Purchase of Furniture and Supplies to Rehouse Native Three-Dimensional Object Collections at the NMSU University Museum

FAIN: PG-280611-21

New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, NM 88003-8002)
Kristin Otto (Project Director: January 2021 to November 2022)

The purchase of environmental monitoring equipment and storage cabinets for a collection of three-dimensional Native American material culture at the University Museum of New Mexico State University (NMSU). The museum’s permanent collection includes material from archaeological digs in the Southwest U.S. and comprises archaeological, ethnographic, and historical objects (numbering approximately 170,000, 5,000, and 10,000 objects respectively). Of the 5,000 objects in the museum’s ethnographic collection, approximately 400 items of Native material culture require rehousing in enclosed cabinetry to ensure future preservation, stability, and use. The Native American materials that need to be rehoused include approximately 100 katsina dolls by Hopi artists, 150 examples of three-dimensional basketry, 50 beaded buckskin bags and belts, 50 objects related to public ceremonies and rituals, and 50 pieces made for tourists or made by contemporary artists. The university museum has used and will continue to use these collections in partnerships with Indigenous communities, thus ensuring collaborative production of knowledge and the collections’ active use.

This grant would support the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment and storage cabinets to replace the open shelving currently used to store the collection of three-dimensional Native American material culture at the University Museum of New Mexico State University (NMSU). Although staff moved the collection to a new storage room at the recommendation of a past collections assessment, the room used to house these objects is still currently vulnerable to pests and environmental changes. The diverse organic materials that compose many of these objects are also particularly vulnerable. Finally, the collections management policy of the University Museum takes into consideration Indigenous-informed storage conditions and alterations. Acquiring storage cabinets and environmental monitoring equipment would better preserve the selected collection long-term, as well as facilitate further access by Indigenous collaborators in the museum.