Marla Taylor

April 27, 2016May 10, 2016

Adopt A Drawer: What is it like to catalog a drawer?

Contributed by Marla Taylor

In fall 2013 the Peabody launched Adopt A Drawer, which connects supporters with our collections. Each gift of $1,000 supports the complete cataloging of one artifact storage drawer. Participants receive an Adopt A Drawer t-shirt, updates on cataloging, and their support is acknowledged with a name plaque and in our online catalog, PastPerfect.

Cataloging the adopted drawers is a time-consuming but rewarding task. Each drawer is selected with care to identify areas of the collection that need a little extra TLC. Often times, I don’t even know what I am going to find in the drawer!

The drawer that I am currently working on has taken quite some time. There are over 130 artifacts – mostly stone tools – from at least 13 different sites across France. Many of them are from cave sites of the Magdalenian era (10,000 – 17,000 years ago), but some of these blades, scrapers, and cores date as far back as 70,000 years old. Some of these tools could have been crafted by the hands of Neanderthals.

When I first began work on the drawer, the tools were piled on top of one another in several smaller boxes. This poor storage can easily lead to damage along the delicately crafted edges of these tools. It was in need of a major upgrade!

With the help of work duty students – I couldn’t do this without them! – each artifact was photographed, measured, and rehoused. I have researched each artifact in our original accession ledgers for location and collection information. These records have then been combined with notes provided by Kathleen Sterling and Sebastien Lacombe of Binghampton University and experts in the lithic technology of France’s Upper Paleolithic who visited the collection in May 2015. I am integrating all of this information into their catalog records and the adoption process is nearly complete.

A student sorting artifacts

A student working to rehouse the artifacts

I will soon share details of the contents of this drawer with its donor and you can access it too by exploring our collection online.

For additional information how to adopt a drawer watch our short video or visit our website.

March 29, 2016

Changing Spaces

Contributed by Marla Taylor

Updating spaces at the Peabody is like playing with a giant sliding puzzle. In order to rearrange one room, you have to make space in another for everything that will be displaced. We wrestled with this puzzle as we recently updated two major spaces at the museum – our basement work room and our main exhibit gallery.

The basement work room is the center of most of the collections work at the Peabody. It is where work duty students, volunteers, and collections staff spends most of their time. And, until recently, it was home to several staff work spaces too. But it was time to refresh the space and make room to spread out the collection as we transfer artifacts from the old wooden drawer to new archival boxes.

Peabody basement work room – before

Peabody basement work room – after

Updating the gallery space was no small task! First, all the old exhibit was dismantled and objects were returned to storage. Then the exhibit cases were removed. And finally, the false walls that confined the space were demolished. Patching and painting is now underway. Future projects will see updated lighting and restoration of the windows.

Peabody gallery – after

Peabody gallery – taking down the walls

Removing the debris

Newly visible collections on display

Peabody exhibit gallery – before

Conversations are on-going about how to utilize this newly empty gallery space. The added space has already benefited our community family days and will hopefully provide space for student curated exhibits and larger student and alumni events.

If you haven’t been over to the Peabody for a while, now is the time!

February 23, 2016

Sharing what you learn – Student presentations

Contributed by Marla Taylor

On the third Tuesday of every month, the Massachusetts Archaeological Society – Gene Winter Chapter invites a guest speaker to their meeting at the Peabody Museum. For the past six years, Phillips Academy students have been invited to speak about their experiences with archaeology at one of these meetings.

On February 16^th, seven students, in three groups, shared their research and work on a variety of topics.

Youth for Restoration: Preserving Local History

Viraj Kumar’s ’17 interest in local history led him to create a non-profit organization that works to preserve and restore local history in Poughquag, New York. He discussed his experiences working with the community on a 19th century grist mill.

Printing History: 3D Rendering of Artifacts

Four students, Alana Gudinas ’16, Jacob Boudreau ’16, Mia LaRocca ’16, and Sarah Schmaier ‘16, were challenged to scan three artifacts from the Peabody Museum’s collection and print them as 3D models. They discussed the process and highlight some of the implications of this technology for museums and other institutions.

More than Meets the Eye: 19^th Century Portrayals of Native Americans

In the 1830s, the first director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs launched an ambitious effort to collect over one hundred portraits of Native Americans. Veronica Nutting ’16 and Alex Armour’16 investigated three of these paintings at the Peabody–how and when they got here, why they’re important, and how they compare to contemporary depictions of Native Americans.

Jacob presents his experience to the MAS

Speaking to an audience of nearly 50 chapter members, professional archaeologists, and members of the PA community, all the presentations were very well received. Congratulations to all the students for their hard work!

Check out this article from the Phillipian to learn even more.

January 21, 2016February 3, 2016

3D Artifact Collaboration

Contributed by Marla Taylor

An exciting new project is taking shape this winter at the Peabody Museum. Work duty students Alana Gudinas ’16, Jacob Boudreau ’16, Mia LaRocca ’16, and Sarah Schmaier ’16 and I are collaborating with the folks at the Nest, the makerspace at Phillips Academy, to scan three artifacts from the Peabody’s collection and print them as 3D models.

Whistle from Tehuacán Valley, Mexico

Figurine from Tehuacán Valley, Mexico

Whistle from Tehuacán Valley, Mexico

The students were challenged to identify artifacts that were stable enough to be transported to the OWHL, which is where the Nest is located; had interesting textural details; and would not be limited by a 360-degree scan along a single plane (i.e., the top and bottom would not be “seen” by the scanner). The three artifacts they selected are from the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico and were excavated by Richard “Scotty” MacNeish in the 1960s. Two of the objects are whistles—we hope their 3D replicas will be playable!

The first scan has been completed, and more are scheduled. The students will clean and manipulate the scans before they print them.

Jacob inspecting the 3D printer

An exhibition about the process and the implications of 3D scanning and printing technology on cultural heritage preservation will be installed in the OWHL at the end of winter term.

A major thank-you to Claudia Wessner, makerspace coordinator and library experience designer at the OWHL, and the Nest work duty students for all their help!

I will keep you updated as work progresses.

January 21, 2016February 3, 2016

Boxes for Books

Contributed by Marla Taylor

Preserving old books on a budget can be tricky. What is an archaeology museum with dozens of historic books to do?

The solution is simple: Utilize archival boxes.

The Peabody recently purchased a small quantity of archival KASEBoxes from ECS Conservation to rehouse about a dozen historic books. Students helped me take detailed measurements of the books so that the boxes could be custom-made. Now, volumes such as Standard History of Essex County, Massachusetts and Warren Moorehead’s annotated copy of Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley are available on the Peabody’s library shelves for use by the Phillips Academy community. These boxes provide a low-cost method of ensuring that fragile, delicate, or rare books are stored properly. Some of these books may eventually be the subject of conservation treatments.

More books are in need of a little TLC, so keep your eyes peeled for new archival boxes on the shelves at the Peabody!

January 21, 2016February 9, 2016

Positive Negatives

Contributed by Marla Taylor

Opening drawers at the Peabody can occasionally lead to a surprise discovery. Recently, approximately 400 acetate negatives were discovered in an “empty” card catalog.

A little investigation revealed that these negatives include the original photographs from Alfred V. Kidder’s The Pottery of Pecos, Volume I. You can see these photos in Kidder’s publication here. The remaining negatives were of photos that Richard “Scotty” MacNeish took during his time at the Peabody, and they range from Canadian artifacts to materials from the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico.

Acetate film, also known as safety film, was introduced by Kodak in the 1930s. Designed to replace nitrate negatives, which can spontaneously combust, acetate was in use for decades. The acids in the film, however, can deteriorate over time and emit a strong vinegar odor, an issue known as vinegar syndrome. The recently discovered negatives are in the early stages of vinegar syndrome.

We are working to preserve these negatives and have already sent approximately one-third of them to the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) for digitization. The NEDCC will capture high-resolution images from the negatives and adjust them to create robust image files. The digitization process should be complete by the end of February.

November 19, 2015

Exploring Etowah One Object at a Time

Contributed by Marla Taylor

A brief exploration of Etowah, an archaeological site in Georgia, is now on display in the Peabody Museum lobby thanks to the efforts of work-duty students.

Along the Etowah River in northwestern Georgia, three massive earthen mounds mark the Etowah site. Etowah was occupied from approximately 1000 to 1600 AD as part of the Mississippian culture that dominated the southeastern United States at the time.

While only approximately 10 percent of the site has been excavated, Etowah has yielded thousands of artifacts ranging from projectile points to elaborate ceramic vessels. These objects reveal a culture with extensive trade routes and an appreciation of fine craftsmanship.

The culture of Etowah is explored through four artifacts—a ceramic vessel, a carved shell gorget, a ceramic pipe, and several shark teeth—researched by four students: Alex Hagler ’16, Jacob Boudreau ’16, Katherine Hall ’17, and Daniel Yen ’18. These students worked hard to write the exhibit text and determine the layout of the case.

Stop by the Peabody to take a look at their work and learn more about Etowah!

One object at a time student exhibit_2 — The final product

November 19, 2015

Race and Identity in Indian Country

The end of fall term means the (temporary) end to one of my favorite collaborations – Marcelle Doheny’s Race and Identity in Indian Country course.

During the fall 2015 term, 11 Phillips Academy students explored the complicated relationship between Native Americans, museums and archaeology. Topics included scientific racism, federal Indian policies, museum collection practices, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The culmination of the course was to use the Peabody collection to re-present the stories in our main exhibit gallery with a more inclusive voice.

Curator of education Lindsay Randall and I co-taught the class with Ms. Doheny. We were able to join most of the class discussions and provide perspective from our archaeology and museum experiences. I also enjoyed making the collection accessible to the students as they worked to create their final projects.

Students examine a headdress from Lakota Chief Rain in the Face

Watching the final presentations of the student’s revised exhibitions during assessment week was the perfect culmination to the term. Every group succeeded in reimaging how Native Americans are traditionally presented in an archaeology museum, moving beyond stone tools and ceramic pots. The students highlighted the continuity of native cultures despite the history of racism and dispossession.

I loved being a part of this course and look forward to being involved again next year!