Going to Meet Its Public: Indian Museum Will Put Entire Collection Online

[Adsos Letter]

Source: By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 30, 2009;

Even with three locations in its empire, the National Museum of the American Indian can display barely 1 percent of its 800,000 objects. To help close that gap, the museum has decided to set up a digital showcase.

On Monday, the museum plans to launch its "Fourth Museum" to give scholars, students, teachers, cultural historians and those far away from the museum's homes in Washington and New York the opportunity to look into its archives.

The move has been in the works for nearly three years, as staff reexamined each item and its scholarship. The online project, part of the museum's regular Web site, will begin with 5,500 items and photographs. The goal is to have all 800,000 objects on the Web site, but it will take at least four years to achieve that.

"Most Americans will never see the Smithsonian, and Native Americans aren't any different," said Kevin Gover, the museum's director. "This Web site has always been part of our long-term strategic plan. Quite simply, given we know most native people will never visit any of our three museums . . . we wanted to provide this experience." Money to travel isn't plentiful in native communities, Gover said, but most reservations and schools have been equipped with the latest Internet and satellite technology.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012904229.html?wprss=rss_technology

[JanusAscending]

1. Thank you so much........

for this wonderful news! I'm so looking forward to seeing this, as all Americans should. K/R

[Adsos Letter]

3. While working on my MA in History, one of the Graduate courses...

involved examination of museums as teachers of history. The fact that museums with large holdings have to make so many hard choices about what to display in order to educate the public remains a major topic.

The national Museum of the North American Indian came under some criticism by some because of its choice of displays...I think digital access to the collections will be a benefit to everyone.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

7. This is what I'm working on at the moment

for a museum here in the UK. I've typed in the cards and now am looking at the images for the cards to match up with the description. It is hard work as if the number is wrong, I have to find out where the object is and check the number.

[Adsos Letter]

8. I did some work designing displays for a local museum as part of my Grad work...

People often don't realize the amount of work (and politics) that are involved in trying to accurately educate the public through material culture displays.

My hat is off to you...and I wish you luck in your work, and the realization of much pleasure in it. :hi:

[FunkyLeprechaun]

12. Cheers

I'm actually only in a temporary position in the museum and my original job was to type up the cards from 1972-1978 into the database on the computer. I finished with that two months early (they had underestimated my typing!) The hard part's begun though, matching the images to the cards in the database.

People seem to think it's so easy but it ain't! (it really depends on how the person who did the cards described the object)l phew.

[shraby]

2. It's a great idea and I hope it spreads to the

Smithsonian and other repositories of antiquities and artifacts.

[Adsos Letter]

4. Me too! There is so much in these museums collections that remain unseen save for curators...

the challenge will be to display them digitally in a manner which educates the public on the meaning of the artifacts themselves...contextualizing them so as to educate.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Score.

[stevedeshazer]

6. That's really cool

Recommended

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Excellent idea. I'm proud to kick and recommend! n/t

[Azooz]

10. K & R

[SpiralHawk]

11. Maybe they can get the Vatican to release all the ancient Native books they stole & hid

That would be a step forward -- getting the cultural theives at the Vatican to surrender their stolen cultural swag -- and therby overturning some of their HORDE of lies about the Native peoples they categorized as sub-human so their proxy governments could commit genocide and steal millions upon millions of acres of land while being bleSSed by the Pope.

[psychmommy]

15. wow spiral hawk i didn't know this.

can you pm with info so i can learn. we are nanticoke/lenni lenape in nj/delaware. i want to educate my child but especially myself. thanks in advance.

[City of Mills]

13. This is FANTASTIC news!

I will definitely be spreading the word on this...I'm a committee member helping to put together a powwow on the grounds of an Indian museum in Warner NH (http://www.indianmuseum.org)...I can't stress how great it is to have access to these collections as I'm not in a position to travel. Thanks so much for the info!

[KoKo]

14. Good News...I saw a collection many years ago at the American Indian Museum in DC...

It's probably all changed since then...and given that the Smithsonian had terrible problems under Bush II Lackey's ...who knows what it all is.

I will look forward to seeing it online. I'd rather it all be returned to our Native Americans, though.

[JeffR]

16. A great idea.

I think it's wonderful that museums are doing this, and this one is more important than many. A huge project, but very worthwhile.