Who knew that a statistics class could lead you to timing the cataloging of artifacts? That is exactly what happened to our group this spring, and we are so glad it did.
We are a group of Phillips Academy upperclassmen and seniors: Meara Wang, Jay Jung, Ayush Gupta, Tasnia Begum, and I, Sophia Lazar. We are enrolled in Mr. Noureddine El Alam’s Project-Based Statistics class, where students apply statistical methods to solve real-world problems for real partners. Rather than solely working through textbook exercises, we take on actual projects with organizations and institutions, gathering data, running analyses, and presenting findings that can make a tangible difference. Past classes have partnered with places like the Addison Gallery of American Art and the PA Admissions Office, and when Mr. El Alam introduced the Peabody as an option, our team knew right away that it was the one for us. We wanted to work on something that genuinely inspired us, and the Peabody fit perfectly.
Our project centers on a question the Peabody has been grappling with: how long would it actually take to bring the museum’s artifact catalog up to an excellent standard, and what would better staffing make possible? To answer that, we needed data on the cataloging process itself, specifically how long it takes to catalog different types of artifacts. That meant a visit to the Peabody’s temporary location, where John Bergman-McCool and Marla Taylor walked us through a hands-on mock session. Because working directly with the real collection is not always feasible, John and Marla guided us through a range of representative mock artifacts so we could time the process across different object types and gather enough data points for a meaningful analysis. It was hands-on, eye-opening, and honestly a lot of fun.
With that data in hand, we are now building a statistical model to estimate how long a full cataloging effort would take under different staffing scenarios. The idea is to take our timing measurements, account for the variety of artifact types in the collection, and project out what various levels of staffing could realistically accomplish over time. The final report will go directly to the Peabody, and we hope it gives them something genuinely useful as they plan for the future.
What surprised me most was how much I came to care about the outcome. When you walk through a collection and realize just how much history is sitting there, waiting to be properly documented and shared with the world, the stakes feel very real. We came into this wanting to do meaningful work, and we are leaving with a much deeper appreciation for everything that goes into preserving and making accessible our shared cultural heritage. We hope our work makes a real difference!
The team together at the Peabody’s temporary location during our data collection session.Marla Taylor walking Meara through the steps of cataloging a mock artifact.
In the fall of 2024, I reached out to Dr. Ryan Wheeler to learn more about the collection of Ancient Mediterranean artifacts that I knew were housed at the Peabody. I didn’t yet know the extent of what the collection contained, or what sort of project I might want to take on, but I knew I wanted to learn more, and that I wanted to help the Peabody learn more, too, by enhancing its catalog records. Dr. Wheeler shared with me a catalog of the objects that the Peabody houses, including a folder with all their photographs. After taking a quick look, I found myself drawn to this hydria:
Hydria (jug) housed at the Peabody Institute, 1989.984.4.2.
This is where I chose to focus my independent research. Initial identification of the Ancient Mediterranean collections at the Peabody was provided by Dr. Laure Marest, then a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She described 1989.984.4.2 as a “hydria (jug) with a man and a woman holding a dove above an omphalos”, made from red-figure ceramics, dating to the late 4th century BCE, and attributed to the Hellenistic period in the Campanian region. This served as my starting point, and the direction for my research: to learn more about this type of pottery, and to identify who this man and woman might be.
I began by researching the history and evolution of Hellenistic vessels (ceramic containers produced during the Hellenistic period, roughly from the late 4th to the 1st centuries B.C.E., used for practical, ritual, or decorative purposes), from proto-geometric and geometric techniques to black-figure and, finally, red-figure, the technique used for this artifact. Red-figure pottery eventually took precedence over black-figure because it allowed artists to leave figures in the clay’s natural red while painting the background black. Instead of laboriously incising details, artists could draw them more freely, making the technique better suited to naturalistic depictions of anatomy, garments, and emotion. I also researched the different types of Attic pottery, or pottery produced in the region of Attica, Greece, especially in Athens, which became a major center of Greek vase production. These forms included hydriai, lekythoi, amphorae, kraters, and many more. In doing so, I learned that a hydria is a three-handled water jar, typically with two horizontal handles for lifting and one vertical handle for pouring.
Understanding the broader historical and artistic context of the pot assisted my hypotheses of the figures’ identities. Since the woman on the right is holding a dove, I predicted that she was Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, whose sacred animal is the dove. After finding more vessels online with Aphrodite depicted and comparing them with the illustration on this pot, I was confident that the well-decorated lady with her hair tied in a bunch, open beaded cap, earrings, necklace, and bracelets was Aphrodite.
A closer view of the front of the hydria’s shoulder, with the now-identified Aphrodite.
Then came the most challenging part: identifying the man on the left of the hydria. At first glance, there was nothing symbolic about the figure, except that he stood casually beside Aphrodite, showing no sign of reverence typically expected toward a goddess, therefore implying that he may be a god himself. I searched online databases and museum collections for depictions of various gods on Attic pottery and for their characteristics. Then, I remembered, too, that Dr. Marest had described the large object in between Aphrodite and this man as an “omphalos.” Originating from the Ancient Greek word “ὀμφαλός,” meaning “navel,” an omphalos symbolizes the center of the world, glory, and birth and death in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. I later learned that the omphalos was also a marble monument discovered at Delphi, Greece, a religious sanctuary dedicated to Apollo.
Close up on the omphalos.
Thinking about the relationship between the omphalos and Apollo, the fact that fillets (decorative bands of cloth often used as religious offerings), which adorn the omphalos, were often offered by worshippers consulting Apollo’s oracle, and the laurel wreath commonly worn by the nude Apollo, I suspected that this man could be Apollo. After researching more vessels online with depictions of Apollo, I found various similarities in the iconography, such as Apollo holding a staff in a print at the British Museum.
A laurel wreath, a staff, and an omphalos with fillets.
I wrote up my findings for the Peabody Institute and created slides of my research to present my findings to others. After coordinating with Dr. Lainie Schultz (Peabody Institute), Dr. Elizabeth Meyer (Instructor, Phillips Academy Classics Department), and Dr. Paige Roberts (Director, Phillips Academy Archives and Special Collections), I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to present my findings in person at the “History Up Close” event on April 30th, open to the Phillips Academy campus. The excitement of this experience also came from learning from the audience, many of whom asked very thoughtful questions about not only the iconography on the hydria but also the iconology, which gave me clearer next steps for my research.
Selene presenting her research at the “History Up Close” event. Photo by Jessie Wallner.
Never would I have thought that I would have this amazing opportunity as a high schooler. I am also extremely grateful that this experience sparked my interest in archaeology, inspiring me to expand my research on Attic pottery even beyond the Peabody.
Hi, I’m Aaron Bai, and I’m an upper (11th grader) at Phillips Academy. I’ve always been interested in history and the humanities. As a child, I would spend hours in the school library reading books on mythology and history from cultures all around the world. As I grew older, I would read and even write about interesting topics in my free time, from the Garamantes during the Roman Empire to modern extremism in the Sahel. I have come to believe that only through studying human culture and society throughout its history can we better understand who we are and how we came to be. Though the present may differ considerably from the days of Lucius Cincinnatus or George Washington, for instance, their legacies and the similarities in the challenges and decisions we face make it such that uncovering their stories unmasks more of our own.
Following my interests, I chose to work at the Peabody for my work-duty requirement during my lower year (10th grade). This turned out to be a great decision— I had the rare opportunity to help organize, document, and analyze the Peabody’s vast collection of artifacts, from Neolithic stone tools to Native American ceramics. Working closely with these objects allowed me to engage directly with material history and learn the stories behind them in a unique and deeply meaningful way. This year, with work duty completed, I have continued to volunteer at the Peabody every week, helping research and document its collection of coinage from the Ancient Mediterranean, which serves as an amazing window into the societies and belief systems of the ancient world.
Given my interest in anthropology, I joined the Andover Anthropological Society last year, a student club here on campus, and later applied to take on a leadership position. Now serving as co-president of the club, I hope to raise awareness of this remarkable resource at our school and expand opportunities for students to engage with the Peabody and the collections there, whether through open houses, workshops, or research projects. It may even be worthwhile exploring engagement beyond the student body, such as inviting local schools to participate in open houses or lectures. In any case, I am very excited and look forward to working with the Peabody on these initiatives.
Aaron sharing his coin research with members of the Phillips Academy campus.
My name is Barrett Kim, and I’m an upper (11th grader) at Phillips Academy interested in biological sciences, though what draws me most isn’t exclusively the science, but the philosophical questions of how we got here.
I came across anthropology very spontaneously. A friend mentioned a research project through the Andover Anthropological Society, specifically exploring gender dynamics in Indigenous artifacts. Their hard work and insightful research immediately fascinated me. Around the same time, I was reading Orwell, Bradbury, and Salinger, writers who kept returning to the same warning: societies fail when they forget their own past. Anthropology felt like the applied, real-life version of the messages those books portrayed. If you want to understand where humans are going, you must understand where we’ve been. Anthropology turned out to be the perfect intersection of biology and sociology, two fields most people treat as completely separate.
Coming into Phillips Academy, I had no idea what anthropology was; however, after exploring the field and its importance, I felt like I had to help share what I learned. This desire to inspire others made me pursue a leadership role with the club and the Peabody Institute, not because I had everything figured out, but because I wanted to guide others into learning anthropology’s importance.
Looking ahead, I’m really excited to work with the Peabody. We have a professional archaeological institute on our campus, and most students walk right past it. Next year I want to help encourage students to use this valuable resource to explore our past and shape the understanding of our futures. Working with Aaron, we envision a place where genuine questions can be passionately explored, and where the work we do helps expand people’s worldviews.
Barrett (left) at a Peabody event organized by the Phillips Academy Biology Club.
This month our Peabody Curator of Collections, Marla Taylor, was featured in Phillips Academy’s “Employee Spotlight” section of the campus community Gazette – a weekly internal newsletter for Phillips Academy faculty and staff.
Each week, a member of the PA campus community is nominated and selected to share details about their role and work. We are excited to see one of our Peabody staff members highlighted and are grateful for all the support Marla has contributed in the 18+ years she has been with the Peabody and Phillips Academy.
Check out the article below and congratulations to Marla for being featured!
In January of this year, Peabody Institute staff were kicked out of the Peabody Institute building as the start of renovations loomed near. Fortunately, construction elsewhere at Phillips Academy meant that the Dean of Students moved into new digs, leaving available their suite in the basement of George Washington Hall to claim as our temporary-own. A Goldilocks fit, the space had five desks available for five Peabody folk, plus a bonus meeting room for meetings.
Or – could it be a meeting room for classes? Lore tells of Peabody staff moving into the School Room on the Abbot Academy campus for the first phase of building renovations. To continue teaching classes, staff valiantly packed up boxes of collections, carrying them from classroom to classroom along with all their teaching supplies: gloves, ethafoam, trays, and, goodness help them, laptops.
I wasn’t at the Peabody yet, so I have only heard the tale. It sounded very impressive and intrepid and like quite the adventure, and every lazy bone in my body knew I wanted nothing to do with it. And so, with my colleagues, I began carefully planning every piece of furniture we would bring over to our GW bonus room, with every permutation of every collections activity thought out. We measured twice and cut once, determined to make this suite available for teaching.
There is nothing more satisfying than a carefully considered plan that actually goes exactly as intended. Is it sometimes maybe slightly cramped? Yes. Does it always work? Yes. Am I a little smug? Oh, heck, yes.
Trying our hands (and waists and legs) at some new instruments with MUS410 Your Musical Brain.
Meeting the Inuit who met the Vikings with HSS100B Sojourns Across a Connected World.
Prepping for the ceramics studio with ART302 Clay and the Ancestral Pot. (What? Room to stand up and walk around? Incredible.)
Imagining the world of the New Testament with PHR330 New Testament.
We had a successful PA Giving Day last week! Special thanks to all those who participated in supporting the Peabody and contributing to our match challenge, generously shared by a pair of Peabody donors.
PA Giving Day represents a critical milestone in our fundraising efforts for the Peabody. Last year we raised 77% of the Peabody’s total annual support from 65 donors in just one day, achieving our match goal in the process and engaging new PA alumni and friends of the Peabody during PA’s collective day of giving.
This year our goal was to exceed last year’s success by leveraging this collective day of giving to achieve even more in honor of our year of critical Peabody milestones and to celebrate the Peabody’s 125th anniversary.
The final dollar figures and donor counts for the Peabody are not in yet, but the overall day raised over $1.6 million from more than 1,850 donors towards Andover academics, financial aid, the arts, athletics, and outreach programs.
Front page of the Illustrated London News. January 26, 1901.
Margaret Mead stamp, US Postal Service souvenir sheet, Celebrate The Century: 1920s. May 28,1998. Copyright United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
British and Japanese forces engage Boxers in battle.
“Melbourne Rejoices in the Commonwealth.” Parliament of Australia.
Booth’s vacuum cleaner at work, 1903. Science Museum Group Collection.
Jagtime Johnson’s Ragtime March; 1901 sheet music cover.
1901 Chicago White Stockings.
Nobel Prize medal.
1901 Kidder Steam Runabout, Kidder Motor Vehicle Company advertisement. New Haven, CT.
Spread from the 1901 Circle, Abbot Academy Yearbook.
Hitting a major birthday like a 125th is no small thing. Even institutions established to preserve history in perpetuity – like, say, an archaeology museum – rarely last even a fraction of that time. The Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology reaches this milestone on March 21, and it offers a moment for introspection: how did we manage to make it this long? What has the Peabody done in that time? What from our past continues to inspire us today – whether as something we seek to sustain or that guides us toward new directions?
I hope you aren’t now looking at me to answer any of these questions. These are thoughts to let tumble around the entirety of this anniversary year, and beyond. (Possibly we should all start our quasquicentennial with a (re)reading of “Glory, Trouble, and Renaissance at the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology” – because, yes, Emma, I am fancy!).
Instead, I want to go all the way back to the beginning. If we are going to ask how far the Peabody has gone, we have to know where the Peabody started. This makes me wonder: What was the world the Peabody was born into? What did 1901 look like? With the help of Google, below is an absurdly partial snapshot of life as the Peabody came onto the scene.
[Word of warning: despite my best intentions, it turns out that when you’re doing a Google search, in English, with an internet connection in MA, and an education obtained almost entirely in the US, Canada, and Australia; and when you’re trying to find examples of events that you think will be “recognizable” and “interesting” – you end up with a pretty biased list. You would almost think from my snapshot below that the only noteworthy things to happen came out of the US and Great Britain (which I think is wrong?). Please bear in mind AAALLLLLL the other places and people and happenings not remotely referenced here while reading.]
In no particular order and with truly no claims of significance:
A lot a lot a lot of people died. Some of these deaths were noted by historians, and even the general public. These included: Queen Victoria (at the time the longest reigning monarch of Great Britain); President William McKinley (the third US sitting president to be assassinated); and Cecil Franklin Patch Bancroft (the 8th Principal of Andover’s Phillips Academy).
A lot a lot a lot of people were born. Even more than the number of people who died. Eventually history would care about some of them. These included: Louis Armstrong, Walt Disney, Hirohito, Langston Hughes, Margaret Mead, and Ed Sullivan.
As typical, there were far too many military engagements. Such as: the Second Boer War in South Africa (then ongoing); the Philippine-American War (then ongoing); the War of a Thousand Days/Colombian civil war (then ongoing); and the Boxer Uprising/Yihetuan Movement in China (formally ended with the signing of the Boxer Protocol).
Other political-type stuff happened: The six British colonies of Australia federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia. The US’s Platt Amendment made Cuba a US protectorate. The US and Great Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, giving the US exclusive right to build and manage a canal in Panama. In his first annual message to Congress, US President Theodore Roosevelt stressed the need to treat Native Americans as individuals rather than as members of separate sovereign nations, and to break up tribal funds in the same way allotment broke up tribal lands.
We got some cool new technologies: Guglielmo Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio transmission; it said “S.” The first United Kingdom Fingerprint Bureau was established at Scotland Yard, using Edward Henry’s classification system; it worked way better than phrenology. Hubert Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction cleaner and started offering mobile cleaning services; his vacuum was large enough to frighten horses (it was also drawn by horses. This sounds messy). Satori Kato introduced his vacuum-dried coffee granules – aka instant coffee – at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY. (Also where President McKinley was shot. Yikes.).
There was a bunch of art and culture: Beatrix Potter published the Tale of Peter Rabbit. Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche posthumously published her brother Friedrich’s The Will to Power. H.G. Wells got it close with The First Men in the Moon (would have nailed it with first man on the moon…). Anton Chekhov’s play “Three Sisters” premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre. Vincent Van Gogh had his first retrospective, in a gallery in Paris. Pablo Picasso had his first major exhibit, also in a gallery in Paris. Sergei Rachmaninoff composed Piano Concerto No. 2; Claude Debussy offered Pour le piano; and Edward Elgar started his Pomp and Circumstance series with Marches No. 1 and 2 ( graduation ceremonies had no idea what was coming for them). But Americans REALLY loved parlor ballads, ragtime, and marching band music; they still could not get enough of Sousa’s Band’s Stars and Stripes Forever.
Are sports art and culture? Let’s just call it sports: The Winnipeg Victorias edged out the Montreal Shamrocks to win the Stanley Cup. Fútbol Club Atlético River Plate was founded in Argentina. The American League was established and the Chicago White Stockings (adorable!) won the first AL pennant. The Pittsburg Pirates took the National League pennant.
The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm to Wilhelm Röntgen (Physics), Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff (Chemistry), Emil von Behring (Medicine), Sully Prudhomme (Literature), and jointly to Frédéric Passy and Jean Henry Dunant (Peace).
In other odds and ends: J.P. Morgan incorporated U.S. Steel as the first billion-dollar corporation. Mr. Walgreen opened the first Walgreens. The first successful loop-the-loop roller coaster opened on Coney Island (it was called the Loop-the-Loop). Connecticut set the first speed limit law (12 mph in cities; 15 mph on country roads) and forced cars to stop if they were scaring horses. Schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor celebrated her 63rd birthday by going over Niagara Falls in a barrel and surviving, proving…something?
Immediately closer to home: fifteen young women graduated from Abbot Academy, and William Clarence Matthews graduated from Phillips Academy. No one knew it yet, but Matthews would go from leading the batting average on Harvard’s baseball team to playing on the Burlington, Vermont team of the Northern League, making him the only Black player in any white professional baseball league at the time. When he was barred from playing in the Major League he had to settle for being a lawyer instead, eventually getting appointed to the Justice Department by President Calvin Coolidge. Big mistake, MLB. Huge.
We are just over a month away from celebrating the founding anniversary of the Peabody Institute of Archaeology (originally known as the Department of Archaeology) at Phillips Academy Andover. This year marks a special milestone for the Peabody, being our 125th Anniversary, that’s quasquicentennial if you’re fancy!
This blog celebrates the founding history of the Peabody as captured by Phillips Academy’s student newspaper, The Phillipian, and acts as a “save the date” for more ways to celebrate with the Peabody throughout the year.
Department of Archaeology, 1906.
On Thursday, March 21, 1901, the Trustees of Phillips Academy established the Department of Archaeology at a meeting held in Boston. An anonymous donor and friend of the Academy, “provided a foundation sufficient for the erection of a suitable building, an endowment for instruction, research, and publication, together with a large collection.”
The inaugural officers of the Department of Archaeology were Dr. Cecil F.P. Bancroft (Principal of Phillips Academy), Charles Peabody (first Peabody Director), and Warren K. Moorehead (first Peabody Curator and Chief Executive Officer of the Archaeology Department).
In later years, the anonymous donor was recognized as Phillips Academy alumnus, Robert S. Peabody (Class of 1857), the namesake of our institution. Peabody’s passion for archaeology led him to create the archaeology program to encourage young students’ interest in archaeological sciences and to foster respect and appreciation for Native American culture. In addition, the institution would support archaeological research and serve as a place for students of Phillips Academy to gather.
The original name of the Peabody is still present above the building’s front entrance.
At the time (1901), this was the largest single gift to the Academy and included Peabody’s collection of nearly 40,000 items. It was not only rare but quite unusual for a preparatory school to have its own department of archaeology with international connections and a major collection.
The new archaeology department was officially dedicated on Wednesday, May 1, 1901. Warren K. Moorehead spoke at a campus chapel meeting describing upcoming construction for the department and that a new building would be located on the corner of Phillips and Main Streets, where the current institute resides today. “The collection is now in Philadelphia and will be brought here [Phillips Academy] within the next two weeks and placed in the old gymnasium until the new building is finished.” Students from the Archaeology class would meet in the old gymnasium (located in the Brick Academy – the gym incarnation of Bulfinch Hall) on Monday and Thursday afternoons to help Mr. Peabody and Mr. Moorehead unpack the collection. The class met there for weeks while the new building was under construction, the laboratory-style work giving a unique replacement to the typical lectures students attended in their daily classes.
Students unpack Robert S. Peabody’s collections in the school gymnasium, circa 1901. Lantern slide, from the photographic collections, Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology.
In the image above, students are unpacking from the very wooden drawers the Peabody used as housing for the collection, before it was replaced by more sustainable storage material in Phase 1 of the Peabody’s building project in 2023. If you look closely, you’ll see Mr. Moorehead standing in the background overseeing his students’ work!
The first lecture in Archaeology was given by Charles Peabody on October 14, 1901. Lectures were shared between Peabody and Warren K. Moorehead, most taking place in other buildings on campus such as the science building while the Department of Archaeology was under construction. In addition, Moorehead would take students participating in the archaeology class to various sites in the area – examining shell heaps in Ipswich, MA and an Indigenous village site along the Merrimack River near Lawrence, MA.
It is fascinating to see the parallels between current Peabody events and this moment in time – as of January 2026, the Peabody staff have moved out of the Peabody building to a temporary space across campus while the final Phase 2 of the Peabody’s building project begins. In addition, classes with the Peabody are (at present) being taught across other locations on campus during the building’s construction. With our Peabody Director, Ryan Wheeler, even teaching his Human Origins course in the science building as we saw Mr. Peabody and Mr. Moorehead doing about 125 years before!
By October 30, 1901, bids for the new Archaeological building were in and construction was to begin soon after. Guy Lowell was chosen to design the building – the Peabody being his first architectural commission for Phillips Academy. Guy Lowell would later design other buildings on campus such as the Isham Infirmary (1913), Memorial Bell Tower (1922), and Samuel Phillips Hall (1924). Lowell also played a part in the development of the campus “Vista”, the reorganization of the Great Quadrangle, and renovations to Bulfinch Hall (1902). The Boston architect was most renowned for his design of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and New York State Supreme Court Building.
“The main entrance is in the center, opening into a spacious hall wherein the largest specimens in the collection can be shown. On one side of this hall is to be a big exhibition room, with an alcove, and on the opposite side is a similar hall, behind which are the custodian’s office and private apartments, and a cataloguing room.
The building is two stories. The second floor is given over to a room, on one side of the main hall, to be used for lectures and entertainment, with a large platform provided for these purposes. This hall will seat 175 or 200 students. On the other side of the main hall is a large library and reading room and lounging place, with a stack room, which will make it possible to care for 15,000 volumes. The windows on the lower floor are arched at the top, while those of the second are what architects term square headed.
The basement of the building is commodious, but will not be finished at once, although the plan is to have eventually an assembly room, a grill room, various committee rooms for the athletic departments, offices for The Phillipian and Mirror, and possibly a small cooperative store for the benefit of the students.”
For more details about some of the Peabody’s earlier building features, check out my previous blogs here and here!
Peabody Building Plans, 1902
As the new building construction began to reach completion, the Peabody collections were growing from various donations across the country. The archaeology department staff stored the collection in various parts of campus such as the old gymnasium (Bulfinch Hall), the new gymnasium (Borden Gym), and the Administration building (which alone, stored about 30 different collections, totaling to about 4,000 items.)
By early February of 1903, the Peabody collection was officially moved into the new building. Briggs & Allyn, a company in Lawrence, MA built fifteen large museum exhibit cases modeled after the Peabody Harvard Museum to display some of the collections.
The Peabody during the Byers and Johnson era (1936 – 1968)
I did appreciate the Peabody staff’s honesty at the time expressing the difficulties of balancing the move into the building with their academic responsibilities, mentioning “it has been difficult for the officials of the department to conduct class work properly, and for students to understand the course, since all the specimens have been inaccessible… all will welcome the installation of the collections in their proper quarters.”
The formal opening of the new Department of Archaeology building was held on Saturday, March 28, 1903. The opening was celebrated with a reception including performances by the Mandolin and Banjo clubs as well as several speakers from the Academy and Archaeological field. Out of the various addresses by members of the Academy, two stood out – one, from Dr. Robert R. Bishop (on behalf of the Trustees of the Academy) who most gratefully accepted the gift of the new building on behalf of the Trustees, regretting only that “on account of the modesty of the donor, he was not permitted to make known their name.” This being the very donor that we now honor as the namesake of our institution.
Second, from Vice-Principal A.E. Stearns (on behalf of the Faculty of the Academy) who mentions a very significant fact – “that one hundred and twenty-five years ago the first class that ever graduated from Phillips Academy, met for its exercises on the very spot where the new archaeology building now stands.” I find these words timely as the Peabody looks forward to celebrating 125 years in that same spot next month.
In commemoration of our 125th the Peabody will be celebrating all year with upcoming activities, events, special communications, virtual opportunities to connect with our institution, and ways to support the Peabody and our future projects. There is so much more to come that we cannot wait to share with you! Stay tuned and follow us on our socials so you don’t miss out on the festivities!
My name is Jack Angelo and I am a board member and Blog Lead in Andover’s Anthropological Society, a student club we created here at Phillips Academy last year. I first became interested in Anthropology because of the many different topics it could cover, allowing someone to perform curiosity-based research about whatever subject matter interests them. When the other board members and I created the club, we knew most of our members’ research and curiosity would be directed towards our more major projects working in tandem with the Peabody Institute. But, understanding that the larger, focused research projects did not allow total intellectual freedom for the whole club, and that it did not spread our club’s messaging to the whole campus, we decided to create the Andover Anthropological Society Blog Site.
Our blog has now run for almost nine months and has served as an amazing display of the various topics our members are interested in, such as Corporate Consumerism in America, The Rise of Digital Tribalism, and the History of Art in Quarantine. Each post reflects what genuinely interests our writers, allowing people to contribute to the club without having to take part in our larger projects. In this way, the blog has developed into exactly the kind of free representational space we hoped for.
Additionally, the blog is a public source for anybody to read to understand our club’s messaging or to just further their interest in anthropology. We wanted to make sure that what we’re doing in AAS isn’t limited to the people who show up to meetings. By putting our work online, we’re giving the whole Andover community access to the topics we’re exploring and the research our members are doing. If someone’s curious about anthropology but doesn’t know where to start, or if they just want to read about a specific topic, the blog is there for them.
Ultimately, the AAS Blog is about making anthropology accessible. We wanted to create something that anyone could engage with, regardless of whether they’re in the club or have any background in the field. By keeping our work public and covering topics that connect to everyday life, we’ve built a resource that’s open to the entire Andover community.
Flyer for a dance at Phillips Academy capitalized on the Louvre heist, November 2025.
The brazen theft of crown jewels from the Louvre on October 19, 2025 fed the ongoing public fascination with museum heists. From details like which mobile work platform was used to access the museum to issues with security, there was almost endless interest and speculation. Even the dapper high school student mistaken for a French detective captured the world’s attention. Not surprisingly, the museum heist is a classic movie and tv trope from the recent The Mastermind (2025) to How to Steal a Million (1966) to the multiple versions of The Thomas Crown Affair (1968, 1999—and apparently a new one in production!), and many others. Fictional literature about heists could occupy a library. Even students here at Phillips Academy hosted a Louvre heist-themed dance! The exciting and glittery portrayals of museum heists, however, often veer far from the real blend of cunning, avarice, ineptitude, and the real mess that museum thefts leave in their wake. Just a few days before the Louvre heist, thieves gained access to the Oakland Museum’s storage spaces, taking over 1,000 objects, including many Native American items.
Plan of the Louvre from Phillips Academy student trip, 2015.
When I joined the Peabody Institute in 2012, former director Jim Bradley told me to be on alert for missing items, presumed stolen at some unknown point in the museum’s past. Early in Jim’s tenure as director, he had been involved in the recovery of a shell gorget from the Etowah site in Georgia. Since that time several collectors have returned items from Etowah and Maine, and others have been tracked down with the aid of the FBI art crimes team. What we now understand is that the Peabody Institute experienced two thefts—one in late 1970 or early 1971, and another in 1986.
Eagle-Tribune article from 1986 recounts George McLaughlin’s theft of artifacts from the Peabody Museum.
Marla Taylor and John Bergman-McCool recount the theft by George McLaughlin in 1986 in their 2020 blog post. McLaughlin gained access to the Peabody’s collection housing areas at a time when the institution lacked professional staff. That made it easier, but he also stole from other museums across New England and several private collectors. He was ultimately caught by the FBI and prosecuted, but not before removing most of the catalog numbers from the thousands of stone tools that he had taken. It was unclear what McLaughlin’s plans were, but it seems he was readying items for sale. And while the FBI arrest prevented that, to this day we have a large number of items that have lost their original provenience—in other words, a big mess.
Boston Sunday Globe article recounts the return of the Etowah shell gorget (December 27, 1992).
I’ve shared before about an earlier theft at the Peabody Institute (also, see my article in the April 2018 SEAC newsletter). Based on correspondence, we are confident that items from Georgia and Maine were stolen in late 1970 or early 1971 while exhibits were being refreshed and updated. These items had been on display when they were photographed to illustrate Dean Snow’s 1976 book The Archaeology of North America. It seems like they were taken while awaiting reinstallation in the exhibits. As I mentioned above, a number of these items have been returned, either by conscientious collectors or through an investigation by the FBI art crimes team, begun in January 2018 when one of the Etowah items was returned to us. Many of these items are funerary objects and subject to repatriation under the Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Their continued absence complicates those repatriation efforts.
The Indian River Press Journal sought reader opinions about the 1980 theft of Spanish shipwreck treasure from the McLarty Museum and if treasure items should continue to be exhibited (Friday, March 8, 1980, page 8).
Unlike the glamourous (or humorous) fictional depictions of museum heists, these are often crimes of opportunity, driven by greed or misguided ideas about the role of museums in caring for and sharing art and culture. I think one example from my past career as Florida’s state archaeologist aptly captures the stupidity of the museum heist. Our collections in Florida included impressive holdings recovered from the shipwrecks of Spanish treasure galleons. Loans to the McLarty Museum near the survivor’s camp of the 1715 fleet wreck included gold coins and gold bars. In 1980, thieves defeated locks and security systems, but when confronted with the reality of disposing of a gold bar, things took a weird turn. They used a hack saw to begin cutting a gold bar into more saleable (or tradeable) pieces before being apprehended. The gold bar was recovered, but the saw cut end remains at large. During our annual 100% inventory of precious metals and coins our outside auditor frequently questioned what was going on with the clearly chopped up gold, so much so that we finally tucked some of the paperwork and news coverage with the piece to allay fears that we were helping ourselves. The thief in that case ultimately criticized press coverage, telling the court that he was “by no means a professional burglar” and that the theft was just a “reckless impulse.” So, enjoy that museum heist movie or book, but remember, it’s a far cry from the real mess made by these thefts.
The Peabody 
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