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Browsing by Author "Marsh, Diana"

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A New Committee Launches: Making a Case for Archival Repatriation
(2024-01) Punzalan, Ricardo; Arsenault, Jaime; Begay, Vina; Chaterera-Zambuko, Forget; Marsh, Diana; Savory, Jacob; Schlottmann, Kevin; Stoner, Melissa; Schmitt, Jack
Access to and community possession of archival materials containing Native and Indigenous knowledge, language, and lifeways is crucial to the cultural survivance, revital- ization, and continuation of communities. Nevertheless, archival organizations have yet to fully address how the profession might approach the growing demand for archival repatriation. In response, the Society of American Archivists formed the Archival Repatriation Committee with the charge to “[E]nsure that [SAA]’s services, activities, policies, communications, and products support the goal of supporting archivists in repatriating and receiving archival materials.”
Aleš Hrdlička: A New Finding Aid and an Exhibit Appearance for a Controversial Figure in the History of Anthropology
(Smithsonian Collections Blog, 2020-04-03) Christensen, Katherine; Marsh, Diana
Aleš Hrdlička was an anthropologist who left a complicated legacy. His work in physical anthropology was groundbreaking, but his history is fraught with accusations of misogyny and a belief that his work contributed to major racist ideologies of the 20th century. His papers are open for research at the National Anthropological Archives and the finding aid for those papers, the original creation of which was funded by the Repatriation Office, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), is now available digitally on SOVA through recent funding from the FY2019 Collections Information (CIS) pool. Some of Hrdlička’s work is on display in the new exhibition, Documenting Diversity: How Anthropologists Record Human Life
Charles Whitney Gilmore – The Forgotten “Dinosaur Hunter”
(Digging the Fossil Record: Paleobiology at Smithsonian, 2013-06) Marsh, Diana; Sues, Hans Dieter
Charles Whitney Gilmore (1874-1945), affectionately known as “Charlie” to his colleagues, was one of the last major figures of America’s “Golden Age” of dinosaur hunting. It is largely due to his efforts that the Department of Paleobiology is now home to one of the premier collections of dinosaurs and other fossil reptiles in the United States. Early in his career Gilmore commenced scientific studies of dinosaurs and many other groups of extinct reptiles, starting with the rich material from the Marsh Collection. His monographs on the skeletal structure of the armored Stegosaurus (1914), the predatory dinosaurs Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus (1920), and the sauropod Apatosaurus (1936) remain essential references for any serious student of dinosaurs. Working at a time when there were few professional vertebrate paleontologists, Gilmore also received invitations from other institutions, including the Carnegie Museum and the American Museum of Natural History, to study and publish on important specimens of dinosaurs and other fossil reptiles from their respective collections. Many important papers, including the first monograph on early Late Cretaceous dinosaurs from Inner Mongolia (China), resulted from these “extramural” research efforts. The collections of fossil reptiles in the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology offer eloquent testimony of Gilmore’s devotion and efforts and will continue to be an unparalleled resource for research and exhibition.
Curious Revolutionaries: The Peales Give Their Encore at Philosophical Hall’s Museum
(American Philosophical Society News, 2017-07) Marsh, Diana; Mason, Merrill; Ellison, Amy
THE EXHIBITION NOW ON VIEW at the APS Museum is Curious Revolutionaries: The Peales of Philadelphia. This exhibition displays the work of the Peales, an early American family of patriots, soldiers, artists, politicians, inventors, explorers, naturalists, entrepreneurs, and world-class, ever-busy tinkerers. Their boundless curiosity led them to pursue a wide variety of interests, which ranged from excavating mastodon fossils in upstate New York, to collaborating on inventions like the polygraph, to painting the pantheon of American leaders, to collecting and cataloging thousands of species from all over the world. As his portrait gallery grew and attracted a supportive audience, Charles Willson’s idea for developing a public museum began to take shape. By educating the American public and increasing their understanding of the natural world, Peale believed his museum could help cultivate a more enlightened citizenry and advance America’s prestige around the world. In 1786 (the year he was elected a Member of the APS), he founded the Philadelphia Museum at his home on Third and Lombard Streets, establishing what would become the first successful public museum and a model for future democratic museums. The Peale-Sellers Family Collection (of 19 linear feet, comprising some 38 boxes and 147 volumes) and the Society’s related collections include letters and diaries, as well as sketchbooks, painting palettes, hand-cut silhouettes, and watercolors. Highlights from the APS Museum collections include admission tokens from Charles Willson Peale’s Philadelphia Museum (which was located in Philosophical Hall from 1794 to 1810), miniature fireplace patent models designed by Charles Willson Peale and his son Raphaelle, and several paintings. Together, these important collections reveal the Peales’ influence on early American popular culture through innovations in art, science, and technology. The exhibition is divided into three thematic sections: The Peales and the New Nation, Peale’s Philadelphia Museum, and The Legacy of the Peales. Each section offered us the opportunity to explore lesser- known aspects of the Peale family and experiment with new curatorial approaches.
Editorial Guide for Indigenous Entity Descriptions in SNAC
(2022-03) Curliss, Lydia; Marsh, Diana; Gates, Irene; Satriano, Katherine; Simmons, Jerry; Herbert, Dina
This editorial guide was originally created for participants in the SNAC Indigenous edit-a-thon and for future editors when considering Indigenous records. This editorial guide considers best practices in the field as they apply to the Social Networks and Archival Context (abbreviated as SNAC) platform but we hope that this may lead to changes in other databases, platforms, and practices. While we pull from multiple sources, this is not exhaustive, and will change as new protocols, resources, policies, and other documentation becomes available in the field.
Mary Jane Peale: The Forgotten Peale Painter
(American Philosophical Society Blog, 2017-07-17) Marsh, Diana
Peale children were encouraged to pursue art at a time when professional female artists were rare. Mary Jane Peale, Charles Willson’s granddaughter, is the least known of Peale family artists. The APS is fortunate to have her diaries, letters, and notes in its collections. Despite proposals of marriage, Mary Jane remained single, and led a rich life as an unmarried artist. In the 1860s, she traveled Europe—to Paris, Geneva, and Luxembourg, among other places—to see its museums and painting collections. In the 1870s, she mingled with the nation’s intellectual elite in Washington—the Smithsonian’s Joseph Henry and Spencer Baird, as well as biologist Louis Agassiz and geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden. When she died at age 72, her obituary proclaimed that this “well-known portrait painter” was the “last of family of famous portrait painters.” Today, her work is held at the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Sheldon Museum of Art, and the Westmoreland Museum of Art.
Piloting Reparative Description and Metadata in SNAC via the Indigenous Description Group
(Descriptive Notes, 2024-04-02) Bull, Ia; Chapman, Lindsey; Curliss, Lydia; Hamilton, Mik; Marsh, Diana; Martin, Worthy; Miller, Jerrid Lee; Pipestem, Veronica; Smoke, Ugoma; Sorensen, Amanda H; Stoner, Melissa
Archivists have recognized the need to rethink how this knowledge can be better represented, not only to heal previous harms but also to make information more accessible and usable for communities. A number of professional organizations and working groups have been developing inclusive description policies, resources, and approaches that can be leveraged in a wide range of institutional contexts. In March 2023, we launched Indigenous Description Group (IDG)–modeled after SNAC’s Enslaved Description Group (EDG)–within SNAC’s Editorial Standards Working Group. The goals of the IDG are to 1) improve accessibility to archival collections for Indigenous Tribal communities; 2) mitigate harm caused by extractive collecting processes; and 3) engage in reparative description across systems, at scale, and in an interoperable way.
Providing Culturally Responsive and Ethical Access To Indigenous Collections
(Archival Outlook, 2019-05) Carpenter, Brian; Haynes, Caitlin; Marsh, Diana; Posas, Lisa; Punzalan, Ricardo L.; Rappaport, Gina; Stoner, Melissa
SAA’s Code of Ethics states, “Archivists promote the respectful use of culturally sensitive materials in their care by encouraging researchers to consult with communities of origin, recognizing that privacy has both legal and cultural dimensions.” For repositories with Native archival materials, it’s especially important to develop clear guidelines for handling material. Six archivists share how their repositories are shifting policies and practices to promote respectful use of Native archival materials.
Reparative Description, Indigenous Partners, and the SNAC Edit-a-thon
(Archival Outlook, 2022-03-28) Curliss, Lydia; Gates, Irene; Marsh, Diana; Satriano, Katherine; Bruchac, Margaret; Gibson, Taylor; Long, Keahiahi; Curley, Stephen; Hemenway, Eric; Stoner, Melissa
The Social Networks and Archival Context—a.k.a. SNAC—is a free, online resource that helps users discover biographical and historical information about individuals, families, and organizations that created or are documented in primary sources and to see their connections to one another. Users can find archival materials from cultural heritage institutions around the world. In ongoing efforts to increase diverse representation of entities in SNAC and to ensure that records related to Indigenous and Native communities are described in ways that reflect and respect them, SNAC hosted an “edit-a-thon” on October 11–12, 2021. This event, held during Indigenous People’s Day, extended the work of SNAC’s 2020 edit-a-thon centering Indigenous records and consciously included a greater Indigenous presence by having an Indigenous advisory board, targeting outreach to Indigenous participants, and developing an Indigenous editorial guide. The event resulted in important cultural protocols and workflows, a new Editorial Guide for Indigenous Descriptions in SNAC, and better representation for over 50 SNAC records.
Revisiting the Relevance of Ethnography: Reflections on Extinct Monsters to Deep Time
(MuseNews, 2023-02) Marsh, Diana
This short piece reflects on the book Extinct Monsters to Deep Time: Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian's Fossil Halls as it is released in paperback. It argues that ethnography offers an important perspective on the power dynamics of institutions, as well as how museums maintain trust via the negotiation process of creating exhibitions.
Sydel Silverman: A New Virtual Finding Aid for a Scholar Committed to Anthropology’s Legacy
(Smithsonian Collections Blog, 2020-03-11) Marsh, Diana; Christensen, Katherine
Last March, a giant in the field of anthropology passed away. Sydel Silverman (1933-2019) was a scholar of Italian and other (as she called them) “complex” societies, as well as the history of anthropology. Silverman advocated for anthropology throughout her career. At the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center in the 1970s, Silverman argued that anthropology was an “essential” discipline, convincing Margaret Mead to join her fight. Silverman’s perhaps most influential contribution to the field was her leadership of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, anthropology’s most prominent funding organization, where she served as President from 1987 to 1999. Through Wenner-Gren, Silverman built anthropology’s intellectual community and reach. Silverman was also a major proponent of preserving anthropology’s legacy through archival records. She helped to found the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records (CoPAR), which published works on the topic and created a registry of anthropologists’ archival papers. This month, the NAA published a digital, keyword searchable (‘encoded’, in archives-speak) finding aid (created by Katherine Christensen) to Silverman’s collections.
The Protocols for Native American Archival Materials and Description
(2021-04-15) Buchanan, Rose; Marsh, Diana
The Protocols for Native American Archival Materials (PNAAM) establish best practices for the culturally responsive care and use of Native American archival materials, particularly materials that are housed in non-Tribal institutions. Following SAA’s endorsement of PNAAM as an external standard in 2018, the Native American Archives Section (NAAS) launched a case studies and webinar series about implementing them. These resources include guidelines for providing culturally appropriate and accurate descriptive information for Native American and Indigenous collections.
Theories and implications for centering Indigenous and queer embodiment within sociotechnical systems
(Wiley, 2023-02-23) Wagner, Travis L.; Marsh, Diana; Curliss, Lydia
This paper explores the role of Indigenous and queer embodiment in understanding the current limitations of sociotechnical systems as they relate to cultural heritage institutions. Through the utilization of a critical case study the paper highlights the ways in which the ideologies of colonialism and cisnormativity render Indigenous and queer identities invisible within cultural heritage institutions. In particular, the case studies highlight information organization, archival description, and cataloging as sites of ideological reinforcement for colonialism and gender binaries. In response, the paper identifies methods for not only naming such normative ideologies, but actionable ways to challenge such inequities through community-led, Indigenous, and queer affirming descriptive practices. Additionally, the paper attends to the way findings impact other historically marginalized identities and theorize methods for confronting such inequities within sociotechnical systems more broadly.

Browsing by Author "Marsh, Diana"

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