In addition to routine collection
management and curatorial work, several special projects have
been completed in 1998, including two large-scale collection
documentation projects. Many past and present Museum Science
students have assisted during different stages of both projects.
Several students also presented results of their Collection Practicum
work in the Museum in two sessions at the 1998 Mountain Plains
Museum Association (MPMA) annual meeting.
NPS
project
The project, sponsored by the
National Park Service (NPS), was to photograph all Native American
cultural material in the Ethnology Collection. This project allowed
us to respond to inquiries from Native American tribal organizations
regarding objects in our collection that may be impacted by the
NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
) of 1990.
Our Museum had complied with
NAGPRA requirements by providing summaries in 1993 and inventories
in 1995 to tribal 
organizations
whose cultural materials may be in our collection. Three other
NPS-sponsored projects provided funds for our Museum to invite
several Southern Plains and Southwestern tribal organizations
to examine cultural items in our Collection and in other collaborating
museums in order to identify and document those object that are
culturally affiliated with the tribes.
However, limited resources have
prevented us from providing on-site consultations and examinations
by other tribes. This latest NPS-sponsored project allowed us
to photograph all Native American cultural materials in the Museum
and to incorporate color images of these objects with specifically
formatted NAGPRA records that consolidate all existing documentation
on those items. We have thus far mailed packets to over 50 Native
American tribal organizations, and will continue to accommodate
tribal requests as we receive them.
(Image: CD-ROM
produced as part of NPS-sponsored object Documentational project)
Quilt
project
To date, the Quilter's Guild
of Dallas has funded two quilt documentation projects at the
Museum. The first project involved photography and cursory examination
and documentation of over 200 quilts and quilt tops.
Completed in June 1998, this
database formed the basis for part of the second project. It
involved five collaborating museums in West Texas: our Museum,
the Crosby County Museum and Memorial at Crosbyton, the Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum at Canyon, the Square House Museum at Panhandle,
and the XIT Museum at Dalhart. This project enabled each museum
to document its quilt collection by a quilt historian in preparation
for a planned exhibit and catalog.
The
quilt historian, Barbara Brackman of Lawrence, Kansas, examined
and documented quilt collections in all five museums during her
two-week visit to West Texas in the early part of October, 1998.
In conjunction with this project, the Museum offered a one-day
workshop titled "What to Do with Quilts?" With support
from several local and regional quilters' organizations and specialty
shops, we invited Dr. Marian Ann Montgomery, Director of Interpretation
at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, Dallas, and a quilt
historian and active member of the Quilter's Guild of Dallas,
to join Ms. Brackman as workshop speakers. The workshop covered
topics ranging from a brief discussion on quiltmaking history,
regional traditions, dating and identification of quilts, to
proper methods for care and display of quilts. Over 50 participants,
including quilters, collectors, dealers, and museum workers in
the region attended the workshop on October 10, 1998, at the
Bob Nash Interpretive Center at the Lubbock Lake Landmark State
Historical Park. (Image:
Barbara Brackman lecturing at the "What to do with Quilts?"
workshop. Photographed by Amber Clifford)
MPMA
meeting
On October 1, 1998, staff members
and students working in the Clothing & Textiles Division
actively participated in the MPMA annual meeting in Lubbock,
including presentations in four sessions. One session entitled
"So, When Is Your Next Move?" addressed issues surrounding
the planning, organizing, coordinating, and execution of moving
collections to a new facility, whether a renovated storage area,
or an off-site storage. Mei Campbell chared this session,
and Georgi Contiguglia of the Colorado Historical Society, Danielle
Ruthier of the National Cowgirls Hall of Fame, and the Freedonia
Paschall of Southwest Collection of Texas Tech University presented
individual case studies on the subject of moving at their institutions.
Bar coding for collection inventory,
data loggers to monitor museum environments, and anoxic micro-environments
for pest management and collection storage examined in the session
titled "New Technical Horizons: Collection Management and
the Use of New Technologies." The three methods have been
used in a number of museums around the country. Richard
Monk and Mei Campbell of the Museum and Elaine Hughes of the
Arizona State Museum discussed the application of these new technologies
in their museums.
Three current Museum Science
students and a Museum Science alumnus presented papers in a double
session titled "New Ways to Construct Inexpensive Custom-made
Supports for Collection Objects." They described and demonstrated
some innovative methods for the proper support and housing of
two- and three-dimensional objects.
The
four papers discussed topics such as a new method to construct
custom-made body forms (Custom-made Body Forms for Support
and/or Display of Historic Costumes by M.W. Campbell
and H.W. Li), how to make a support for fragile flat textiles
(Custom Made Supports for Historic Flat Textiles
by A. Clifford and M.W. Campbell), how to provide support for
odd shaped and sized two- / three-dimensional paper documents
(Archival Mats for Multi-level Paper and Photographic Documents
by Nick Olson), and how to construct custom-made adhesive-free
(How to make adhesive-free archival boxes
by Kyle Mcquilkin). Copies of these four presentations are available
by contacting the Division of Ethnology and Textiles, Museum
of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409-3191.
(Image: Amber Clifford
demostrating mat-making at the MPMA session titled "New
Ways to Construct Inexpensive Custom-made Supports for Collection
Objects.)
Virtual
Exhibit project
Currently, we are developing
a multimedia CD ROM utilizing selected wedding gowns from the
collection. Part of the CD-ROM is a multi-media virtual exhibit
focusing on the ever-changing wedding fashions and wedding traditions
over 100-plus years.
The
virtual exhibit will allow us to showcase some of the best yet
very fragile wedding gowns of bygone eras permanently, thus eliminating
unnecessary exposure of the gowns to harmful agents of deterioration.
Furthermore, it provides us a means to distribute information
about a element of the Division's collections to a potentially
world-wide audience. Supplementary to the exhibit will be interactive
educational activities geared toward students at the 5th through
9th grade levels. These games are designed to enhance student's
knowledge and comprehension in US and world history and geography,
mathematics, social studies, and other subject areas. Still in
development, we hope the CD-ROMs will be available for purchase
in the near future. Check this webpage frequently for up-to-date
information on the production and availability of the CD-ROM.
