Institutional Histories Initiative

In 2021, the Peabody Museum announced the launch of the Institutional Histories Initiative (IHI). Aimed at critically examining the Peabody’s history, policies, and practices, IHI is a collaborative, multi-year, cross-departmental program with three primary goals:

To evaluate and critique past practices at the Peabody and locate those historical approaches within the fields of anthropology and the history of museums
To interrogate collecting relationships and practices as defined by larger social and cultural contexts that led to growth of the Peabody's collections
To situate the Peabody's role and experience within Harvard University as a teaching and research museum and the contributions of that institutional relationship to broader goals of knowledge production

As one of the oldest museums of anthropology, the history of the Peabody Museum is intricately linked to legacies of settler colonialism and imperialism both in the United States and around the globe. The Peabody was founded on the practice of collecting the cultural heritage of diverse communities in ways that were tied directly to nation-building: Harvard-funded exploration and research in the name of anthropological practice was the mechanism by which cultural heritage was removed from origin communities.

We must now undertake the critical work of interrogating the Peabody's complex history, honestly reflecting on past practices, so that we may better partner with origin and stakeholder communities openly and transparently. As the current stewards of cultural heritage from communities through time and around the globe, what aspects of our past need to be investigated and addressed? How can different stories of collections and collectors be drawn together with historical policies and practice to unpack and confront the Peabody's challenging and often traumatizing history? As an institution, the Peabody must recognize the far-ranging and long-term nature of this work, which has impacted nearly every aspect of our practice from field collection and documentation to museum display and interpretation.

Our work begins with the projects described below. We will be continuing to add additional projects to support the Institutional Histories Initiative as an ongoing, long-term approach to self-assessment and reinvention.

History of the Peabody

In 1866, American financier and philanthropist George Peabody gave $150,000 to Harvard for the establishment of a museum dedicated to the new academic discipline of anthropology. From that gift, the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology was established as one of the first anthropology museums in the world. The gift from George Peabody enabled the growth of the collections, the construction of the building in 1877, and a fund for a curator/professor to teach anthropology at Harvard. Jeffries Wyman, Hersey Professor of Anatomy at Harvard College, was the first curator/director of the museum from 1867 to 1874. While Wyman was an anatomist, he was also an archaeologist and worked to build the Peabody collections through his own excavations as well as donations from other museums and learned societies as well as collections owned by Harvard itself.

The second curator/director of the Peabody was Frederic Ward Putnam, who held that position from 1875 to 1915. Known as the “Father of American Archaeology,” the growth of the collection under his directorship was substantial. Putnam not only ran large archaeological excavations in the United States, but he also built a vast network of associates and students who were instrumental in building the collection, including Robert E. Peary, Franz Boas, George Byron Gordon, Arthur C. Parker, and William Jones. During that period, Harvard also help fund large scientific expeditions around the globe, including by the US Fish Commission and the Hassler Expedition...

Putnam trained students in new methods of archaeology that he developed, and advocated learning about people from their cultural material —an emphasis that continues to this day within anthropology. This early history is explored in All the World Is Here: Harvard’s Peabody Museum and the Invention of American Anthropology.

During the first half of the 20th century, the emphasis of the Peabody Museum and the Harvard department of anthropology was the expansion of Harvard- and Peabody-funded expeditions to specific areas by students, faculty, and professional anthropologists, including Julio Tello, George Harley, Samuel Lothrop, and Doris Stone. In the second half of the 20th century, gallery spaces – once used for teaching were converted into more topical exhibitions. The collection grew through to work of Harvard faculty and other scholars and donors, including the department of anthropology excavations at Tepe Yahya and the Lower Mississippi Survey, the work of the Marshall family and donors such as Alice Melvin and William Wright. The museum now stewards material from all around the world, making it one of the most significant collections of human history in existence.

The Peabody Museum was founded during a different time, when museums were popular sites for entertainment as well as education. As one of the oldest museums of anthropology, the history of the Peabody is intricately linked to legacies of colonialism and imperialism both in the United States and around the globe. These legacies influenced the museum’s past practices of collecting, researching, and displaying collections from a Western perspective. We acknowledge and are accountable to that history.

Additionally, the field of anthropology and the purpose, values, and approaches of museums have significantly changed since the Peabody’s founding in 1866. Our goal today is to critically examine past practices that negatively stereotyped and were harmful to the Indigenous communities who interacted with early anthropologists. These past practices have marked the discipline and the collections, resulting in historical exclusionary and racist terminology that can at times still be found in the collections today. You can read more about our commitment and current practice on our Ethical Stewardship page.

Provenance

What is provenance and why is it important? The term provenance in museums has historically centered around documenting ownership history. More broadly interpreted, it should tell a biography. Where did an item originate? How did it arrive at the Peabody? And where was it in between?

Recognizing that the collections stewarded at the Peabody hold great significance to communities around the world, we have an obligation to investigate, document, and make accessible how cultural heritage items and ancestors arrived here. As part of the Peabody’s Institutional Histories Initiative founded in 2021, the Museum has made a concerted effort to expand provenance research information.

As a colonial-era museum, we are beginning with reviewing and documenting collections provenance from the Peabody’s first accessions in 1867 and moving forward to the present day. The reach of colonialism and imperialism can touch the collecting histories of items brought into the museum at any point and time, but given the history of the Peabody, we started with the earliest accessions first.

We seek to be as informed as possible and to establish a provenance record that is as accurate and complete as possible for collections in our care. And just as importantly, to make the information publicly available. Provenance information is continually being added to the database records visible in the Peabody’s public Collections Online. Records may also be changing as new information is being uncovered.

What is too often omitted in a provenance listing dates, places, and people involved is what falls between the lines: the circumstances of collecting. Colonial pathways, social inequities and power dynamics, world events, military violence—these are just a few examples of the complex and sometimes traumatic stories that can be woven into the collections’ histories. In the hopes of providing a deeper understanding, the Collections Histories section also offers more in-depth studies and write-ups on some collections.

Our goal is to act in as ethical, responsible, and transparent of a manner as possible.

It is a slow process documenting over 150 years of collecting, but an important one. We appreciate your patience and welcome your feedback on how to make this information more useful to you.

Reparative Language

Since 2021, we have been addressing problematic and challenging language found in collections data and on Collections Online to remove racist and harmful terminology and prioritize Indigenous terminology and language as well as community self-identified names over westernized ones.

Our starting point was creating a list of racist or problematic terms found in our database and conducting research on how to address these terms, recognizing that there are multiple ways to address problematic or racist terms that exists across many fields of data, from locations to titles of artwork. As you view Collections Online, you can see this work in action – including a disclaimer about historical language that exists on every page. In some cases, terms are removed, corrected or replaced with appropriate terms. Our work on this project is ongoing.

The Peabody Museum is committed to addressing the problem of offensive and discriminatory language present in its database. Our museum staff are continually updating these records, adding to and improving content.

We welcome your feedback and any questions or concerns you may want to share. Please email pmcollections@fas.harvard.edu with your comments.

Collections Stories

United Fruit Company

The Fruits of Extraction: United Fruit Company, Archaeology, and Harvard’s Peabody Museum One of the major suppliers of bananas in America is the United Fruit Company (currently known as Chiquita Brands International). Established in 1899 and based in...

Two people sit in front of large stone sphere eating bananas.

(re)Constructing an Object's Story

While the term provenance in museums often refers to a record of an object’s ownership history, provenance should tell a broader story. It is a biography, the story of an object’s life. Where did it originate? How did it arrive at a museum? Who cared for...

Handwritten labels on bottom of a black ceramic vessel

Washington and his sash through time

This blue sash has taken a journey to the Peabody Museum, touching history along its way. It appears in this 1776 painting by American artist Charles Willson Peale. George Washington—thirteen years away from being elected president of the United States...