Material Connections

"The Smithsonian Effect" in Anthropological Cataloguing

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2289418
AutoresCandace S Greene (0000-0001-8713-9213, National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution)
Ano2016
Volume39
Fascículo2
Páginas147-162
Data de publicação2016-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoMuseum Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0892-8339 • E-ISSN: 1548-1379
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/muan.12121
OpenAlexW2507321163
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas12
Referências citadas12

Museum curators led development of the discipline of anthropology in the late nineteenth century, and at the same time developed foundational systems for cataloguing cultural materials. Although entering and accessing catalogue information now relies on keyboards rather than inkwells, the earliest systems continue to influence our understanding of objects. Among the most influential of the early systems was that of the Smithsonian's United States National Museum (USNM), with its first anthropological catalogue entry dating to 1859. Analysis of the material culture of the ubiquitous catalogue books of American museums both before and after the establishment of theUSNMsystem reveals its wide and lasting impact. This system normalized certain fields as essential and disciplined data accordingly, resisting alternate ideas about information offered by donors and by later developments in anthropology. While many museums have now moved through successive generations of information management systems, the effect of early data choices has seldom been examined

Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · Museums and Cultural Heritage