EDUCATION IN A SHOWCASE

The twenty or more thousand visitors who will be passing through the exhibit halls of the Arizona State Museum, Tucson, this winter will in no way find themselves on a foot-wearying tour of a warehouse filled with an ill assortment of natural curios or glass cases containing a helter-skelter deposit of historical relics.

There will be the historically-minded who will wish to see the gold pen with which President Taft signed the Territory of Arizona into statehood on February 14, 1912. Many, interested in the time key through which archaeologists have dated the Southwest's ancient ruins, will be seeking the prominently displayed tree-ring exhibit.

Out-of-state visitors will throng the halls for a first-hand introduction to the ways of modern and prehistoric Indians while school children, singly and in groups, will be supplementing classroom studies in the social and physical sciences. Making use of the museum's facilities for research will be university students and visiting scientists. Guests may come to the Arizona State Museum for a specific purpose, or merely out of idle curiosity, but no matter what the reason all will leave in the knowledge that the spacious brick building at the Third and Park gateway to the University of Arizona campus is no conventional museum. They will see it as a living institution, dedicated to the task of education by illustrating the basic ideas of man. The most modern methods of museum science are employed that these concepts may be presented with original materials in a way understandable to all.

Since the late Governor Hunt, in 1893, as a representative from Gila County, introduced in the Territorial Legislature the bill which created the institution, the Arizona State Museum has grown with Arizona. In its 53 years of existence it has expanded from its originalquarters, a room in Old Main Hall to its present imposing structure. Like many institutions, the museum fought its way to prominence through early difficulties, succeeding by the tireless efforts of a few interested men of whom Governor Hunt was the first. His action established the museum at the Territorial University, under the administration of the Board of Regents, for the purpose of collecting and preserving the Territory's archaeological resources, specimens of mineral wealth and the flora and fauna. It was not until 1895, when the Legislature appropriated an annual salary of $100 for a curator, however, that the institution was activated.

The main floor of the Arizona State Museum is a spacious, sunny, well-arranged room revealing many interesting educational exhibits.

a Showcase

Herbert Brown, prominent newspaper man of southern Arizona and a frontier scientist of note, was the first curator appointed by the regents. In the 15 years he headed the infant museum, Mr. Brown worked avidly to preserve for the Territory specimens best reflecting its varied nature. A recognized ornithologist, the first staff member gained for the museum hundreds of mounted birds of species native to Arizona. His acquisition of ancient and modern Indian materials was the beginning of today's widely-known anthropological collections in the museum. Numerous gifts from generous citizens throughout the Territory enlarged the exhibits in tribute to Mr. Brown's ability to secure public support for the museum. When Arizona gained statehood, the institution became the Arizona State Museum. Its struggle for existence, however, was by no means over. Shunted about from one campus building to another, its expanding collections being crowded into a succession of smaller and smaller quarters, its position in the early days had been precarious despite the efforts of Mr. Brown. With his death in 1913, the exhibits were boxed and placed in storage. The lack of a curator and proper exhibit space sent the museum into a temporary eclipse. The soundness of the museum's educational value, however, stirred the Board of Regents in 1915 to appoint a full-time director. The veteran and distinguished archaeologist, Dr. Byron Cummings, recently arrived on the campus from the University of Utah, was charged with reviving the Arizona State Museum in quarters in the new Agricultural Building.

The Director met his responsibilities with enthusiasm and vision. With hammer and screw driver he broke open the stored crates of museum specimens and set up a series of lively exhibits which re-awakened popular interest in the collection. He also lost no time in setting into motion what has since been one of the museum's most notable activities, an energetic research program.

Dr. Cummings was keenly aware of the fact that research must precede presentation of material. The new exhibits in the Arizona State Museum became not ordinary collections of miscellaneous objects, but the interpretation of revealing days and weeks spent in the field and laboratory. During the winter school months, the Director passed nearly every weekend on excursions to points of interest or inspecting some reported discovery. Rarely did he return to the museum from such a venture without some new specimen for the exhibit halls.

The Director's field work led him on annual archaeological expeditions to the San Juan River region and to extended excavations in the Valley of Mexico for the National Geographic Society. Arizona's wealth of prehistoric sites engaged him in later years, particularly Kinishba Pueblo, near Ft. Apache. Dr. Cummings' work at Kinishba was described in an article in ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, April, 1946.

Dr. Cummings' leadership, often against heavy odds, resulted in a steady growth of the museum's facilities. The institution's appeal to the general public made necessary the finding of new space. In 1930 quarters were established in the University Stadium. These soon proved inadequate, however, so that five years later, the institution celebrated its 42nd birthday in its permanent home, the Arizona State Museum building on the University campus.

After 23 years of demonstrating the museum's worth as a public institution and as a teaching medium in connection with the University's Department of Archaeology, Dr. Cummings retired in 1938. The solid foundation which he established for the museum has been preserved and built up by the present director, Dr. Emil Haury, a former student of Dean Cummings and the head of the University's Department of Anthropology. Dr. Haury and E. B. Sayles, museum Curator, are pressing the work of the museum in the spirit of their predecessors. The keynote of their policy is public education through the finest possible presentation and interpretation of Arizona's rich and varied sources of natural and anthropological material.

Meeting and serving the public stands first on the museum's list of activities. The growth of Arizona's population and industry, plus the steady influx of annual visitors, has placed demands for the use of the institution undreamed of by its founders. In the past ten years the visiting public has increased by the thousands, most of them adults. Tourists, representing nearly every state in the Union and numerous foreign countries, are found studying the exhibits. Often they have come long distances to see, alongside Arizona citizens, such outstanding displays as Dr. A. E. Douglass' exposition of treering dating, the late Grenville Goodwin's collection of Apache cultural material, or the sand paintings made in the museum by a Navajo medicine man in 1918. Through the medium of well-executed exhibits the museum makes it its business to add to these visitors' enjoyment and comprehension of Arizona's history, her prehistoric cultures, wild life, exotic plants and incomparable geology.

In most respects the institution is a regional one, and for that reason has drawn scores of archaeologists and anthropologists to study among the immense and unique collections of Southwest Indian materials. Here past cultures are spread out for observation in such priceless remnants as the museum's unexcelled store of ancient textiles. Present ethnic groups are represented in the exhibits covering the Southwestern and other North American Indians. Collections from Central and South America, African coasts and jungles, and the islands and atolls of the South Pacific afford opportunities for comparative study.This function of providing research facilities serves the University of Arizona as well as visiting professionals. The museum is the Department of Anthropology's laboratory and is constantly used by all anthropology classes. Exhibits are visual aids supplementing class lectures. Assisting in laboratories and storage rooms brings a first-hand knowledge of cultural materials.

It is at the Department of Anthropology-Arizona State Museum archaeological field school, however, that the students receive their most valuable training in the practical application of classroom theory. Last summer a permanent camp was established on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation at Point of Pines, 90 miles east of Globe. Here, at the site of some of the most extensive prehistoric ruins to be found in Arizona, a field training school in archaeology will open next June for well-qualified students of anthropology from Arizona and other American colleges. Unearthing the vast pueblos in the area will be a project of many years' duration. Little affected by modern civilization, the Point of Pines area is a fertile field for the archaeologist, historian and naturalist. Besides training future anthropologists and exposing previously unknown Arizona prehistory, the results of the field work may well direct the future development of these Indian lands.

Other departments in the University avail themselves of the museum as well. Students of the fine arts and domestic science go to modern and ancient textiles for inspiration for costume designing. Decorations found on prehistoric pottery or in the rich collections of ancient and modern jewelry are frequently adapted to new uses. Geology classes study the casts of the bones of fossil men foundthroughout the world and now arranged in a simple chart in the main exhibition hall to demonstrate man's place in the time scale. Students of biology, botany, ornithology and sociology daily mount the museum steps.

RANCHING IN ARIZONA

Conducted tours for public and private school classes, boy and girl scouts and civic organizations are a frequent occurrence. The youngsters, upon a tour's completion, invariably rush back to the natural history exhibits or for another inspection of the mummies from the Arizona caves.

An extensive schedule of special exhibits and activities has been listed by the museum for this winter. Much material not permanently shown will be brought from the storage vaults to the main hall for temporary display. Vivid portraits of northern plains Indians by Winold Reiss, nationally known artist, will hang in the fine arts alcove in January, to be followed by an exhibit of Guatemalan textiles. Southwestern photographs will later be shown by the Tucson Camera Club. An exhibition of paintings made by Indian artists of the Southwest is also on the calendar.

The winter series of lectures, many with slides and motion pictures, is planned for January, February and March. Early in the 1947 series Dr. Haury will present an illustrated talk on the preliminary and projected work of the Point of Pines expedition. Among other lectures will be those sponsored by the Tucson Natural History Society and the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society. Both organizations are closely affiliated with the museum, the latter having been founded early in Dr. Cummings' directorship to further the purposes of the museum.

Unknown to the casual visitor to the museum is the vast amount of behind the scenes activity by the staff that the story of man may best be told. In basement laboratories and workshops equipped with modern precision tools, the Curator often works for weeks that a graphic story may be grasped by the visitor in a few moments. Extensive experiments in backgrounds, color schemes, mountings, lighting and labeling are carried out for each exhibit before its final appearance on the show floor. The psychology of the museum visitor is considered. The pattern of his approach and his reaction to previous displays guides the museologist in his creation of new ones.

At present the museum is preparing a permanent display of the material excavated at Ventana Cave, an archaeological site 100 miles west of Tucson on the Papago Indian Reservation. Excavations proved the cave has been inhabited for 10,000 years, from the Stone Age Man to the modern Papago who still uses it when he gathers the fruit from the saguaro cactus. The remarkable collections of ancient arts and crafts and the well preserved mummies, wrapped in their burial clothes and adorned with shell and wood ornaments, will relate a fascinating story of Arizona history when the Ventana alcove is opened to the public some months hence.

The preparation of exhibits is but one of the countless activities for the Curator, Mr. Sayles. The thousands of specimens and quantities of material are invaluable possessions requiring endless inspection and meticulous care. Their cleaning, restoration and preservation against the attacks of voracious insects and atmospheric changes is a Herculaean task. With that goes interminable documentation as numbering, cataloguing and historical data must be recorded and filed for each piece. Such cataloguing must be up to date that curatorial processes be carried out on schedule and that any piece may be ready for instant use in exhibit or for the study of authorized students and scientists. Any one of these tasks could employ the staff on a full-time basis, yet time must be found for special research to fulfill another important function in the museum's service to its public. It is a rare day that the mail or telephone does not bring requests from Tucson citizens, university professors, schools or government agencies for special information. During the recent war detailed knowledge of out-of-the-way places and their little known peoples was much in demand. On one occasion the Army asked the museum to rush data that would be helpful in developing camouflage techniques for desert warfare.

Among state museums, Arizona's can be counted as one of the oldest. It is by no means the largest and Dr. Haury says it is not the intent to make it so. He and Mr. Sayles feel it is their job to develop a strong and active regional museum which will serve the State as the legal repository for her cultural objects, further public education and become an integral part of the life of Arizona. The museum is a democratic institution, serving free of charge every one, regardless of age, sex, race, political or religious views. In its service to all of Arizona and her guests, it enlists the support of all her citizens.

Tucson school children find that the Museum has many things as interesting as Mickey Mouse.

The pottery display, carefully gathered, is both varied and colorful. These are centuries old.