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As an historical account of the exchange of “duplicate specimens” between anthropologists at the Smithsonian Institution and museums, collectors, and schools around the world in the late nineteenth century, this book reveals connections between both well-known museums and little-known local institutions, created through the exchange of museum objects. It explores how anthropologists categorized some objects in their collections as “duplicate specimens,” making them potential candidates for exchange. This historical form of what museum professionals would now call deaccessioning considers the intellectual and technical requirement of classifying objects in museums, and suggests that a deeper understanding of past museum practice can inform mission-driven contemporary museum work.
“This is an excellent and important contribution to scholarship…(Nichols) has also done a fine job of explaining how a focus on duplicate exchange transforms our entire (mis)understanding of museums as places only for accumulation and preservation.” • Ira Jacknis, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
List of Illustrations and Tables
List of Abbreviations
Chronology
Lists of Relevant Smithsonian Institution/USNM Personnel
Acknowledgements
Introduction: A Bowl’s Journey, There and Back Again
Part I: The Museum Through the Lens of Specimen Exchange
Chapter 1. The Smithsonian and the Museum: Specimen Exchange as a Bridge between Joseph Henry’s Research Institution and Spencer Baird’s Grand Cabinet
Chapter 2. Spencer Baird’s U.S. National Museum & Early Trends in Exchanging Anthropological Duplicates (1861-1880)
Chapter 3. Networking the National Museum: Exchanging Anthropological Duplicates (1882-1920)
Chapter 4. Giving & Receiving: Specimen Exchange Between Curators & the Shaping of Anthropological Collections
Part II: The Duplicate
Chapter 5. Duplicates: Specimens in Motion
Chapter 6. Catalogs, Classification and Contingency: Designating Duplicates
Conclusion: Museum Pasts and Futures
Appendix
Bibliography
Index