The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (formerly the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology) is an anthropology

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

located in Berkeley,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, on the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

, campus.

History

Founded in 1901 under the patronage of

Phoebe Apperson Hearst Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst (December 3, 1842 – April 13, 1919) was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. Hearst was the founder of the University of California Museum of Anthropology, now called the Phoebe A. Hearst Mu ...

, the original goal of the museum was to support systematic collecting efforts by

archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes ...

and

ethnologists Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

in order to support a department of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

. The museum was originally located in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

from 1903 (open to the public as of 1911) until 1931, when it moved to the campus of the

. On the Berkeley campus, the museum was located in the former Civil Engineering Building until 1959, when, as the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology, it was moved to the newly built Kroeber Hall. In 1991, the museum's name was changed to recognize the essential role of

as founder and patron. Today the museum functions as a research unit of the University of California. Many notable names in American anthropology have been associated with the museum. These include the museum's first director

Frederic Ward Putnam Frederic Ward Putnam (April 16, 1839 – August 14, 1915) was an American anthropologist and biologist. Biography Putnam was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Ebenezer (1797–1876) and Elizabeth (Appleton) Putnam. After leaving ...

, the anthropologists

Alfred L. Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...

Robert Lowie Robert Harry Lowie (born '; June 12, 1883 – September 21, 1957) was an Austrian-born American anthropologist. An expert on Indigenous peoples of the Americas, he was instrumental in the development of modern anthropology and has been described as ...

, and

William Bascom __NOTOC__ William R. Bascom (May 23, 1912 – September 11, 1981) was an award-winning American folklorist, anthropologist, and museum director. He was a specialist in the art and culture of West Africa and the African Diaspora, especially the Y ...

, paleoanthropologists

Francis Clark Howell Francis Clark Howell (November 27, 1925 – March 10, 2007), generally known as F. Clark Howell, was an American anthropologist. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, F. Clark Howell grew up in Kansas, where he became interested in natural history. H ...

and

Tim D. White Tim D. White (born August 24, 1950) is an American paleoanthropologist and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for leading the team which discovered Ardi, the type specimen of ''Ardipithecu ...

, Egyptologists Klaus Baer and Cathleen Keller, and archaeologists

Max Uhle Friedrich Max Uhle (25 March 1856 – 11 May 1944) was a German archaeologist, whose work in Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia at the turn of the Twentieth Century had a significant impact on the practice of archaeology of South America. Biograph ...

George Reisner George Andrew Reisner Jr. (November 5, 1867 – June 6, 1942) was an American archaeologist of Ancient Egypt, Nubia and Palestine. Biography Reisner was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His parents were George Andrew Reisner I and Mary Elizabeth ...

, John Howland Rowe,

J. Desmond Clark John Desmond Clark (10 April 1916 – 14 February 2002) was a British archaeologist noted particularly for his work on prehistoric Africa. Early life Clark was born in London, but his childhood was spent in a hamlet in the Chiltern Hills of B ...

David Stronach David Brian Stronach (10 June 1931 – 27 June 2020) was a British archaeologist of ancient Iran and Iraq. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Stronach was an expert on the city of Pasargadae. He was edu ...

, Crawford Hallock Greenewalt Jr. and

Patrick Vinton Kirch Patrick Vinton Kirch is an American archaeologist and Professor EmeritusPatrick V. Kirch
University ...

. It was also the final residence of

Ishi Ishi ( – March 25, 1916) was the last known member of the Native Americans in the United States, Native American Yana people#Yahi, Yahi people from the present-day state of California in the United States. The rest of the Yahi (as well as ...

, who lived there, in San Francisco, from 1911 until his death in 1916.

Collections

The museum houses an estimated 3 million objects plus extensive documentation that includes

fieldnotes Fieldnotes refer to qualitative notes recorded by scientists or researchers in the course of field research, during or after their observation of a specific organism or phenomenon they are studying. The notes are intended to be read as evidence ...

, photographs, and sound and film recordings. Major collections include: *Approximately 9,000 California Indian

basket A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehai ...

s, representing almost every tribe in California and all of the region's basketry techniques. * A broad collection of approximately 20,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts, with special emphasis on the various

predynastic Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt span the period from the earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period around 3100 BC, starting with the first Pharaoh, Narmer for some Egyptologists, Hor-Aha for others, with th ...

cultures. The core of this collection comes from excavations carried out by

between 1899 and 1905. * A large

Peruvian Peruvians ( es, peruanos) are the citizens of Peru. There were Andean and coastal ancient civilizations like Caral, which inhabited what is now Peruvian territory for several millennia before the Spanish conquest of Peru, Spanish conquest in th ...

collection, especially strong in

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

and

textiles Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

, including 9,200 objects collected by

at the turn of the century. * Approximately 32,000 African artifacts collected under anthropologist William Bascom and his students, and from the excavations of archaeologist

. * An important collection of Oceanic objects, including collections from the Trobriand Islands made by Bronislaw Malinowski in the early 1900s and archaeological collections from excavations in

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consis ...

and

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

undertaken by E.W. Gifford in the 1940s and 1950s.

Programs and activities

In addition to supporting scholarly research and publication, the museum mounts exhibitions in a gallery located on the

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

campus, sponsors public educational programs, and works with Native American communities on issues related to cultural property and

repatriation Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

. The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology is accredited by the

American Alliance of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

Directors

The Hearst Museum's directors have regularly been practicing anthropologists: * Frederic W. Putnam (1903–09) *

(curator, 1908–1925; director, 1925–46) * Edward W. Gifford (1947–55) * George M. Foster (acting director, 1955–57) * William R. Bascom (1957–79) * James Deetz (1979–88) *

Burton Benedict Burton Benedict (May 20, 1923September 19, 2010) was an American anthropologist. He interrupted his studies at Harvard University to serve in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. After graduation he studied for a doctorate at ...

(1988–94) * Rosemary Joyce (1994–99) *

Patrick Vinton Kirch Patrick Vinton Kirch is an American archaeologist and Professor EmeritusPatrick V. Kirch
University ...

(1999–2002) * Douglas Sharon (2002–2006) * Kent G. Lightfoot (acting director, 2006–2007) * C. Judson King (acting director, 2007–2009) * Mari Lyn Salvador (2009-2015) * Benjamin W. Porter (2015-2020)

References

External links