The Battle of the Boxes: The Importance of Updating Previously Curated Collections to Expand Knowledge and Create Space

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As universities, federal curation facilities, public museums, and private collections struggle to create space on their shelves, curators and archaeologists have to evaluate what must stay and what will have to go. Utilizing a collection housed at the University of Montana I will explore strategies for combating this issue. This collection was obtained from the Garnet Ghost Town and has been in storage at the University of Montana. Gathering new information with fresh eyes and innovative techniques to learn more about the collection itself and a deeper understanding of one of Montana’s most complete Ghost Towns. The goals of re-curating this collection were to create a digital spreadsheet, identify objects of interest for testing or display, extensive photography, and identify portions of the collection to be returned to the Ghost Town for interment. Additionally, we view the collection with a new theoretical framework to be more race and gender inclusive than previously implemented. Creating a process that works in junction with the Bureau of Land Management, The University of Montana’s Graduate students, the Garnet Community, and the public, we conserve and preserve history and make room for more.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35886.0