National Museum of Natural History Department of Anthropology

National Museum of Natural History Department of Anthropology
Name	National Museum of Natural History Department of Anthropology
Established	1963
Location	Washington, D.C., United States
Type	Anthropology department within a natural history museum

National Museum of Natural History Department of Anthropology is a major research and curatorial unit within the Smithsonian Institution located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The department maintains extensive ethnographic, archaeological, and osteological collections that support scholarship, exhibitions, and public programs. It collaborates with museums, universities, and indigenous communities internationally to document cultural heritage and advance anthropological knowledge.

History

The department traces institutional roots to early Smithsonian collectors such as James Smithson, Joseph Henry, Spencer Fullerton Baird, John Wesley Powell, and William McPherson Rice and grew alongside the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution Building and later the National Museum of Natural History (United States). In the 19th and 20th centuries the department intersected with figures and institutions including Theodore Roosevelt, Alice Cunningham Fletcher, George Bird Grinnell, Franz Boas, Aleš Hrdlička, Alfred Kroeber, Clark Wissler, and collections exchanges with the British Museum, Musée de l'Homme, Royal Ontario Museum, and American Museum of Natural History. Major moments involved legislation and initiatives such as the Smithsonian Institution Act, repatriation developments linked to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and collaborative projects with the National Park Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Over decades the department hosted curators and scholars like William Duncan Strong, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Julian Steward, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Mary Leakey, Lewis Binford, and later researchers connected with University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Stanford University, and University of Cambridge.

Collections

The department's holdings encompass archaeological materials, ethnographic objects, photographs, sound recordings, and human remains sourced from regions represented by institutions such as the National Anthropological Archives and partnerships with the Library of Congress, British Library, Smithsonian Institution Archives, American Folklife Center, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Significant geographic collections relate to Mesoamerica, Andean civilizations, Mississippian culture, Ancestral Puebloans, Northeast Woodlands, Pacific Islanders, Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Ainu people, Siberia, Saami people, Maori people, Aboriginal Australians, Sub-Saharan Africa, Ancient Egypt, Near East, Indus Valley Civilization, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, China, Japan, and Korea. The department curates materials from archaeological sites like Cahokia, Chaco Canyon, Machu Picchu, Teotihuacan, Tikal, Copán, Palenque, Monte Albán, Stonehenge, Pompeii, Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük, Thebes (Egypt), Mohenjo-daro, and Harappa. Collections include comparative skeletal series connected to researchers from Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Natural History Museum, London, and the Field Museum of Natural History. The photographic archives contain works by Edward S. Curtis, Carleton Watkins, Ansel Adams, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and ethnographic photographers associated with Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict. Sound and field recordings link to collections formed by Alan Lomax, Frances Densmore, Bronislaw Malinowski, and collaborations with UNESCO.

Research and Programs

Research spans archaeology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, and applied heritage science, with projects funded or partnered with agencies and organizations such as the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank, United Nations, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, American Anthropological Association, Society for American Archaeology, Society for Historical Archaeology, International Council of Museums, ICOMOS, Pew Charitable Trusts, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and foundations associated with universities like Princeton University, Duke University, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, Northwestern University, and Dartmouth College. The department leads archaeological fieldwork at sites connected to research on human evolution alongside institutions such as Kenyatta University, National Museums of Kenya, Ethiopian Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, and paleoanthropological collaborations with teams including Donald Johanson, Tim D. White, Meave Leakey, and Zeresenay Alemseged. Laboratory research integrates methods from groups at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and partners using radiocarbon dating, isotopic analysis, paleogenomics, and 3D imaging.

Exhibitions and Public Outreach

Public-facing exhibitions draw on the department’s holdings and collaborations with museums such as the National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of American History, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Renwick Gallery, Cooper Hewitt, Museum of the American Indian, Newseum, International Spy Museum, National Gallery of Art, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Centre Pompidou, and travelling exhibits coordinated with the Smithsonian Exhibits team. Past and rotating exhibits have included topics linked to Lucy (Australopithecus) discoveries, Kennewick Man, Homo floresiensis, Clovis culture, Mississippian chiefdoms, Netsilik people, Tlingit regalia, Inuit technologies, Polynesian navigation, Easter Island, Rapa Nui, Olmec colossal heads, Maya glyphs, Aztec codices, and reconstructions drawn from ongoing research with universities and cultural institutions. Outreach includes public lectures, digital initiatives with platforms like Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, web-based galleries, podcasts featuring scholars from Oxford University, University of Oxford, Cambridge University, and community repatriation efforts responding to policies such as Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Education and Training

The department supports graduate internships, postdoctoral fellowships, and training linked to academic programs at University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, San Diego, University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, University of Florida, Rutgers University, Pennsylvania State University, Michigan State University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, and collaborations with museum studies programs at Smithsonian Institution affiliates and international exchanges with École du Louvre and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Professional development for curators and conservators aligns with standards from American Alliance of Museums and conservation science units coordinated with Getty Conservation Institute and Baltimore Museum of Art conservation labs. Fellowship programs honor legacies of donors and scholars connected to trusts such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation.

Staff and Administration

Staff includes curators, research scientists, collections managers, conservators, archivists, education specialists, and administrative leadership working within the administrative framework of the Smithsonian Institution. Notable curators and administrators historically and recently have collaborated with scholars and institutions including Florence Bascom, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, E. O. Wilson, Jane Goodall, Richard Leakey, Kathleen Kenyon, Mortimer Wheeler, Gertrude Bell, Howard Carter, Lord Carnarvon, William F. Albright, Kathleen Kenyon, and contemporary partnerships with directors and trustees from leading cultural organizations and universities. The department’s governance, hiring, and strategic planning follow Smithsonian policies and involve advisory boards with representatives from partner institutions like National Endowment for the Humanities and international museum networks.

Category:Smithsonian Institution