Ancient American Art at the Saint Louis Art Museum

Summary

In 2013, the Saint Louis Art Museum presented the first major re-installation of its collection of art of the ancient Americas in nearly thirty years. This paper will present some observations on the challenges presented by a collection largely defined by a single donor, Morton D. May. May's donations coincided with the high water mark of collecting so-called "primitive" art in the 1950s and 60s. But there is also a history of collecting and displaying pre-Columbian art in Saint Louis before May, including a group of Mimbres vessels from the notorious Fain White King and material the Archaeological Institute of America's sponsored excavations at Quirigua. Additionally, Saint Louis lies in the domain of Cahokia. Despite being closer to home, many public and private collections of Mississippian material in the region have received relatively little attention. How do art museums balance the issues presented by archaeological material with complicated collection histories from all these places and times with the need and desire to educate the museum-going public?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Exhibiting Mesoamerican Archaeology in the Early 21st Century

Keywords

Spatial Coverage