Phoebe A.

Hearst Museum
of Anthropology
By Jaclyn Nassrallah
 The Founding of the
Phoebe Museum
-A philanthropist and UC regent named

Apperson Hearst founded the museum on

September
10th 1901.
-For seven years Hearst supported the
museum until
1908 when the museum was taken over by the
University of California. Today the museum
continues
to be a university museum.
-The museum’s location has changed
throughout time:
1901-1902 The collections were housed at UC
Berkeley,
where they were primarily stored.
1911 The museum was previously relocated to
UC San
Francisco and it officially opened at this time.
1931 The collections were transferred back to
UC
Berkeley. During this time the collections were
primarily used for research and were rarely
displayed to
the public.
1959 The museum and its collections were
moved into
the museum’s current space within the
Kroeber
building at UC Berkeley. This building provided
an
 The Museum’s Mission
-Founding Mission:
The primary reasons that lead to the founding of the museum was Hearst’s
passion for
traveling and anthropology and her thirst for education. In fact she was a
teacher in her youth.
However, Phoebe Hearst lacked a formal education and it seems that she made
up for this
through her devotion and support to Anthropology. Hearst had a vision of
being “a great
educator”, and the museum seemed to offer her this opportunity.

-Mission of the museum when it was called the Lowie Museum of Antrhopology:
To conduct research in anthropology and related disciplines. To provide a
permanent record in
time and space of human diversity through its collections. To present and
interpret the facts,
principles and controversies in the fields of anthropology and related
disciplines to the
university community and the public at large.

-Current Mission Statement:

To collect, preserve, research, and interpret the global record of material
culture, so as to
promote the understanding of the history and diversity of human cultures.

*The main essence of the mission has remained constant throughout time,
 Collections Strategy
*The museum’s diverse and unique objects
come from
various time periods and from regions across
the globe.
*The general collection strategy which directed
the
acquisition of such objects has remained
constant
throughout the museum’s history. The museum
only
accepts objects of material culture that have
been
ethically and legally obtained, and which have
 Museum Collections
Beginnings 1901-1920

The collections gathered during this era include:

*The Hearst collection which includes 60,000 various objects that Phoebe Hearst personally
purchased or
collected from across the globe.
*The collection from Guatemala includes textiles and artifacts obtained by Zoologist Gustavo
Eisen during an
exhibition to Guatemala. It is the largest collection of 19th century Guatemalan Maya textiles
in the world.
*The Californian Native collection found at the museum is also the largest in the world and
was directed by the
Anthropologist Alfred Kroeber who collected items that were of use to the natives.
*The Ancient Peruvian collection includes 9,500 objects collected by the German
Archaeologist Max Uhle. He
collected the items during excavations and also purchased some.
*The Ancient Egyptian collection was directed by the American Egyptologist George Reisner.
He gathered his
objects from tombs, commoner sites, purchases and donations which totaled to 17,000
catalogued objects.
 Museum Collections
Transition 1920-1945

*During this period collecting greatly diminished

because of
World War 2 and the depression.
*However, graduate student collections and faculty and
community donations contributed to the Californian
collection.
*The collections of North American Ethnology and
Californian
Archaeology were acquired at this time.
 Museum Collections
Expansion 1945-1960

*During this time the collections of California

and
Nevada archaeology were dramatically
increased.
*New collections also came from Africa, Asia,
Latin
America and parts of Oceania.
 Museum Collections
Culmination 1960-1980
*This era is considered
to be the second best
collecting period
throughout the
museum’s history.
*The African collection was
expanded by William
Bascom, an Africanist.
*Collections also came from
the Americas, Asia, Oceania
and
Australia.
*Graduate students also
contributed significant
collections
to the museum at this time.
 Museum Collections
Recent Years 1980-2001
*Unfortunately,
during this time
collecting had
dramatically
decreased because of
a
lack of funding and
inadequate storage
space.
*Graduate students
have
continued to collect,
enhancing the
museum’s
collections.
 Museum Displays

*Since the founding of the museum its displays have continued to

relate to the
museum’s on going mission, as they consistently teach about the
various cultures
that have existed throughout time.
*The exhibits seem to be representative of the diverse and various
types of material
culture that make up the museum’s collections. In the past and
present displays
appear to focus on different cultures or forms from one another, to
portray the
collection’s immense variation. However, the museum has
experienced a