Anthropology and the Lowie Museum
Burton Benedict
T he Lowie Museum of Anthropol-
ogy houses the largest collection
of anthropological materials of any mu-
seum west of Chicago. Its resources
attract researchers from around the
world. Yet the public, and even students
at the Berkeley campus, scarcely know it
exists. In no small measure, this problem
is due to a history of obscurity and the
Museum's present exceedingly modest
accommodations. The Lowie Museum is
reputed to have the smallest exhibition
space (c. 4000 square feet) in relation to
the size of its collections (c. 4 million
items) of any museum in the United
States. How did this unenviable distinc-
tion arise?
The Museum was founded in 1901 by
Phoebe Apperson Hearst (1842-1919)
who supported both the Museum and the
Department of Anthropology for seven
years, until the University took them
over.
Exterior of the Lowie Museum,
University of California, Berkeley.
Museum Anthropology, Vol. 15, no. 4
Mrs. Hearst's travels to Europe had
aroused her interest in classical and
Egyptian archaeology, and she had begun
a collection, but she did not simply col-
lect in the rather indiscriminate way of
her son, William Randolph Hearst. She
financed scientific expeditions whose
well-documented collections continue to
yield important research data. Her inter-
est resulted in what is today the Lowie
Museum of Anthropology and five of its
finest collections.
In 1899, Mrs. Hearst financed an
Egyptian expedition under the direction
of the Egyptologist George A. Reisner.
Reisner carefully documented his excava-
tions with both written notes and photo-
graphs, a pioneering procedure in his
day. The resulting 17,500 catalogued
items cover a period from predynastic
times to the end of the New Kingdom
and constitute one of the most significant
collections in the United States. Much
research has been published on this col-
lection, and it continues to be a rich re-
source for Egyptologists.
In that same year, Mrs. Hearst fi-
nanced a second expedition, this tune to
Peru, under the direction of the archae-
ologist, Max Uhle. His fieldwork re-
sulted in a carefully documented
collection of more than 9500 objects, es-
pecially pottery and textiles, dating from
about 1000 B.C. to Spanish colonial
times. This collection is a continuing
source for research.
A more unusual research project for
its time was the investigation of Califor-
nia archaeology and ethnography carried
out by Philip M. Jones beginning in 1900
and again financed by Mrs. Hearst His
collections were expanded and docu-
mented by Alfred L. Kroeber and his stu-
dents, most notably by Robert F. Heizer.
Today they consist of more than 250,000
catalogued entries, the largest and most
important collection of these materials in
the world.
In 1901, Mrs. Hearst sent Alfred Em-
erson, a professor of classics, to Europe
to make a collection of classical antiq-
uities including casts of Greek and Ro-
man sculpture. The 4200 items of this
collection were augmented from Mrs.
Hearst's own collection, so that today the
Museum has over 7800 pieces from the
ancient Mediterranean world.
In 1902, Phoebe Hearst financed Gus-
tavus Eisen to go to Guatemala to collect
textiles. These, and supplemental collec-
tions in the Lowie, provide a study col-
lection spanning a century and have
inspired two recent publications (Schevill
1985, in press). Other Hearst donations
included European portrait miniatures,
Joseph Henry Sharp paintings of Ameri-
can Indians, oriental carpets, Kashmir
shawls, European laces and objects from
the Arctic, Latin America and Oceania.
During her lifetime and by her will Mrs.

Portrait jar. Ruins ofMoche, Proto-Chimu period.
Collected by M. Uhle and donated by P. A. Hearst.
Hearst gave the Museum more than
60,000 items.
The Museum Building
Mrs. Hearst's collections were at first
deposited in a small cotta e on the Ber-
keley campus, but they soon overflowed
this accommodation. In 1902 they were
transferred to a frame building with a
corrugated iron roof which Mrs. Hearst
had paid for. Basically, it was a storage
facility with a little exhibition space. It
soon became inadequate. In 1903, the
whole collection, except for the casts of
classical sculpture, was moved to San
Francisco into an unoccupied law school
building on what was then the Affiliated
Colleges of the University of California.
In 1911 a Museum was formally opened
in this building, and regular lectures for
adults and children were inaugurated
The Museum was open six days a week
and attracted from 10,000 to 30,000 visi-
tors annually (UCPAAE 1923: xi), num-
bers rarely ex- $300,000, which I want for a definite
ceeded in recent purpose to construct a building to house
years. It was in my collections at Berkeley." (Wheeler
this building that papers, 1921, Bancroft Library quoted in
Ishi, the last Yahi Robinson 1991: 381). The building was
Indian, resided never constructed.
from 1911 until
his death in 1916. The Collections
The collec-
Magnificent as the Hearst collections
tions were moved
are, they are not the only glories of the
back to Berkeley
Lowie Museum. One of the earliest ac-
in 1931 and
quisitions was the collection of 2400 Es-
placed in storage.
kimo and Aleut artifacts given to the
Except for occa-
Museum by the Alaska Commercial
sional small exhi- Company in 1898. The company, which
bitions, the outfitted prospectors for the fur trade,
Museum virtually had trading posts in Alaska and encour-
disappeared from aged its employees to acquire indigenous
public view for artifacts. The collection is particularly
almost 30 years. rich in Eskimo masks, ivory carvings and
In 1960 the Mu- arctic clothing. Many pieces from it have
seum was moved been published and a catalogue raisonne'
into a new build- of the whole collection is being prepared
ing. The building under the direction of Professor Nelson
was named for H. H. Graburn.
Alfred Kroeber,
who was still Other important collections are: the
I ive, and the Edward W. Gifford collections of Oce-
anic archaeology, the R. F. Barton collec-
Museum for
tion of Philippine Islands ethnography,
Robert H. Lowie,
the Kroeber collection of Mohave pot-
who had died in
tery, the Louis A. Allen collection of
1957. Although
Australian Aboriginal art, the Malinow-
Lowie was a notable anthropologist, he
ski collection of Trobriand Islands arti-
had not been particularly associated with
facts, the Brian Shekeloff collection of
the Museum during his lifetime. The Mu-
rural Japanese domestic and agricultural
seum occupies only a small fraction of
implements, the William Bascom collec-
Kroeber Hall, which is chiefly devoted to
tion of African art, and the collections of
the departments of Anthropology and Art
ancient Near Eastern seals and clay tab-
Practice. Large parts of the collections lets, East Asian, South Asian and South-
are housed in other buildings, one of east Asian artifacts, Northwest Coast
which is some three miles from the cam- Indian artifacts, Wfestern and Northern
pus. Mexican material, British ceramics, New
This accommodation falls far short of Guinea sculptures from the Guam river
the conception of Mrs. Hearst and the area, native American textiles from the
Regents, who "contemplated a splendid Southwest, Southwestern pottery and the
osteological collections.
structure on the University grounds at
Berkeley, opposite to and balancing the The photographic archives of the
University Library" (UCPAAE 1923: Lowie contain over 58,000 negatives, in-
xii). In her will of 1911, Mrs. Hearst cluding what is probably the most exten-
bequeathed $500,000 toward this end, sive historical photograph collection of
but she canceled the bequest six years extant California Indians. In addition,
after writing it due, it would appear, to there are more than 53,000 color trans-
the large debts run up by her son. In parencies. The photographic laboratory
1918, she canceled his debts to her, and produces approximately 10,000 nega-
in return asked that he "agree to pay me tives, prints and slides per annum. The
27 Museum Anthropology, Vol. 15, no. 4

Prince Vkpemnofret's funerary stela.
Excavated at Giza by G.A. Reisner and donated by PA. Hearst.
Museum has some 16,500 paintings,
drawings and prints. The more than
300,000 running feet of ethnographic
film which the Museum possesses in-
clude the unique records of four major
Navajo ceremonies filmed by S. A. Bar-
rett in 1963.
In the course of their fieldwork, Kroe-
ber and his students recorded texts and
songs on wax cylinders. Some are in lan-
guages which have all but disappeared.
They have been copied onto tape. The
Museum has 327S ethnic sound record-
ings.
The California Indian Project
The California Indian Library Collec-
tions Project, under the direction of Dr.
Lee Davis, is sponsored by the Museum.
It aims to create in each of California's
58 county libraries a fully catalogued
collection of archival photographs, photo-
graphs of museum artifacts, field notes,
sound recordings, old journal articles and
books of materials pertaining to the in-
digenous peoples of that county. So far
collections have been delivered to
Fresno, Lake, Madera and Del Norte
counties, as well as a comprehensive col-
lection to the State Library in Sacra-
mento.
Museum Anthropology, Vol. 15, no. 4
Organization of the Museum
The Museum is an organized research
unit of the University and a separate en-
tity from the Department of Anthroplogy.
The Director reports to the Provost for
Research. There is an advisory commit-
tee, but no board of trustees.
The director of the Museum has al-
ways been a professor of anthroplogy. In
recent years his (they have all been male)
appointment has varied from 75% to
90% in the Museum. The nine curators
are all volunteers, which means they are
able to devote only a limited amount of
time to the Museum. They come from
the departments of Anthropology, Clas-
sics and Near Eastern studies. The staff
of 14 includes two research anthropolo-
gists, a conservator, a photographer, an
education officer, a development director,
a grants writer, an artist and curatorial
and administrative staff. The Museum re-
ceives substantial help from work-study
students and volunteers. They represent
an essential element of the Museum work
force.
Academic Uses of the Lowie
The archaeological, osteological and
ethnographic collections are used exten-
28
sively in teaching at both the graduate
and undergraduate levels. In die period
1987 through 1989, Lowie materials
were used in teaching 103 university
courses in the fields of anthropology,
classics, Egyptology, forestry, geography,
history, history of art, library and infor-
mation studies, linguistics, music, Native
American studies and Near Eastern stud-
ies.
However, since about the middle of
this century, social and cultural anthro-
pologists have shown little interest in ma-
terial culture. They have left the
museums to the archaeologists, the art
historians and the public. Recently there
has been a renewed interest in the cul-
tural contexts of objects, not just as found
in their cultures of origin, but as seen in
museum displays (Price 1989). This in-
volves the whole question of how other
cultures are presented. The repatriation
issue and questions of national and ethnic
identity also have focused renewed atten-
tion on museums (Freed 1991; Clifford
1988; Schildkrout 1991).
Emerging specializations such as die
study of tourism and the objects made for
tourists, the interaction between tradi-
tional arts and crafts and the emergence
of "native" artists have given a new
thrust, indeed, a new meaning to die
study of "primitive art" (Ames 1990).
The political symbolism of "traditional"
objects and their use in the invention of
traditions (Nora 1984; Hobsbawm &
Ranger 1983) is attracting scholarly inter-
est. The use of objects as status markers
has long been studied, but the subject is
far from exhausted. The distinction be-
teween "high" and popular culture can be
given cultural and historical perspective
through the study of objects. Ephemeral,
"transitional" objects are particularly im-
portant for anthropology museums to col-
lect, and the Lowie is making such
collections, like a set of baskets made
from multicolored telephone wire col-
lected by a graduate student recently re-
turned from fieldwork in South Africa.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions are as much the result of
research as monographs, books or arti-
cles. All show what the research has ac-
complished, what evidence has been ad- permanent record in time and space of
vanced for various hypotheses. While human diversity through its collections, Clifford, James
there can be research without exhibition, and 3) to present and interpret the facts, 1988 The Predicament of Culture:
there cannot be exhibition without re- principles and controversies in the fields Twentieth Century Ethnography, Litera-
search. Increasingly, exhibitions are ac- of anthropology and related disciplines to ture, and Art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
companied by a scholarly catalogue the university community and the public University Press.
helping them win their legitimate place at large. As already indicated, research
Freed, Stanley A.
as academic pursuits. The fact that exhi- and exhibition are intimately linked. To
1991 Everyone Is Breathing on Our
bitions are now being reviewed in the further these aims, the Museum created a Vitrines: Problems and Prospects of
American Anthropologist is a sign of this five year plan for 1990-95. The Lowie Museum Anthropology. Curator 34(1).
trend. intends to increase its exhibition, storage
A forthcoming Lcrwie exhibition, The and research space by adding a wing to Hobsbawn, Eric and Terrence Ranger
Integrative Art of Modern Thailand will its present premises. Additional exhibi- (eds.)
examine the ways contemporary Thai art- tion space has been made available at the 1983 The Invention of Tradition.
ists are integrating modern creative art Behring-Hofmann Educational Institute at Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
with classical, folk, tourist and commer- Blackhawk in Danville, some 25 miles
from Berkeley, where a new museum to Nora, Pierre (ed.)
cial-decorative art. Professor Herbert P.
exhibit University collections has been 1984 Les Lieux de Memoire: I La
Phillips, who conceived and researched Republique. Paris: Gallimard.
the project, will bring works from Thai- built. An inaugural exhibition showing
land for this traveling exhibit which will about 300 objects from the Lowie opened
Price, Sally
be accompanied by a scholarly catalogue. with the building in June, 1991. A high
1989 Primitive Art in Civilized
priority for the Lowie is to computerize
A second exhibition by Professor Wil- Places. Chicago and London: University
its collections. A scheme is now in train of Chicago Press.
liam S. Simmons will examine the effects which will eventually include imaging fa-
of Columbus' voyage on California. It cilities. A publication program for occa- Robinson, Judith
will show through the use of early docu- sional papers has begun with the volume 1991 The Hearsts: An American Dy-
ments, artifacts, maps, and graphic art of the Eisen collection of Guatemalan nasty. Newark: University of Delaware
how, in the wake of Columbus, the Span- textiles. The Museum has also been ac- Press.
iards coming from the south, the Rus- tive in acquiring grants and attracting fi-
sians from the north and the Anglos from nancial support from interested Schevill, Margot
the east each encountered different individuals and organizations. To this end 1985 Evolution in Textile Design
groups of California Indians. Each had a development director was appointed in from the Highlands of Guatemala. The
different purposes and different modes of January, 1989. The centenary of the Occasional Papers, Number 1. Berkeley:
operation, and this disparity profoundly Lowie is only a decade away. By that Lowie Museum of Anthropology.
affected Indian-White interaction. A time we hope the Museum will have as- In press Maya Textiles of Guate-
scholarly catalogue will accompany the sumed its rightful place as the most im- mala: The Gustavus A. Eisen Collection:
exhibition. portant anthropological museum in the 1902. Austin: University of Texas Press.
In addition to shows in the main exhi- West. •
Schildkrout, Enid
bition hall, the Museum mounts exhibits 1991 Ambiguous Messages and
in the lobby and hallway of Kroeber Hall, References Ironic Twists: Into the Heart of Africa
in the anthropology library and in the and The Other Museum. Museum Anthro-
main library. Ames, Michael M. pology 15(2).
1990 Cultural Empowerment and
Museums: Opening Up Anthropology University of California Publications in
The Future American Archaeology and Ethnology
Through Collaboration. In Susan Pearce,
The mission of the Lowie Museum is: ed. Objects of Knowledge: New Research 1923 Phoebe Apperson Hearst Me-
1) to conduct research in anthropology in Museum Studies. London: Athlone morial Volume, 20. Berkeley: University
and related disciplines, 2) to provide a Press. of California Press.

29 Museum Anthropology, Vol. 15, no. 4