Imaging the Mexican Archaeology Collection

FAIN: PW-50831-11

American Museum of Natural History (New York, NY 10024-5193)
Paul F. Beelitz (Project Director: July 2010 to December 2013)

The digital imaging of 49,920 objects in the Mexican archaeology collection that range in date from the twelfth century B.C. to the sixteenth century A.D. Digital images and catalog information will be available in an online database.

The Anthropology Division at the American Museum of Natural History requests $348,547 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a two-year project that will dramatically improve access to its Mexican archaeology collection and archive through digital imaging and the Internet. The 49,920 objects in the collection represent the peoples who lived from the 12th century B.C. to the 16th century A.D. in Mexico, and the 12,650 items in the archive document the archaeological context of the collection. The images of the Mexican archaeology collection and archive will be made accessible to humanities students and educators, descendent communities, researchers, and the general public via the Anthropology Division's Web site http://anthro.amnh.org. The $348,547 requested from the NEH will pay four people: three photographers for two years, the time it will take to image the 49,920 objects, and one scanner for one year, the time it will take to scan the 12,650 archival items.