Carrie's Anthropology 196m Blog

Wow, my last lab hour post...this has been a great semester, and a fantastic class. I really had a wonderful time!

Any ways, here's how I spent my last week:

5/5 - 1 hour reading through the books I got from the Davis library, researching my objects.
5/7 - 1.5 hours at the museum going through Dr. C's books and asking questions
5/11- 6.5 hours total, 3 spent at the museum making sure I had everything and writing rough drafts of the inventory sheets and 3.5 at my work finishing up where I could save the pdf's.

Total: 9 hours

Phew! It's nice to be done (with one class anyways!) See y'all tomorrow =)

Well, this week has been crazy! I spent most of last week getting ready for SWAA and my presentation, and then we spent Thursday night-Sunday up in Reno. I had a blast, and I hope I get to go again! Paul (my fiance) had a good time too, he even seemed to enjoy the few presentation that he was able to see! =)

Anyways, I was finally able to spend some time working on my objects last night. I spent about 2.5 hours filling out what I could on the inventory worksheet. I also started my research. It looks like finding information for the Pomo baby cradle will be relatively simple, but I ran into trouble with the padded Pomo headdress and the household basket from Eel River.

I know from Mr. Shanks that the basket was made for the art market, so maybe I'll have some luck finding a match in an art catalog. I discovered that the Athapaskan groups lived along Eel River and include the Wailaki, Lassik, Nongatl, Sinkyone (thanks wikipedia). Page 112 of the Shanks book says that the Wailaki were known for their twined baskets so I thought I would start my research there and see what I can find. I fear I may be going on a wild goose chase though.

As for the padded Pomo headdress, I haven't found anything yet. I am hoping that maybe if I can find a book on Pomo rituals and dances that I will be able to find something. The SSC card says it could be used in a Sqaw (Squaw?) dance. It was certainly new or nearly new when Cotton bought it in 1924, since it uses so many non-native materials (cotton, steel wire, plastic buttons).

Since we aren't holding class today, I've decided to visit the Yolo county library here in Davis so I don't have to travel all the way to campus this morning. I have leads on three books/catalogs that I will go pick up this morning. I anticipate that taking 3o minutes, but I will verify that later.

I also spent about 30 minutes reading blogs and writing this blog post.

Total hours: 3, with potential 30 minutes more.

I spent about 1.5 hours working on the repatriation assignment and so far I've spent about an half hour reading over others blogs (I hope to finish reading them today).

2 hours total =(

"Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Iten in the Possession of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, NY (October 30, 1998): In 1901, the museum purchased a string of white and purple wampum beads from a collector who acquired it from anthropologist M. R. Harrington. Harrington obtained the wampum from Dan Webster of Oneida, NY. According the museum records, the wampum string is “said to represent the office of a chief in the [Oneida] Turtle Clan.” The museum concurred that the beads met NAGPRA's definition of an "object of cultural patrimony" --something that has "ongoing historical, traditional, and cultural importance central to the Tribe itself, and could not have been alienated, appropriated, or conveyed by any individual" -- and agreed to repatriate them to the Oneida Nation of New York." (American Indian Art, Vol. 25(1):102, Winter 1999).

“Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items in the Possession of the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California – Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (November 25, 1998): Between 1966 and 1984, the museum obtained through donation and purchase seventeen Hopi objects: “twelve katsinas” (presumably katsina dolls), three rattles, a “dance wand,” and a drum and beater (which accession records say “were used in Hipi kiva ceremonies”). Representatives of the Hopi Tribe and Katsimomngwit (traditional religious leaders) identified these items as “sacred objects used by them in the Hipi villages for the practice of traditional Hopi religion.” Having met NAGPRA’s definition of a “sacred object,” the collection was scheduled for repatriation to the Hopi Tribe.” (American Indian Art, Vol. 25(1):102, Winter 1999).

Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items in Possession of the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (March 2, 1999): The museum possessed thirty-eight Yaqui Chapayeka masks made of hide, paper and paint, as well as twelve Chapayeka spears, swords, and daggers made of wood and paint. One mast was purchased by the museum at Old Pascua in 1932, some were donated, other were purchased and three were made for a “School Loan Kit program.” It was decided that these pieces were “objects of cultural patrimony” as defined under NAGPRA and should be given to the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. Some of the items came from Sonora, Mexico, and these were “claimed by the Pascua Yaqui tribe on behalf of the Sonoran Yaqui communities.” (American Indian Art, Vol. 25(1):102, Winter 1999).

I spent about 1.5 hours catching up on my blog reading. I really enjoyed everyone's museum job posts. I also spent about 3o minutes finding my catalog for this weeks assignment, and about an hour reading over it. I found a really interesting one on Barry Goldwater's collection of Kachinas--I had no idea he was a collector.

3 hours

p.s. the lecture last week was fantastic, I really enjoyed the detailed history.

I spent 3 hours (10:00-1) helping get everything ready the morning of the opening reception, and other than that, i kinda took the week off a bit. Hopefully more hours next week as I start researching my objects

1. I have interned/volunteered at a museum, but have never had a paid job. I first begun as an intern at the UC Davis Anthropology Museum in 2005. I heard of the opportunity from a friend who was an intern and then applied (number 1 in Burcaw's list). Later, when my internship was complete, they asked if I would continue working there as a volunteer, which I did until 2008. My main responsibilities were in the cataloging, conservation, and care of archaeological collections. I helped enter objects into the museum catalog and database, created archival quality storage, and learned about pest management issues. After I gained some knowledge of human osteology, I began assisting with the care of human remains as required by NAGPRA. As a part of that duty, I helped inventory the skeletal remains and wrote first drafts of the public announcements that are required by NAGPRA.

2. (job from the Western Museum Association Job Listings)
Collections Manager with conservation training – The San Diego Museum of Man
The San Diego Museum of Man is seeking a collections manager with experience as a conservation technician who will manage, catalog and store the permanent collection. Candidate will have strong organizational skills with an attention to detail; strong communication skills; knowledge and skills in the management of anthropological collections; ability to manage multiple projects; supervisory skills. A related degree or experience in collections management-oriented museum work is required. For full job description, go to the Museum’s website at www.museumofman.org/employment. Salary range: $32,000-36,000 For more information or to apply, contact mbrooksgonyer@museumofman.org. (posted 03/09/2010) .

full job description from the museum website:
The San Diego Museum of Man is seeking a collections manager. Experience as a conservation technician is preferred. The collections manager works under moderate supervision to manage, preserve, catalog and store the permanent collection. This position is also responsible for assessing conservation of the Museum’s collections. The primary responsibilities of the collections manager are to generate and implement comprehensive collection management procedures; assist in the development and administration of a prioritized collection conservation assessment and treatment plan to improve the physical condition of the Museum’s permanent collection; build mounts and storage containers for various material types, sizes and conditions; monitor objects for damage and/or deterioration, evaluating major repairs and make minor repairs to those objects; perform cyclical cleaning of objects located within storage; administer a regular schedule of maintenance, which incorporates standards of safety and conservation for collection storage; monitor environmental conditions within the collection storage spaces; plan, design and control the ultimate high-density, compact storage solutions for the Museum’s collection. The collections manager will be responsible for assisting with facilitating care and control of collections on site; initiating, developing and implementing collections policies; overseeing object movement, internal and external; developing departmental and special project/program budgets; contracting for outside services as needed, such as: conservation, rigging, packing, crating, shipping, photography, etc.

The qualifications that I would highlight would be

• My experience managing permanent collections. I have experience working with catalogs, and can quickly adapt my understanding to their needs, I know how to build archival storage, and how to take steps at protecting the collections from pests, and other causes of damage (and what I don't know, I know where to find the proper information)
• I am very detail oriented, which my work at both the UC Davis Museum and my current employment at NRCS shows (At NRCS I am creating an archival filing system and catalog of all our ecological data that has been collected since the 1950s).
• I am very good working independently and can work on multiple tasks efficiently.
  

1 hour making final edits/finishing touches to the flier...and that's it! But I will be at the museum today a 10:00 to help out ^_^

P.S. I think everyone did a fantastic job, the exhibit is going to be a big hit I think!

I spent 7 hours helping with installation last Thursday and about 6 hours creating a "Basketry and Native Plant Conservation" flier that has the dual purpose of informing my co-workers (who are mostly plant ecologists) and museum visitors on the cultural importance of native plants. I'll have copies of it next week.

Total: 13 hours

OK, back to Spring Break ^_^

Hey archaeologists out there...wanna job?

For those of you interested in archaeology, and may or may not have missed my previous post, there have been some updates for the positions available...

I work for a federal agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and they are still looking for 2 archaeology students to assist the current archaeologists.

The jobs will now be based out of the Davis office. There will be travel required to Red Bluff and Redlands, but all travel expenses will be paid by the agency. They are very willing to work with student schedules and won't expect you to travel until school is out.

Requirements: field school and being a student. Really, that's it. The job is a temporary position till Sept. 30, but they really seem to try to keep people on if they like you. They are completely happy to have someone who is just learning. Seriously...it's an awesome place to work!

If you or someone you know is interested please email me (see previous post, or check SacCT for address) and I can get you in contact with my supervisor. They are under a time constraint and can't keep the job open for students much longer.

This week was pretty slow for me as far as lab hours go. I spent 3.5 hours today helping with fabrication and I've spent about 2 hours creating a flier for work that focuses on plant materials used in baskets. Hopefully it will get some more people interested in the exhibit.

Total: 5.5 hours

I got the events schedule today at work for the Native American Culture Days held at UC Davis. They are doing a lot of great stuff for the week (April 5-11), but they are presenting a lecture that I thought sounded particularly interesting:

Traditional and Contemporary Uses of Plant Materials by California Indians; Tuesday April 6 12:00 -1:00 Hart Hall 3201
presented by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) partnering with the California Indian Basketweavers Association (CIBA)
Basketry techniques as well as plant use and management for different goods will be demonstrated and discussed. Current natural resource issues for weavers and others will be discussed.

I'm considering going, even though it is inconveniently occurring the day before our opening. I would still make it to the museum in the afternoon at least. I'd have to miss folklore that day too, so I'll have to talk to Dr. Bishop...but it sounds so cool.

Anyone else interested in going?

for more info: http://ccc.ucdavis.edu/culture_weeks/nacd.html

Wowzers, this was a busy week! Here's what I've been spending my time on:

W 3/10

• 2 hours working on ancentry.com, trying to fill in holes in my research
• 30 minutes meeting with team 2
  

• 1 hour scanning and altering photos, getting them ready to add to the kinship chart
• 3 hours searching CDNC for Cotton related primary documents (and oh my, did I find good stuff!)
  

• 2 hours visiting the Slough House Pioneer Cemetery
• 2 hours writing/reading blog posts, writing a draft of the inventory list, and organizing a "plan of attack" for the huge project that is the genealogy chart

• 12 hours writing 8 Didactic Texts, 30 labels, organizing 18 photos/documents for Group 2's genealogy chart, emailing my wonderful group what must have been 50 emails and reading all their responses, and researching newly found holes in my understanding of the Cotton Family History.
  

• 3 hours finishing up one more didactic text and labels, and organizing everything...and of course more emails. Us group 2 folk were very liberal with our email usage this week! <3

• 5 hours creating an inventory sheet, reading and editing group 2 panels, applying the groups suggestions to my panels, getting the flash drive of our weeks work safely (God, I hope it's safe) on to the flash drive.
  

I found a draft registration card for Joel Sheldon Cotton last week and I thought it was really cool. I assumed that he must have served in the war for a time, even if it's not mentioned in the articles about him.

But now, upon closer inspection, I'm beginning to doubt my original assumption. The Registration card is dated September 12, 1918 - he would have been 43, a little old for the draft. Plus the Obituary mentions that he moved to Ft. Bragg because of his poor health, which is also not really something the Army is looking for in a soldier.

So, boo. I thought I had a great little addition to his story, but I think all I have is a registration card and no actually drafting to accompany it. (well, boo for me...I'm sure he was pretty happy about it)

What do y'all think? Is it possible that this is a sign of him entering the military? or is it just piece of government paperwork that was never used to send him anywhere?

I meant to post this before, but I forgot...Group 4 gave me an idea during their presentation last Wednesday. I like how they posed the titles of their sections in a question form: "What is Consultation?" I think was one. I was thinking of my title being "Who was Joel Sheldon Cotton?"

What if we used the question format throughout the exhibit? I think it would give the exhibit a sense of cohesiveness and flow.

Thoughts?

Here are some pictures from the cemetery. I think Laura has better ones, but I wanted to give everyone a a quick glimpse. All relationships are from the perspective of our collector, Joel S. Cotton. I have some more pictures of the surrounding area, but this is a big enough post, so I'll put those up later. Enjoy!

EDIT: I tried for an hour to make captions for this post, but Blogger has decided to be annoying so here is a key instead of captions:

Photo 1:Entrance to the cemetery
2: Plaque at the entrance
3: Grandfather, originally owner of sloughhouse
4:grandmother: Catherine Rhodes Sheldon Mahone Dalton (she was married 3 times, one (Mahone) ended in a divorce in 1870). Was a mid-wife and delivered our collector and his sister.
5: maternal uncle. I believe he inherited the land after Jared Sheldon died.
6: Wife of William C. Sheldon (aunt, by marriage)
7: Maternal aunt, died at age two of drowning
8: Father, committed suicide
9: Mother, died from an infection shortly after his birth
10: Sister. I don't know much about her, except she was raised by her grandmother.

I found a fantastic website yesterday, California Digital Newspaper Collection that allows a search of many Californian newspapers, some going back at least to the 1850s.

I found the article about Jared Sheldon's murder: Horrible Riot upon the Cosumnes. It's on page 2

And this is Cotton Sr's suicide: Sacramento Items. It says his middle name is "H." and up to this point I've always seen it as "S" and Sheldon. It's bothered me that he had the same name has his father-in-law. I think attributing "S" to the senior Cotton was a mix up between the two. EDIT: even more confusing is in the Pioneer book I have, he is Joel S. Cotton. Maybe I'll just leave his middle name out of the genealogy chart?

I also found numerous articles discussing Joel Cotton (Jr.) guardianship as an orphan: Probate Court Feb 22 1877 and Probate Court April 11 1878

Wow, busy week!

Last Wednesday I spent 2.5 hours searching ancestry.com for genealogy info. I think I need to go back and do some more, I got a lot of great info on Jared Sheldon, but not much on the Cotton's. I would like more primary sources to add to the kinship chart.

2.5 hours were spent on Saturday developing a kinship chart for the Cotton family.

I spent about an hour with group 2 today (Tuesday) going over our story board, sharing research, and discussing each of the areas we're focusing on. We're going to meet tomorrow before class to finish our story board.

Then I spent a whopping 5 hours this evening reading over the incredible copies from a Pioneer Cemetery book that Laura and Stacey got from the Library. It has an awesome amount of information and allowed me to fill in some gaps in the kinship chart. I also spent some of that 5 hours working on my part of the story board, redoing the kinship chart, and figuring out where I still have (gaping) holes in my research.


P.S. Had to share my cat's not so subtle hint that I need to stop studying for the night!

given to me today by Laura, who did awesome research at the Library...

I used to think that history was a thing you saw in books;

It always seemed to be there,
You never had to look.

One day I heard there used to be some History of this town
But when I went to look for it
No one had wrote it down

How do you find your History when you don't know where to look?
How do you know what happened
When there's nothing in the Book?

You start to do some asking and you really look around,
and bit by bit you dig it out
until you've got some found.

You listen to the old folks and you study the artifacts,
and you put the bits together
'til you see just how the stack.

And, finally you get a story even though it's not that much;
as long as you can reach it, then
It's History you can touch.

You find the gentle Miwoks with their acorn grinding stones,
and the people who dug their graves up
Just to rearrange their bones.

Michigan Bar and Sloughhouse, where the stagecoach made its stops
where they carried all the gold out
through the valley of the hops

You find out who lived in Wilton and in Franklin and Elk Grove.
And you get to know a lot about the Sheldons, Kerrs, and Rhoades.

It is written on the tombstones and it's buried in the ground;
It's in the memories of the old ones
that's how your History is found.

-Elizabeth Pinkerton, (from the book: Historic Cosumnes and the Sloughhouse Pioneer Cemetery by Norma Baldwin Ricketts)

I'm not sure who Elizabeth Pinkerton is, but I seem to remember that surname in my research somewhere. Anyways, I thought it was cool, especially since it mentions our collectors grandparents (Sheldon and Rhoades).

Here's my first draft of the Cotton kinship diagram. Sorry it's so small, it's as big as blogger will let me make it. Hopefully you can still get the idea, you can see a somewhat larger image if you click on it.

I'm thinking on the wall, we can put the kinship chart up and have important documents around it (like the Diseno, newspaper clippings, census info, etc.). I color-coded the people that are important to our story, and I'm thinking we can post each of the side panels in corresponding colors so visitors can follow which info belongs to which person.

Another, different, idea I had was putting the documents directly under each name, though I think it would make the kinship chart really big and maybe harder to follow...I guess we can work those kinks out later!

Lab: 2.5 hours

EDIT: I put the wrong date of death for Jared Sheldon. it's 1851 not 1857. It's fixed in my original.

finally, I have proof enough that Jared Sheldon and Joaquin Sheldon are one in the same (woo hoo!). check out these links:

Placer County archives and office of historic preservation I've also found this great bio of his, note: there is an error in the date of his death, it's suppose to be 1851 not 1857.

I spent about 1 hour researching and doing a blog post on potential baskets to use as our basket for the exhibit.

about 30 minutes: spent helping people set up an RSS feed and fixing some blogger issues.

30 minutes spent reading blogs.

30 minutes: studying some information given to me by Mary Re: John Hudson. I would like to get together with others from group 2 soon to determine how much information we want to include about him and Carl Purdy. (and of course talk about all the other stuff we need to do as well!)...On a side note, Mary gave me some info for the Grace Hudson Museum. She was John Hudson's wife and an artist. One of the books of hers, "Grace Hudson, Artist of the Pomo Indians" has cover art depicting a Pomo cradle basket just like my object (BAS 156), which I thought was pretty cool.

1 Hour was spent trying to decipher the Sloughhouse land grants. The copies aren't the greatest, and the script is really hard to read. I was able to get dates and I found out that 5 square leagues were bought in 1844. Did you know that one land league equals 4,428 acres? That makes about 22,140 acres (i think), which lines up pretty well with the Sac Bee article I found last week. That makes me feel a bit more confident that I have the right land grant, considering the name from the Sac Bee was Jared Sheldon and State Archives only had a Joaquin Sheldon.

I also spent an 1 hour discussing the deed of gift assignment with Mary, and 30 minutes reading through the auction catalogs.

I think that's it for now, equaling 5 hours for the week. I will be spending some time tomorrow perusing ancentry.com for more genealogy info.

I've been checking out the inventory lists and I think we should start seriously narrowing down our possibilities for a basket to follow through the exhibit and get something picked ASAP.

I really like Mary's idea of using the McCloud Area Burden Basket. It would give us a good opportunity to compare a well-worn used basket to one that wasn't used. I think this basket has a lot of potential for telling a good story.

Another idea is to pick a basket that has a known maker. If we could find some information about the maker, that could also tell a really good story. That leaves the 'Widow's cap made by Metaha from Requa, near Eureka' as a possibility.

Or we could use the "Shaman's basket" that Dr. C mentioned. Which one is that on the inventory list? Is it the trinket basket or maybe the elongated bowl with feathers? Is it OK to display something that may need NAGPRA consultation in the future?

What do you guys think would be best? I think that's all the ideas I have for now. I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Sunday and watch the USA-Canada hockey game =)

I've seen a request or two for a little computer help, which I'm happy to do. I'll install the RSS feedreader that I use on my laptop and show anyone who needs how to set it up. I can also help with any lingering blogger questions.

Where are we meeting today? Depending on that, I'll be either in the museum or upstairs in 4005 (I think that's the right room). I'll be there by about 1:00 and can stay after as well.

UPDATE: I'll be in Mendo 1005 at about 1:00ish (providing there isn't another class in there at that time). It also sounds like Dr. C will provide some time to go over any questions at the beginning of class.

3 hours: reading the accession file, going through smugmug and reading/responding to blog posts, writing my blog posts.

1.5 hours: researching and writing a Cotton genealogy cheat-sheet.

1.5 hours: Doing research on Sloughhouse prior to going to the state archives.

1.5 hours: at the State Archives

30 minutes: Studying the basket exhibit at the California Museum.

Total: 8 hours

After my exciting afternoon at the state archives I hopped over to the California Museum to check out their baskets. It was a really beautiful exhibit. I thought it was interesting that they presented the baskets as art, by calling the show American Masterpieces, but they also gave some focus to the weavers and on the making of the baskets, I especially liked the display of a basket in the process of being woven, it was so cool to see the intricate design in the center with all the loose fibers coming out of it. It gave me a new appreciation for just how difficult it must be weave.

I really like how they had the raw materials available to see. If we can swing getting some of the plant material that our basket (when we pick it) was made of, I think it would really add some context to the first part of the exhibit.

I also liked how they numbered the baskets and then used those numbers to refer to the baskets in the larger narratives about the weavers on the wall. That might be a good way for us to refer people to other baskets as they are follow our "basket lifeway."

On a side note, the total geek in me got a thrill out of seeing R2D2 and C3PO on the first floor of the museum =)

Wow, the state archives are so cool! I went today to try to get the Slough house land grant. I did some research prior and found that it was likely first bought by a Jared Dixon Sheldon. He wasn't listed in their records, but a Joaquin Sheldon was for the correct year and in Sacramento County. I'm not sure if it is the correct land grant, but if it's not I'll do some more digging and see if I can find what we need. It's difficult to read, but I will bring it to class tomorrow so we can all check it out.

P.S. I found this great article from the Sac Bee in my Research: Sloughhouse wasn't always quiet, Enjoy!

I've been a bit confused on the genealogy of the Cottons and so wrote out some notes in an attempt to get all the scattered information into one area. I thought it might help others as well. I can't guarantee this is all correct, but I'll update as I find out more.

Father, Joel S. Cotton (Sr.): Killed himself April 1878 when Joel Jr. was 3. Buried in Pioneer Cemetery (as is his wife Catherine).

Mother, Catherine Dixon Sheldon: Born June 28, 1854. Died April 16 1875 (note: there is an error on the genealogy chart in the accession file, says 1975). Died shortly after our collectors birth.

Our collector, Joel S. Cotton (Jr.): Born March 23, 1875. Died October 28, 1952. Born near Slough House, Sacramento County (Saunder's Hall, Ca is noted in the genealogy page of the accession file). Buried in the MacKerricher family plot in Rose Memoral Park, Ft. Bragg, CA.

Wife, Evelyn Annie MacKerricher: Died at 92 yrs (still need to find dates). Parents were Duncan and Jessie MacKerricher. Married June 10, 1899. Family donated land for MacKerricher State Park. Buried in the MacKerricher family plot in Rose Memoral Park, Ft. Bragg, CA.

Children, John Sterling Cotton, Ruth Charmian Cotton, Dr. Norman Winfield Cotton.

Our Donor, Dr. Norman Winfield Cotton: (born? died?). Married to Dorothy K. Cotton.

Dorothy K. Cotton: (born? died? maiden name-maybe MacArthur?). Wrote a family history.

P.S. Thanks to those of you who found many of the links I integrated into this post!

So, I set up my blog last week to alert me whenever someone comments on one of my posts, which I thought would be really helpful in keeping me up-to-date with comments. By the way, you can do this by going into settings, then go to the comments tab and at the very bottom, you'll see "Comment Notification Email" enter your email and voila you're good to go.

Well...almost good to go. If you've already done this and have, like me, became frustrated by comments on your blog with the lack of email alerts in your inbox, check your spam folder. It seems the alerts were getting filtered out (by yahoo). If this is an issue for you, put noreply-comment@blogger.com to your safe list.

This should also work to alert you when someone comments after you on a post (I think, i haven't be able to try it yet). Caveat: I've noticed that some of our blogs allow you to "email follow-up comments" and some don't. I'm not sure why this is, but I have a suspicion it's dependent on having comments set to be Pop-ups (which you can set in the comments section of Settings). I will do more sleuthing around blogger and let y'all know what I find!

I've been thinking about the poster idea that Dr. C mentioned on her blog, and I really like the idea of thumbnails of each object. It could really give a good sense of the variety and beauty of the collection.

Out of my objects, I would like the household basket to be featured. I'm thinking something similar to this picture--a somewhat close up image that highlights the fine weaving.

I've been thinking this morning about how to organize ourselves as we start putting the exhibit together. I feel like we are all coming up with great ideas, but that everything is a little jumbled together. Some of us are excited about the Cottons and accessioning while it seems others are more interested in the NAGPRA side of things. Which I think is fantastic, but I worry that each of us may lose the big picture as we focus on our own points of interest.

So, with that in mind, I was thinking if we take the exhibit and break it up into parts it may become more manageable. The parts could be 1: before an object comes into the museum. the weaver, the materials, how was collected (could also have some focus here on was it made to be sold or to be used). 2: What happens to a object once it enters a museum 3: How does it leave the museum (NAGPRA).

We could create teams each working on a part of the exhibit, brainstorm ideas, come up with label copy, etc. There would, of course be a lot of communication between teams, but each of us would know what to focus primarily on...

Team 1: focus on the making of a basket, the materials and the weavers, the Cotton's, how he did the collection.
Team 2: explain how it came to the museum through a donor (would probably require some help from team 1) and focus on how an object gets accessioned, how it's inventoried, etc.
Team 3: how an object leaves the museum. NAGPRA, de-accessioning.

this is just one example of how to divide the exhibit, there are many other ways that may work better. Or Dr. Castaneda may have a way all planned out already, but I wanted to get my idea out there. Any thoughts?

I am disappointed that I wasn't able to make it to the Maidu Museum opening on Saturday, but it looks like I'll get to go next week.

Here's the breakdown of my lab hours for this week:

• 2 hours reading blog posts, brainstorming and writing my thoughts on my blog
• 1/2 hour researching RSS feeds and writing an "how-to" post
• 1 hour doing internet research on museums and on the Cotton's.
  

I meant to do a little intro into RSS feeds last week when Dr. C mentioned it her her blog, but that blasted cold kept me from it. Well, better late than never.

I am new into the wonderful world of the RSS feed, but after using it for a couple of weeks I'm in love. I didn't realize how many blogs I read on a regular basis! I know you can set up a feed that works with your phone, but I have a cheapo phone that does nothing but make calls (i know, how archaic!). So this post will focus on how you can set up a reader for your computer.

If you use iGoogle as your homepage, you can create an RSS feed through that which will then show up right on your homepage. I don't use iGoogle anymore, but I believe you can add a gadget that will give you an RSS feed. I think Dr. C uses this so maybe she can provide more insight about how this one works. I think Yahoo has a similar RSS feed "gadget" that can be put on that homepage, but I've yet to find it. If you use outlook I believe there is also a way to set up a reader there as well.

I opted instead to download a program called Feedreader 3.14 (http://www.feedreader.com/). Through the program, you create a blog list which will update automatically and display an icon in your system tray whenever a new post comes in. You can access your blogs through a window on your desktop and you have a choice to read them though that window, or open up the full blog online.

Thus far I'm very happy with feedreader, but there are a few drawbacks. Unlike iGoogle or Yahoo readers which are accessed via the internet, this is a program installed on your computer. If you use two computers, like a laptop and a desktop, you will have to download the program to each system. I haven't done this yet, but I have a suspicion that the two readers won't communicate with each other. It might be a pain to manage both readers. I've also noticed a delay in updates. Sometimes I won't be notified of a new post till 5 or 6 hours after it's been posted. This may be fixed by changing a setting with the program, but I haven't had time to check that yet.

That's what I've learned so far, but I pretty new to all this. I'll post updates if I find a better way to do a feed. If anyone out there has discovered a better way, let me know!

So, I got a cold and kinda fell out of the loop the past few days, but I'm back and wanted to offer my (delayed) two cents into the exhibit organization and title brainstorming...

Amanda mentioned in a comment to my post last week that her and Mary were talking about juxtaposing the process of accessioning an artifact vs. de-accessioning because of NAGPRA. I think this would be awesome. I'm thinking it would be great if we can follow how an object comes into a museum and then how it can go out.

We could show how it comes in using Cotton as our prototypical collector- I like the idea someone had of displaying his journal if we have it and I think it would be good to display his book of how much each item cost. Maybe even try to display those baskets that are on the receipt list so people can see the connection. I love the idea of a map of California, maybe we could overlay traditional tribal boundaries on the map so people can get a sense of the Native population in California. Holly's question is a good one though...if we pick baskets outside of CA to display this map might not be as useful.

As for the other side of the exhibit, how an object leaves a museum, I like the idea of including CalNAGPRA in the discussion. I also think it would be good to provide a sense of how many unrecognized tribes there are in CA. I'm am excited about this NAGPRA part of the exhibit, but I'm still not sure how we're going to lay it out. Should we create a fictional example object to follow through-maybe something similar to something we have displayed elsewhere? Or can we use an actual object from the Cotton collection? What do you guys think?

I have been wracking my brain for a week to come up with some title ideas, but alas, I am terrible at titles...so, I'll list my favorites:

I like Nessa's: "Weaving life through Native California" and I also very much like Stacie's "Exhibiting Native America: The Journey from Maker to Museum Display." What about combining the two? We could do "Weaving life through Native California: The Journey from Maker to Museum" --I like that, but maybe we could add something that alludes to the object leaving the museum, though I worry that would be too wordy.

I was at work on Friday and was informed that 2 student archaeology positions have open up. It's for the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) which is a small federal department within the USDA. I thought I would pass it along to you guys, in case you or someone you know is looking for an archaeology 'in' with the federal government.

I spent some time looking over Dr. Castaneda's museum links this afternoon, trying to focus mostly on learning about baskets, since I know virtually nothing about them. Based I my perusing, I've started brainstorming some ideas for our exhibit:

I like the idea Dr. Castaneda mentioned last week about focusing on the Cottons, and on the difference between a collector and donor. We could make displays talking about how something (like a basket) goes from maker to collector, to donor, and then finally what happens at the museum--donation process, accessioning, and care. We could also have a discussion on NAGPRA. Maybe we could follow an object through the reparation process. This would be a hypothetical object, I'm not suggesting we display anything that is culturally sensitive. Do you guys think this type of exhibit would be interesting enough for the general public?

I found this great site (thanks to our professor!), and I was thinking maybe we could focus on the collection of objects, with the Cotton collection in particular. Maybe we could do something like a compare/contrast of objects (baskets) made to be used and those made for collectors and tourists. In that same vein, we could also focus on baskets as objects to be used verses as art (function vs. form). I haven't seen any of the Cotton collection yet, so I don't know if this idea would work at all, but it was floating in my head so I figured no harm in throwing the idea out there!

Alright, that's all I have for now. Have a good evening all!

The pieces from the Cotton Collection that I will be working with are:

42 74-32-6
21 BAS0156 74-32-2-25
3 BAS0015 74-32-2-16

hmm...I wonder what they actually are! =)

• 2/4 - Created and customized blog. 2 hours
• 2/6 - Learned about RSS feeds and created a feed for the class. 1 hour.
• 2/8 and 2/9 - tried to help others with blog questions, and tried to figure out why my RSS feed wasn't working (think i got it now), and brainstormed some ideas for our exhibit (see blog post). 1 hour.
• 2/9 - Read classmate's blogs and links, and read museum links from Dr. Castaneda's blog. 2 hours.

Free museums tomorrow! www.sacmuseums.org/museumday.html

Huzzah!