access to the collections.

Some of theprojects highlighted were:

‣TheEdward Lanning Collection, a recent acquisition of objects from South America,that will be the subject of an upcoming rehousing effort. We will be transferringthe objects from the bags and boxes they arrived in to archival-quality storagematerials, as well as increasing documentation to make it easier for researchersto work with this collection.

‣Brazilianarchaeological collections, which were recently cataloged and digitized toimprove access in response to the fire at the Brazilian National Museum and thefires in the Amazon rainforest.

‣NewJersey archaeological collections, which were cataloged and digitized insupport of a tribal consultation by the DelawareTribe of Indians, the Delaware Nation, and the Stockbridge Munsee Community.

‣Ohioarchaeological collections, which are currently being cataloged to support thework of visiting researcher and professor Dr.Robert Cook of the Ohio State University.

The studentsimpressed us with their engagement and thought-provoking questions, and we hopethat this experience will be only the start of their relationship with the Peabodyand its collections!

Author: Sarah Johnson, Collections Technician

Annex Catalog Crew

Welcome to the PeabodyMuseum’s Annex! The Annex is our main archaeological collection storage as wellas a cataloging, research and teaching space.

The Annex Catalog Crew isbusy at work each day helping to make the inorganic archaeological collectionsat the Museum accessible to Harvard faculty and students, external researchers,and other stakeholders. Each member of the Catalog Crew is committed tooverseeing the ethical care and stewardship of the extensive archaeologicalcollections held by the Peabody Museum.

There are now nine membersof the Annex team, consisting of one Collections Steward, four full-time CollectionsTechnicians, and four part-time Collections Technicians. Our daily tasks varygreatly from day to day. The Catalog Crew members’ main responsibilities are tocatalog, inventory, and photograph objects housed in the Annex. Our work also helpsto facilitate research and teaching with the archaeological collections throughpreparing the collections for researchers and classes.

Besides these tasks, Crewmembers can be found carefully moving large objects, such as the Mesoamericanplaster casts. We also help others on the Collections Management team tofacilitate integrated pest management and collections moves. Several of theCollections Technicians have taken on interns as well as students in the wintersession at the Harvard Extension School’s museum studies program, where weteach them about collections management through hands-on projects.

Displaycases in the Museum’s main lobby have been and continue to be an avenue for CatalogCrew members to curate small exhibits highlighting the collections being catalogedin the Annex.

The work that the CatalogCrew does each day is integral to facilitating care of and access to thePeabody Museum’s archaeological collections. There is always something new tolearn and a new object to discover! Each member of the Catalog Crew brings anew perspective to the table, creating an energetic environment filled withexcitement for museums, collections stewardship, and research.

Let’s learn some moreabout the Team! Some Fun Facts about the Catalog Crew:

All together we have 16 BAs in Anthropology,Archaeology, History, Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Philosophy,Psychology, Latin American Studies, and Spanish, and have 5 MAs in HistoricalArchaeology and Museum Studies.

We have worked in 7 foreign countries including Israel, Italy, Iceland,Ireland, Antigua, Hungary and South Africa. We can speak 6 languages: English, Spanish, Hebrew,Hungarian, German, and French. We are proficient in 10 collections managementsoftware packages and have collectively worked in museums for about 30 years!

Let’s Meet the Team!

Kati Albert, Collections Technician
My name is Katherine (Kati) Albert, and I am a CollectionsTechnician in the Peabody Annex working on the Harvard Yard Project. I’m fromRochester, NY, but I currently live in Dorchester, MA. I have a B.A. in Historyand Anthropology from Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), and am a currentsecond-year student in the Historical Archaeology Master’s Program at UMassBoston. My research interests include historic architecture, cultural identityformation in colonial contexts, and archaeological film production.

John Crawmer, Collections Technician
I’m from York, Pennsylvania and I’m currentlyfinishing my master’s degree in Historical Archaeology at UMass Boston. I’vebeen an archaeologist for the past 6 years, excavating sites in the Northeast,mid-Atlantic, mid-west, and Israel. Outside of my collections work in theAnnex, I oversee a community archaeology project at a Revolutionary War PrisonCamp in my hometown.

Gary Ellis, Collections Technician
I’m from Pennsylvania and have done field and museumwork all along the mid-Atlantic and New England. I hold an Associates of Sciencedegree and a B.A. in Anthropology as well as Philosophy. I am currently writingmy master’s thesis, and my research interests include material culture of NewEngland, indigenous sovereignty, and decolonizing the discipline of archaeology.

Annie Greco, Collections Technician
I am originally from Hopkinton, Massachusetts (startof the Boston Marathon!) but have lived in Boston for the past 12 years. I havea B.A. in Psychology and Latin American Studies from Boston College, a HigherDiploma in Archaeology from University College Dublin, and an M.A. inHistorical Archaeology from UMass Boston. I have participated in archaeologicalexcavations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, California, andIceland. I interned for the National NAGPRA Program in Washington, D.C. in theFall of 2017, where I researched the role of maps in repatriation. Afterwards,I worked at Old South Meeting House followed by the R.S. Peabody Institute ofArchaeology before coming to the Peabody Museum at Harvard in October 2018. Sofar in the Annex, I have worked on collections from New Jersey, Ohio, andBrazil.

Lissa Herzing, Collections Technician
Hi! My name is Lissa Herzing and I am working as acollections technician at the Peabody Museum and I am originally fromKinderhook, NY. I earned my B.A. in Anthropology and Archaeological Studiesfrom SUNY Potsdam and have since moved to Boston and am currently working on mymaster’s degree in Historical Archaeology at UMass Boston. At the Peabody, Iwork in the Annex inventorying artifacts excavated as a part of the HarvardYard Archaeology Project. I am interested in exploring the intersections ofrace, gender, and class in the lived experiences of people of African descentin the past through archaeology.

SarahJohnson, Collections Technician
I knew I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was 15years old, and I haven’t ever looked back! I graduated with a B.A. inarchaeology from Cornell University in 2011 and an M.A. in Historical Archaeologyfrom UMass Boston in 2018, where I wrote my thesis on a school forunderprivileged girls in Dorchester. I am originally from Leominster, MA, andnow live in Mansfield with my fiancé and our cat. In my free time, I enjoyknitting – I just finished my first sweater! I’ve worked at the Peabody in somecapacity since 2015, first as a work study student and an LHT, and now as a collectionstechnician. For the first two years, I worked almost exclusively on the HarvardYard collections, before moving on to the Ohio project. In between, I’ve had myhands on a lot of different collections, from Ksar Akil to Mesoamerica toMesopotamia. For now, I’m still working my way through Ohio, supporting Dr. RobCook’s research visit.

Emily Katz, Collections Technician
Hi, my name is EmilyKatz and I am from Omaha, NE. I have a B.A. in Anthropology and SpanishLanguage from Loyola University in Chicago and a M.A. in Museum Studies fromthe University of San Francisco. My background is in museum administration andmanagement as a whole. I tended to focus my studies and internships in museumeducation. Through different internships and volunteer opportunities withineducation departments in both art and science museums, I realized theimportance of arts integration and decided to focus my thesis project on artsintegration into STEM topics. Specifically, my thesis paper proposed a projectof integrating the arts into a science museum public program. Additionally, myprevious job was working at an arts non-profit, focusing on arts integrationinto public school STEM curriculum.

JenniferPoulsen, Collections Steward
Hi, my name is Jen! I have my B.A. from BostonUniversity with a major in Archaeology and a minor in Earth Science. I earnedmy M.A. from UMass Boston’s Historical Archaeology program, where I presented athesis on consumer behavior and 19th-century bottle glass. Recently, I have earned a certi­ficate inNon-Profit Management through the Harvard Extension School. I am interested incollections management, the relationship between government and archaeology,and the archaeology of sewing. I manage the collections at the annex, focusingon improving object safety and accessibility. I lead a stellar crew ofCollections Technicians, as they catalog and inventory priority collectionsthat support research and teaching. In addition, I continue to work withbuilding management to facilitate upgrades to the building itself which, inturn, will protect the collections.

Zach Williams, Collections Technician
Hello! My name is Zach Williams and I grew up in thealways-sunny city of Sunnyvale, California. I hold a B.A. in History andAnthropology, and a M.A. in Museum Studies. Since entering the field, I haveworked at several museums and archaeology labs, and have participated inexcavations in California, NYC, and Antigua, West Indies. I currently serve asa Collections Technician here at the Peabody, and work to catalog, rehouse andphotograph archaeological collections. My work here has taken me around theworld with collections coming from Brazil, France, Palestine, Morocco, and theUnited States.

Thanks for taking some time to learn about the workthat the Catalog Crew does in the Annex!

Author: Lissa Herzing, Collections Technician

MOTH MITIGATION PROJECT

Staff at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology arediligently working to mitigate a webbing clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella) infestation discovered in June of 2016 in thelargest ethnographic artifact storage room in the historic museum building.

Our immediate response to discovering the infestationentailed quarantining spaces and utilizing an air-lock system for doorways aswell as bagging and freezing objects. Emergency response measures included an updated interior and exterior IntegratedPest Management (IPM) building survey conducted with an entomologist, followedby corrective actions on each museum floor, designed to tighten the buildingand rooms, such as wall repairs, upgrading door sweeps and caulking of leaksand holes.

Pest monitoring, an ongoing part of the museum’s overall IPMprogram, continued; and a focused mitigation project with the goals ofexamining and treating the objects affected, was initiated. Once additionalstaff members were hired and project details organized, a formal ‘mothmitigation project’ began in earnest in Autumn 2017.

Critical to the success of the mitigation was the writing ofproject proposals and manuals. These documents served as valuable tools,allowing staff to clearly define the parameters of the project while giving abroad view of the work to be done and supplies needed. The documents communicateddetails regarding project organization, timeline and deliverables to senioradministration. Additionally, these proposals were used to secure necessary funding.

So, what does a moth mitigation project entail? Here at thePeabody Museum, our approach includes object containment and freezing to eradicatelive pests and to prevent the spread of moths that may reside on or within theobjects. This work was followed by an examination of each object to assess thecondition of the objects post-infestation. Cleaning, additional conservationtreatments and rehousing are also undertaken to ensure the objects’ long-termstability.

After nearly two years of hard work, the team is excited andeager to share their progress and methodology for moth mitigation in widerarenas such as at the recent annual meeting of the American Institute forConservation (AIC) as well as this blog post. While at AIC, the team presented a papertitled, “Approaches to Preservation in the Aftermath of a Webbing Clothes MothInfestation: The Peabody Museum Mitigation Project”, which represented thejoint working process of Cassy Cutulle, Matthew Vigneau, Khanh Nguyen, LindsayKoso, and Mollie Denhard. The presentation offered a comprehensive overview ofthe different tasks carried out before and during the moth mitigation project,including: emergency response, project management, training, documentation, andthe object treatment work undertaken. Relevant case studies were provided toillustrate our moth mitigation methodology in practice. While our approach tothe infestation is unique to the Peabody Museum building and situation, weshare some of our learned experiences and constructive takeaways in the hopesthat we can offer useful advice to other museum professionals in similarpredicaments.

We have made a lot of progress in the last 18 months, passingthe half-way milestones in our goals for freezing and cleaning objects. Withthis progress logged and the success of our hard work, the moths’ days at the PeabodyMuseum are surely numbered!

Author: Cassy Cutelle, Conservation Technician

SNEAK PEEK!

A sneak peek at one of the first objects being treated in our Conservation Lab for the upcoming exhibitResetting the Table: Food and Our Changing Tastes.

This colorful coffee pot is constructed from an interestingcombination of materials: A body of glazed ceramic ingeniously combined with a copperalloy spout, and a handle and lid decorated with glass beads and held togetherwith a plaster-based material.

When the coffee pot arrived in the Lab, we followed our usualprotocol for documenting conservation treatments. The coffee pot was photographedand a conservation report was added to the Museum’s database to establish its conditionprior to any cleaning or conservation treatment. The coffee pot before being treated:

Material analysis was then carriedout using aportable Bruker Tracer X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device to identifyelemental composition.What’s XRF, you ask? It’s a non-destructive method for betterunderstanding the material composition or construction of an object and helpsour conservators to identify the safest cleaning and treatment plan. XRFrevealed that the copper alloy is brass and contains copper, zinc, and lead;the blue glaze on the ceramic is a leaded glaze containing silica, calcium,lead, and a small amount of cobalt to create the blue color. The fill materialwas shown to be calcium based with some silica and sulfur.

With this information in hand, a treatment plan can be developed.For the coffee pot, treatment included surface cleaning with a soft brush andvacuum, followed by aqueous (water based) cleaning of the glazed ceramic andglass beads with lightly dampened swabs using deionized water. The interior andbottom of the coffee pot were left untouched to allow for future analysis ofresidues that might be left from the object’s use. Metal sections were cleanedwith acetone and some greasy debris on the ceramic was also reduced withacetone. A small loss was filled with Modostuc, a calcium carbonate-based fillmaterial, and in-painted with acrylic paints. In-painting is used to cover thefill material so it matches the rest of the object’s surface, but is alwaysreversible so it can be removed in the future without damaging the object. Theplaster fill material was consolidated with 10% B-72 in acetone along crackedand crumbling areas.

The coffee pot after treatment:

As a final step, a supportive tray was made to hold the coffee pot, securing it for safe transit when it is moved into our gallery for installation.

Coffee pot, Syria, before 1900
Collected by C.M. von Roth
PM# 20-33-60/D1465

Author: Judy Jungels, Senior Conservator

Hello Friends

Welcome to the Harvard Peabody Museum Collections Division blog! What’s a Collections Division you ask? At the Peabody, it encompasses the departments of Collections Management and Research Access, Archives, Registration, and Conservation. The Division is comprised of over thirty staff members, some of whom are pictured above.

Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard is one of the oldest anthropology museums in the world. Focusing on the study of ancient and contemporary peoples and cultures around the globe, we are stewards for:

• 1.25 million artifacts
• over 500,000 historic photos
• an extensive paper archives

That’s a lot of collections to care for! This makes for busy days spent rehousing, photographing, archiving, conserving, lending, researching and cataloging (phew!) We’ll show you a bit of what facilitating the care and use of our collections actually entails. But we’ll skip the boring stuff (I know, I know, you’re asking…how could it EVER be boring?? You so get us.) Check back in soon. In the meantime, let’s be Instagram friends!