The Museum of Anthropological Archaeology record group includes budget information, executive committee meeting minutes, topical files, and curator files. The records are organized in three series, Budget, Topical Files, and Curator Files.
Although anthropological specimens had been part of the University Museums' collections since the mid-1800s, it was not until much later that a discipline-specific museum was created for their research and preservation. Prior to the Museum of Anthropology's establishment in 1922, the earliest archaeological acquisitions came to the University Museum from the Wilkes Expedition to the Pacific from 1838 to 1842. Other significant collections were acquired by Joseph Beal Steere during his many trips to the Amazon, the Andes, the south Pacific and Southeast Asia in the 1870s through the 1890s. His expeditions to the Philippines began a long and continuing tradition of research in that area. Steere was also in charge of the university's natural history collections from 1876 to 1894.
In 1922, Dean C. Worcester, one-time curator of the zoological museum at the university, returned to Ann Arbor from the Philippines to obtain support for an archaeological expedition to investigate Philippine cave sites with Chinese porcelains. Professors Francis Kelsey and Alexander G. Ruthven lent their support and requested that Carl Eugen Guthe lead the expedition with funds contributed anonymously by Horace H. Rackham. Guthe agreed to lead the party, but only if a separate Museum of Anthropology were established to house the material collected.
Guthe's request was granted; in 1922 the University Museums were reorganized and the Museum of Anthropology was formally recognized. Carl Guthe was made the Associate Director of Anthropology in the University Museum. The collection of porcelains Guthe obtained during the three years of the Philippines expedition became the museum's most valuable single collection. Wilbert Hinsdale, formerly dean of the School of Homeopathy, was made custodian in charge of the Collections in Michigan Archaeology. Guthe's collections were housed in the basement of Angell Hall from 1925 to 1927, while Hinsdale's were located in the Museum Building.
In 1928, the Museum of Anthropology moved into the fourth floor of the just completed University Museums Building. The museum consisted of five rooms for collections, seven rooms for offices, a library, and an office. In 1929, Guthe was promoted to director of the museum. One of Guthe's many acts as director was to offer a doctoral fellowship in Aboriginal North American Ceramics to James B. Griffin. Griffin began the fellowship in 1933, completed his degree in 1936, then joined the museum staff. In late 1943 Guthe resigned as director of the museum and recommended that Griffin be appointed as his successor. Administrative conflicts stalled the appointment for several years, but Griffin was finally approved by the Regents as the museum's director in 1946. He held this position until his retirement in 1975.
Upon its establishment, the museum had been arranged into five collection-oriented divisions (also referred to as ranges): the Division of the Great Lakes, the Division of the Orient, the Division of Archaeology, the Division of Ethnology, and the Division of Physical Anthropology. The Division of the Great Lakes dealt with the anthropological resources of the state of Michigan and the areas of other states and Canada that border on the Great Lakes. After Hinsdale died in 1944, Emerson F. Greenman took charge of the Great Lakes Division until 1966.
The Division of the Orient was devoted to collections from Asia and the Far East. Benjamin March was the division's first curator, followed by Kamer Aga-Oglu. The Division of Archaeology was established for the study of archaeological collections around the world, with particular focus on North America. The Ceramic Repository of the Eastern United States, a central sherd repository for prehistoric ceramic materials from the region east of the Rocky Mountains and north of the Gulf of Mexico, was founded within this division in 1927. James Griffin served as curator of the division until he became director, and was succeeded by Albert Spaulding.
The Division of Ethnology was established to house ethnological specimens from around the world, with particular focus on North America. Its first curator was Melvin Gilmore, followed by Volney Jones. The Ethnobotanical Laboratory, a center for the identification and interpretation of plant materials utilized by Native Americans, was established within this division in 1938. The Division of Physical Anthropology was originally not provided with a curator and was essentially inactive until 1966, when C. Loring Brace was appointed as curator. From that point on, the division focused primarily on prehistoric skeletal collections from North America.
The Museum of Anthropology achieved substantial growth during Griffin's long tenure as director. The staff grew from four professional curators to nine, along with additional research associates and assistants. The museum partnered with the Department of Physics in the administration of the Radiocarbon Laboratory from 1949 to 1970; the lab was the second of its kind in the United States. Field programs were greatly expanded, with significant work done in Michigan, the Mississippi Valley, the Southwest, Western and Eastern Europe, and Israel. The museum also took an active role in the university's Department of Anthropology; the museum served as a training ground for most graduate students in archaeology and all curators held academic year appointments in the department, teaching courses and advising numerous doctoral students. Griffin served as chair of the department from 1972 to 1975.
After Griffin's retirement, Richard I. Ford, Curator of Ethnology, was appointed as director, serving until 1981. From that period to the present, the museum's directorship has rotated among the curators of the museum, who generally serve three- or five-year terms.
In February 2014, the Museum was renamed the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology.
The geographic focus of the collections has expanded, with additional curatorial positions provided for materials from Europe, Africa and Mesopotamia. The current ranges include Great Lakes Archaeology, North American Archaeology, Asian Archaeology, Ethnology, Physical Anthropology, New World High Civilizations and Old World High Civilizations. The museum currently has twelve curators, in addition to other professional and support staff.
Today, the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology is one of the major research facilities in the United States for the collection and study of archaeological and ethnological materials.
(A published history of the museum may be found in The University of Michigan, An Encyclopedic Survey. In addition to the historical materials found in this record group, information on the history and activities of the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology may be found in other record groups held by the Bentley Historical Library, most notably the James B. Griffin Papers.)
Directors of the Museum of Anthropology and the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology
| Date |
Event |
| 1929-1943 | Carl E. Guthe |
| 1944-1946 | James B. Griffin (acting) |
| 1946-1975 | James B. Griffin |
| 1975-1983 | Richard I. Ford |
| 1983-1986 | Jeffrey R. Parsons |
| 1986-1989 | John D. Speth |
| 1989-1992 | Henry T. Wright |
| 1992-1997 | John M. O'Shea |
| 1997-2002 | Robert Whallon |
| 2002-2005 | Richard I. Ford |
| 2005-2011 | Carla M. Sinopli |
| 2011-2016 | Joyce Marcus |
| 2016-2017 | James E. Penner-Hahn (interim) |
| 2017- | Michael L. Galaty |
