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Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Awarded U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Grant

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology has been awarded a Museums for America grant of $150,000 from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Over the next two years, the Museum will catalog, document, inventory, and photograph the Peabody’s most important archaeological collections with the grant.


Rhenish ceramic sherds excavated from Harvard Yard. ©President and Fellows of Harvard College

“Our collection will be more accessible to researchers, especially educators,” says Senior Collections Manager David DeBono Schafer, who will manage the project. “These are among our most requested materials. Now researchers will be able to quickly determine exactly which archaeological objects are in the collection.”

The collection of approximately 20,000 objects includes stone tools from the Leakey excavations in Africa, organic archaeological materials (such as textiles, wood, leather, and basketry), ceramics from the American Southwest, and many historic artifacts from three decades’ excavations in Harvard Yard. “The largest component is Neolithic animal bones from Europe,” says DeBono Schafer.

The Peabody Museum has won generous support from The Institute of Museum and Library Services in the past to preserve the Museum’s collections and create better access to them. Previous IMLS awards to Peabody Museum supported improved teaching, access, preservation, and storage of the Museum’s Map Collection (2009); reformatting and rehousing original catalog and accession records (1996); and environmental improvement for photographic archives (1992) along with several other conservation projects for selected at-risk collections.

IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute’s mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. Museums for America is the Institute’s largest grant program for museums, supporting projects and ongoing activities that build museums’ capacity to serve their communities.

About the Peabody Museum
The Peabody Museum is among the oldest archaeological and ethnographic museums in the world with one of the finest collections of human cultural history found anywhere. It is home to superb materials from Africa, ancient Europe, North America, Mesoamerica, Oceania, and South America in particular. In addition to its archaeological and ethnographic holdings, the Museum’s photographic archives, one of the largest of its kind, hold more than 500,000 historical photographs, dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and chronicling anthropology, archaeology, and world culture.

Hours and location: 9 A.M. to 5 P.M., seven days a week. The Museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Admission is $9 for adults, $7 for students and seniors, $6 for children, 3–18. Free with Harvard ID or Museum membership. The Museum is free to Massachusetts residents Sundays, 9 A.M. to noon, year round, and Wednesdays from 3 P.M. to 5 P.M. (September to May). Admission includes admission to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. For more information call 617-496-1027 or go online to: www.peabody.harvard.edu

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