Word: museumful
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Museum's magnificent collection of Fiji Island textiles and ceremonial staffs which was collected in the nineteenth century by Alexander Agassiz, remains unlabeled and so cramped in its display that nothing can be seen to any advantage. These materials are also unclassified by tribes, severely limiting study of these objects...
More material, though, is continually coming to the Museum. A ship is now carrying to Boston 38 wooden boxes of new specimens obtained by a Museum exhibition in Nicaragua. These will have to fit somewhere. The usefulness of this new Nicaragua collection, as well as some parts of the Museum's rarely used study material, is questionable. Though a Permanent Committee on Storage Space carefully weeds out many such useless items, this work requires anthropological research on a truly sweeping scale. The Museum does not have unlimited storage space, and the upkeep of a catalogue is complex and expensive enough...
...exhibitions, space is not a major problem. The Museum's big Victorian hallways have much potential area for new displays if the space is used with ingenuity. Director Brew was able to make a reading room for the Library out of some first floor gallery space and still retained every case in the exhibit--and in a better arrangement than before...
...needed to remedy these ills. For instance, it took one graduate student one and a half years of laborsome research to revise four cases of Iroquois and Algonquin tools. For every item selected, a thousand were discarded. This is something which more money could not quickly accomplish for the Museum. Yet here too money could help. It seems only fair that those volunteers who devote so much extra time to the Museum be remunerated. Also, an honorarium for such services would encourage others who are qualified but far less free with their time to work for the Peabody...
Beside these research exhibits, the Museum must also be concerned about its displays for the general public, for these shows "at the level of Anthropology 1" attract the greatest number of visitors. Poor lighting and insufficient labelling plague many of these exhibitions in the large halls. For example, the nineteen cases of African specimens on the fifth floor are illumined by only two lamps in the center of the room. To make matters worse, the shades are drawn presumabaly to prevent the exhibits from fading...