From Grandma’s Attic to Amnesty Programs: Adventures in Accessioning Archaeological Collections

Summary

This is an abstract from the "To Curate or Not to Curate: Surprises, Remorse, and Archaeological Grey Area" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

It is said that the best deaccession policy is a strong accession policy - never accession anything that is beyond your collection scope and institutional mission, and you will never need to deaccession. In a perfect museum world all incoming collections will meet institutional mission, scope of collection guidelines, and professional standards. In the real museum world, artifacts that technically meet your mission can still be problematic donations. This paper discusses challenges faced at the Bureau of Land Management - Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum (formerly the Bureau of Land Management - Anasazi Heritage Center), a federal archaeological repository and museum. Applying Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management policy and guidance to unique, but not uncommon donation scenarios, methods for finding paths to public benefit are discussed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• To Curate or Not to Curate: Surprises, Remorse, and Archaeological Grey Area

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24377