Anthropology to host Saturdays at the Museum
Everyone is invited to find out about the past. The USU Museum of Anthropology has extended its hours to make the museum more accessible to students and the general public.
“First and foremost, the museum is a teaching institution,” said curator Mary Kay Gaydos Gabriel.
The museum is comprised of displays and exhibits from special collections.
“The students do everything in the museum, including building the exhibits,” said Gabriel.
There will also be a special series called Saturdays at the Museum. Each Saturday will be themed with activities and speakers specially selected.
“The students design and plan the programs for Saturdays,” Gabriel said. Planned events include: Jr. Archaeologist Day on Aggie Family Day, Sept 13th, Islamic Culture Through Music, Sept 20th, and the very popular Day of the Dead, Nov 1st.
Later on this semester there will be the Artifacts Roadshow where the public will have the chance to have their own artifacts evaluated by trained staff here at USU.
“The Saturday program is vital to the museum and to our visitors,” said Gabriel.
Since the addition of Saturday hours, there has been a significant increase in visitors from the community. There is a great deal of information to be gleaned from the many exhibits.
The exhibit Native Americans of the Great Basin is particularly important to local history said Sarah Lee, who is studying history and works in Collections.
“I think this is really important because it pertains to Cache Valley,” she said. “It helps people to connect to how it was.”
Lee also mentioned that the exhibit is a big attraction, offering museum-goers flavored insects, such as Ranch, to try.
“It’s a good source of protein,” she said.
Other exhibits include Otzi the Ice Man, Peruvian Healing, and Utah’s First People. Visitors can also learn about ruin of Petra, which is more than just a film location for Indiana Jones.
“We’ve got Egyptian exhibits and origins of writing. We’ve got the Dogon culture – which I’d never really heard of,” she said.
According to a sample of 50 students, many students are not familiar with the museum. Thirty-five percent of students said they knew the museum existed, while an even fewer 18 percent had ever visited the museum. A small percentage confused the Anthropology museum with the Eccles Art museum, which is located in the Fine Arts Center.
About 60 percent of the students had an idea of what anthropology means.
“Anthropology is the study of all man through all time,” Gabriel said.
She said that it includes four sub-fields: cultural, linguistic, and biological anthropology, as well as archeology, the Indiana Jones-type search for artifacts and remnants of civilizations.
The museum is located on the second floor in the South turret of Old Main, Room 252. In addition to the displays, a recent grant has enabled the purchase of professional museum tour hand-sets. These will enable visitors to hear recorded audio scripts in both English and Spanish, allowing an even larger cross-section of society to benefit from the museum. The handsets are estimated to become available in a few weeks.
The museum also collaborates with collectors and organizations, such as the Nora Eccles Museum of Art, to make the exhibits possible. Other donated artifacts come from students and local residents.
Hours are now Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. All are welcome.
For more information visit their website at www.usu.edu/anthro/museum or call 797-7545.
–r.perkins@aggiemail.usu.edu