In 2008, the Conservation and Anthropology Departments at the
Denver Museum of Nature & Science were awarded $149,827 by the
Institute for Museum and Library Services program to complete a
preventive conservation project on the over 700 Latin American
textiles in the Anthropology Collections.
The first phase of the project began in October of 2008 and
included a full inventory of the collection during which detailed
object analysis was completed on each item. Further research into
the documentation files provided even deeper provenience
information. All of this data was entered into a spreadsheet, a
complete version of which will be posted soon, once document
cleanup is finished. Fourteen volunteers donated 1,034 hours to
this portion of the project.
Also during this first phase, storage conditions for the
collection were vastly improved by the installation of new museum
quality storage cabinets. Due to lack of space and funds, these
items had previously been stored in very tight conditions. For many
years, they had been wrapped in plastic bags and stacked an average
of thirty at a time in large boxes. This made access to the items
very difficult for research. Once the new cabinets were installed
in July 2009, project team members Isabel Tovar and Bridget Sabo
systematically unwrapped and individually laid out each item in the
Latin American textile collection in preparation for rehousing.
Beginning in September of 2009. the second phase of the project
included construction of custom designed archival boxes and
internal support mounts to better preserve the objects.
Twenty-eight specially trained volunteers donated 1,912 hours of
their skill and creativity to individually address storage needs
for the collection. Boxes were built out of archival board and
polyethylene rivets to the individual item dimensions. Catalogue
numbers were hand written in archival pen on each box, and
individually laser printed tags were hand sewn on to each item for
tracking purposes. Internal support pads and mounts were custom
sewn to avoid creasing of the textiles along folds or to maintain
the three-dimensional aspect of the item.
General summary of the DMNS Latin American textile
collection
During the summer of 2011, Andrew van der Heever, Robert L.
Akerley Intern for the Department of Anthropology, completed
photography of the collection in order to more easily share the
these items with the public. He also completed a general survey of
the collection as follows:
The Department of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature
& Science (DMNS) holds a collection of over 700 textile objects
from Central and South America. The types of items range from
shirts, pants, scarf's and belts to rugs, bags and hats. They were
collected from the early- to late-20th century by
various parties and represent a range of countries in Latin
America.
Provenience issues do exist with many of the items in the
collection. Sometimes donors offered the objects to the museum but
the documentation on the origins of the items is no longer
available. On the other hand some objects have very good
geographical and cultural provenience; these objects will be
focused on in the following section.
Within the Latin American textiles collection, 5 major
contributing individuals or groups stand out based on the amount of
material donated to DMNS. First are Dr. Michael and Mrs. Mannetta
Braunstein who collected and donated 142 objects represented in
this collection from various regions in Guatemala. They collected
from 1950 to 1999 after which the items were donated to the
DMNS.
A generous donation of 68 objects in the collection came from
the Crane Foundation. Francis and Mary Crane, along with former
Curator of Ethnology Joyce Herold, were responsible for what can be
seen in today's Crane Hall of North American Indian Cultures
exhibit. The Cranes were interested in anthropological materials of
Native Americans and so worked for many years acquiring objects
from trade posts, dealers, private collectors, and obscure shops as
well as personally collecting them from various regions of the
Americas. Several items in their collection were left to them
through inheritance from family members. They actively collected
from 1954 to 1968 at which point the material was transferred
to the DMNS. The regions covered by these 68 objects are Guatemala,
Ecuador and Peru.
Dr. Robert and Mrs. Imogene W. Waugh collected and then donated
67 objects from Guatemala, Colombia, Panama and Peru. The Waughs
collected from 1973 to 1979 and then donated their collection to
the DMNS in 1991. A part of their collection was from a deceased
family friend. These objects came to them during the 1990's and
they subsequently donated it to DMNS.
Mr. Thomas P. and his first wife, Mrs. Arletta Ahrens, collected
58 objects from Chile and Peru. They were actively collecting from
1930 to 1940 while Thomas was working in South America as a water
engineer. In 1961 he and his second wife Helen Ahrens donated a
portion of this collection to the Crane's, with the remainder being
donated to DMNS by Helen after his death in 1976.
Mr. John M. Goggin collected 27 objects from Guatemala, Mexico,
Bolivia and Peru. He collected from all over the world during the
1950's and these 27 objects are a small representation of the
larger collection donated to the DMNS by his wife Mrs. Margaret
Knox Goggin in 1984.
Certain nations in Latin America such as Guatemala, Mexico, and
Peru are represented in much stronger numbers. However, Bolivia,
Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Argentina and Honduras, are also
represented in smaller numbers, and sometimes even by only a single
item. From the overall collection we have selected 16 objects that
represent the 3 major nations and 5 collectors/donors mentioned
above. Photographs of these objects can be seen in the slide show
above.
Out of the regions represented in the collection we can see 7
distinctively different cultures. These are Mayan, associated with
Mexico and Guatemala; Aymara, associated with Bolivia; Cuna,
associated with Panama; Inca, associated with Ecuador; Quechua,
associated with Peru and Bolivia, and Tehuana, associated with
Mexico. There are many items with no regional provenience data as
well as many that do not have any associated cultural
information.
A side note to Andrew van der Heever's 10 week project: To take
high quality pictures of the 703 objects in the collection, Andrew
needed to develop a method to capture even the larger textiles from
above with a birds-eye-view shot. He resolved this by laying the
object on a table, then proceeding up a 5 step ladder to a tripod
on the top step where he took a picture of one side of the object,
climbed down to turn the object over, walked back up the four steps
to photograph the reverse side, and came back down again. The end
of all of this stair climbing meant that Andrew would have climbed
5,624 steps. To put this into perspective, the Empire State
building in New York City is 1,860 stairs to the 102nd
floor, this means during the 10 weeks working on the project Andrew
climbed the Empire State building 3 times. No easy task!
The project team consisted of (in alphabetical order):
Dr. Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Curator of Anthropology
Bridget Sabo, Conservation Technician and Collections Management
Assistant
Jude Southward, Conservator
Isabel Tovar, Collections Manager
Thank you to Moe Shuley, Volunteer Coordinator, and to all the
interns and volunteers who worked on this project:
Shirley Beverly
Shauna Batcheller
Aurora Cuevas
Minka Frohring
Pamela Frost
Nancie Halls
Kimberley Hannigan
Elizabeth Harvat
Larry Harvey
Judith Hubbard
Rebecca Hughes, intern
Catherine McAllister
Carolyn McCuan
Gene McCullough
Rae Mosher, intern
Jamie Neuenschwander
Jill Mally
Dena Mann
Ann Moller
Suzanne Morine
Oksana Moshinsky
Lesley Parker
Jean Saul
Nan Stine
Bob Torbenson
Sean Tseng
Andrew van der Heever, intern
Peggy Whitehead
Holly Wolfe
Suzanne Woodward
Eunice York
Lou Zinanti
Dale Zitek
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