Six Decades at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology

Tag: 1980s

Barbara Hail – Curator Emerita

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Hail at the Brooklyn Museum when consultant for TIPI exhibit, 2011.

In 1955 the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology transformed from a private collection with few viewers to a university museum with a diversified audience and a profound commitment to the indigenous peoples, world-wide, whose artifacts the museum held.  Douglas Anderson embedded this philosophy into our first mission statement, writing that we have a responsibility to the communities from whom our collections have come. Continue reading

Laurie Weinstein – Professor of Anthropology, Western Connecticut State University

Professor Laurie Weinstein with Gladys Tantaquidgeon, 1993.
Photograph by Barrie Kavasch.

The Haffenreffer was an important research facility to me during my years, first at Plimoth Plantation, when I was studying Wampanoag and Plymouth Colony relationships for my dissertation, and then, when I moved to Providence and began teaching at a number of regional universities. With Barbara Hail’s help, I curated an exhibit about the Wampanoag people in 1984, using collections from the Haffenreffer. Barbara and her staff were great, the museum was great; it was a wonderful place and I will always have fond memories of my work there.

Alexander B. Dolitsky, President, Alaska–Siberia Research Center, Juneau

Alexander Dolitsky with Chukchi community members at the village of Lorino, Chukotka, 2008.

Alexander Dolitsky with Chukchi community members at the village of Lorino, Chukotka, 2008.

I was a graduate student at Brown University from 1980 to 1983, earning an MA degree in Anthropology in 1983. While I was at Brown, I was given an opportunity to work at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology under Ruth (Bets) Giddings and at the Circumpolar Laboratory under Douglas Anderson. Both institutions are located in close proximity to each other in a secluded and picturesque area near Bristol, R.I.

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Introducing SIXTY AT 60 – Kevin P. Smith, Deputy Director and Chief Curator

The 2017 academic year marks the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology’s 60th anniversary with Brown University. Our goal, in “Sixty at 60”, is to present at least sixty recollections and reflections from people who have been associated with the Museum over the past six decades. We’re asking our contributors to write about the Haffenreffer Museum as they knew it in their times and to reflect on how it contributed to their experiences at Brown, their careers, and their lives.

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