Descriptive Entry

This accession consists of records which document the activities of the curatorial staff of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Subjects covered include the exhibition master plan, workshops, repatriation, exhibitions, councils, collections management, collection research, conservation treatment, budgetary matters, and research. Staff represented include Kathleen E. Ash-Milby, Assistant Curator; Eulalie Bonar, Assistant Curator; and Clara Sue Kidwell, Assistant Director for Cultural Resources. Exhibitions documented include Woven by the Grandmothers: Nineteenth-Century Navajo Textiles from the National Museum of the American Indian; Creation's Journey: Masterworks of Native American Identity and Belief; and All Roads Are Good: Native Voices on Life and Culture.

Particularly well documented is All Roads Are Good: Native Voices on Life and Culture which includes exhibition "mount books" which are devoted to each of the Native American selectors for the exhibit. Each of these "mount books" contains a summary of the selector's visit to the Research Branch at NMAI to choose objects for display; an audiotape and videotape index of the selector's comments on his/her artifact selections; object identification numbers, with photograph and original catalogue card information for each object chosen by the selector; background information on the selector; photocopies of photographs taken of selector while at the Research Branch; and miscellaneous notes taken by the curator while working with the selector. Selectors include Jacinto Arias and Juan Gallo Hernandez; D. Y. Begay; Susan Billy; Abe Conklin; Alejandro Flores Huatta and Paula Quispe Cruz; Tom Hill; George P. Horse Capture; Conrad House; John Kim Bell; Lloyd Kiva New; Victor Masayesva; Gerald McMaster; Richard Milanovich; Teofila Palofox and Juan Olivares; Linda Poolaw; Manuel Rios; and Rina Swentzell. Curators include Mary Jane Lenz, Gary Galante, Nancy Rosoff, Cécile R. Ganteaume, George Arevator, and Perry Ground.

Some of these records date from before the creation of NMAI, when the museum was known as the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI). Materials include correspondence; memoranda; reports; meeting minutes; exhibition scripts; exhibition label copy; budget proposals; grant proposals; color photographs, negatives, and transparencies; black-and-white photographs and negatives; research files; bibliographies; contracts; agendas; object lists; videotapes; audiocassettes; clippings; and other related materials. Some materials are in electronic format.