Boxes and Boxes of Guilt: Guilt Mail from the Canyon de Chelly National Monument

Summary

Within the collections housed at the Canyon de Chelly National Monument there are many archaeological artifacts and natural resource materials which were taken and subsequently returned by visitors to the park, along with associated letters and correspondence. While the existence of these returned unauthorized collections, also known as "Guilt Mail", is not common knowledge among the general public or park visitors, many national parks have similar items in their collections.

Within the National Park Service, comprehensive guidelines regarding management, recording, and cataloging returned unauthorized collections are nonexistent. Also, detailed or even large scale studies of these returned artifacts and associated letters are embryonic at best.

This study will focus on the kinds of materials taken, when the thefts occurred and when the items were returned, and the procedures and practices that the national parks follow in cataloging guilt mail. Artifacts and letters from the Canyon de Chelly are the prime focus of this study, but other southwestern parks and their collections are referenced.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage