“Junk” and Priceless China: A Chronology of Cataloguing at the Museum of Anthropology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/cais1848Abstract
This paper considers how knowledge has been organized around museum objects at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), in what is known as British Columbia1. We trace the practice of cataloguing material heritage at this museum, through close examination of catalogue records and interviews with past and present MOA staff, reading from the first attempts at standardizing object nomenclatures in the journals of private collectors, to the contemporary practices associated with object documentation in the digital age. Through a critical cataloguing perspective; this paper plots the creation and use of museum record keeping systems in the particular milieu of Western Canada. This paper is part of a larger research project, “The Work of Repair,” which investigates museum documentation histories across Canada.
References
Adler, Melissa.“The Case for Taxonomic Reparations.” Knowledge Organization 43, no. 8 (December 2016): 630–40.
Allison-Cassin, Stacy, and Dean Seeman. 2022. “Metadata as Knowledge.” KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 6 (3): 1–4.
Ames, Michael M. “A brief history of the UBC Museum of Anthropology and its collections.” Vancouver Historical Society Newsletter 15, no.8 (1976): 5-7.
Anderson, Jane, and Kimberly Christen. “Decolonizing Attribution: Traditions of Exclusion.” Journal of Radical Librarianship 5 (June 3, 2019): 113–52.
Ashby, Jack, and Rebecca Machin. 2021. “Legacies of Colonial Violence in Natural History Collections.” Journal of Natural Science Collections, 8: 44-54.
Bruegeman, Nancy, Krista Bergstrom, Nancy Bruegeman, Susan Buchanan, Shabnam Honarbakhsh, Heidi Swierenga, Mauray Toutloff. “A Partnership of Peoples: Renewal of the Collections Infrastructure at the UBC Museum of Anthropology.” Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archive Professionals 7, no, 2 (Spring 2011): 163-200.
Bullard, Julia, Brian Watson, and Caitlin Purdome. “Misrepresentation in the Surrogate: Author Critiques of ‘Indians of North America’ Subject Headings.” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 60, no. 6–7 (2022): 599–619.
Canning, Erin, Susan Brown, Sarah Roger, and Kimberley Martin. “The Power to Structure: Making Meaning from Metadata Through Ontologies.” KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 6, no. 3 (2022): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.18357/kula.169.
Clapperton, Jonathan Alex. “Contested Spaces, Shared Places: The Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Aboriginal Peoples, and Postcolonial Criticism.” BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly, no. 165 (2010): 7–30.
Curliss, Lydia, Irene Gates, Diana Marsh, Katherine Satriano. “Reparative Description, Indigenous Partners, and the SNAC Edit-a-thon.” Archival Outlook (Mar/Apr 2022): 4–5, 19. https://doi.org/10.13016/lr6e-gzq7
David H. Scott Consultants Limited. Vectors: the UBC Museum of Anthropology. Guelph, ON: David H. Scott Consultants, 1979.
Gilliand, A. J., S. Wood, K. Carbone, M. Cifor, and R. Punzalan. “Mobilizing Records: Reframing Archival Description to Support Human Rights.” Archival Science 14 (2014): 397–419. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-014-9233-1. 6
Gordon-Walker, Caitlin. “Unsettling Nature, Culture and History: Layers of Meaning and Conversation at the Royal BC Museum.” Museum and Society 17, no. 2 (July 18, 2019): 248–60. https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v17i2.2760.
Gray, Robin R. R. 2022. “Rematriation: Ts’msyen Law, Rights of Relationality, and Protocols of Return.” Native American and Indigenous Studies 9 (1): 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1353/nai.2022.0010.
Gupta, Neha, Andrew Martindale, Kisha Supernant, and Michael Elvidge. 2023. “The CARE Principles and the Reuse, Sharing, and Curation of Indigenous Data in Canadian Archaeology.” Advances in Archaeological Practice 11 (1): 76–89.
Hawthorn, Audrey. A Labour of Love: The Making of the Museum of Anthropology, UBC: The First Three Decades, 1947-1976. Museum Note, no. 33. Vancouver, BC: UBC Museum of Anthropology, 1993.
Halpin, Marjorie M. “Fragments: Reflections on Collecting.” Museum Note no.31 (1990). Leischner, Emily Jean. 2022. “What Happens to Indigenous Law in the Museum?” Museum Worlds 10 (1): 31–47. https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2022.100104.
Mayer, Carol E. and Anthony Shelton. The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 2009.
Muntean, Reese, Kate Hennessy, Alissa Antle, Susan Rowley, Jordan Wilson, and Brendan Matkin. 2015. “ʔeləw̓ k̓ w–Belongings: Tangible Interactions with Intangible Heritage.” Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts 7 (2): 59–69.
Raibmon, Paige. “A New Understanding of Things Indian”: George Raley’s Negotiation of the Residential School Experience.” BC Studies 110 (Summer 1996).
Rowan, Madeline Bronsdon. “The UBC Museum of Anthropology: An Introduction to its History 1947-1982.” 1993. Unpublished.
Schneider, Tsim D., and Katherine Hayes. 2020. “Epistemic Colonialism: Is It Possible to Decolonize Archaeology?” The American Indian Quarterly 44 (2): 127–48.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Die Philosophin 14 (27): 42–58. https://doi.org/10.5840/philosophin200314275.
Turner, Hannah. “Organizing Knowledge in Museums: A Review of Concepts and Concerns.” Knowledge Organization 44, no. 7 (2017).
Turner, Hannah. Cataloging Culture: Legacies of Colonialism in Museum Documentation. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 2020.
Wilson, Jordan P. H. 2015. “Sq̓ əq̓ip : Gathered Together.” Master’s Thesis. University of British Columbia.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Peyton Moriarty, Hannah Turner
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
