Free student-run museum teams up with Amazon.com

The Utah State University Museum of Anthropology is collecting money through Amazon to help fund the student-run museum.

At checkout, Amazon.com gives 6 to 15 percent of the money made from the purchase to the anthropology museum when the purchase is made through a portal link housed on the anthropology museum’s web page.

“Every time I buy something on Amazon I always go through that link,” said Reigan Ware, a museum assistant and anthropology major. “It really does help.”

The museum, started in 1963 by Gordon Keller, is run and maintained by students. Deputy Director and Curator Molly Cannon started working for the museum last July and shared what the museum provides students.

“It is a teaching museum,” she said. “We use the physical space to teach USU students how to work in museums anywhere from working and maintaining the collections or digitalizing the collections. Everything was conceptualized, designed and constructed by students.”

Cannon said the museum is interested in teaching the community and families about anthropology and different cultures.

“We are interested in sharing with our community of what anthropology is and what culture is, and that manifests in different regions and groups of people,” she said.

Museum volunteers and staff encourage patrons to apply that knowledge as well.

“We are not just interested in showing isolated cultures but explaining what the human experience is like and how it is that similar or different because of your culture and location,” Cannon said. “We also want to show the nature of human behavior both in the present and in the past.”

Ware said she enjoys working for the museum. Ware helped put together the childhood exhibit on display in the museum.

“I love the teamwork that is involved in putting together an amazing experience for the community and museum patrons,” she said.

The museum also provides community activities, such as Family’s 1st Saturday, held the first Saturday of each month.

Museum Assistant Prairie Fox is a senior majoring in anthropology with an emphasis in archeology. She helps with the World Explorer’s club event.

“Family’s 1st Saturdays program … is where we highlight a country every month and have activities for kids and that families can participate in,” Fox said. “We recently did Ireland, and we talked about the culture there, and I specifically talked about the archaeology found in the area. The kids also crafted some shields and there was food there too. We had soda-bread, and we talked about traditional food in Ireland.”

Cannon said the money collected through Amazon will help fund supplies for such programs as well as the materials needed to take care of collections, such as boxes, foam and archival pens.

Ware said programs like World Explorer’s could use donations to bring new technology and interactive opportunities to the museum.

“It just really helps this museum to continue on with our (mission), which is to inform the public about anthropology,” she said.

— deonna.edgar@aggiemail.usu.edu