Preserving and Creating Access to the Southwest Museum's California Indian Collections

FAIN: PC-50070-07

Autry Museum (Los Angeles, CA 90027-1462)
Steven Karr (Project Director: July 2006 to May 2010)

Digital imaging and cataloging of 15,000 California Indian ethnographic objects, archaeological artifacts, and sound recordings from the collections of the Southwest Museum.

The Autry National Center of the American West seeks a two-year $340,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the cataloging and digitization of 15,000 items in the Southwest Museum's California Indian collections. These materials include a variety of baskets, ethnographic, archaeological, and archival materials spanning all areas of the state. Records and images from the California Indian project will be made available to the public through the Autry's Collections Online web site. The Southwest Museum holdings of California Indian material are among the largest in scope of any single California Indian collection. Preservation and electronic cataloging of this material will greatly facilitate the Autry, as well as California tribal museums and cultural centers, in their ability to create permanent and temporary exhibitions, publications, online curricula, and other broadly accessible educational opportunities focused on California's indigenous peoples.