Of all the influences on the evolution of museums in recent history, one of the most significant, yet underappreciated, is that of Native American peoples. In 1990, this activism helped drive passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Over the last two decades, NAGPRA has had notable effects on the way museums present and preserve their artifacts. In her essay “What is the Object of This Exercise? A Meandering Exploration of the Many Meanings of Objects in Museums,” historian Elaine Heumman Gurian argues that this activism has changed our understanding of what counts as a museum “artifact,” something that had previously been taken for granted as unproblematic. I was struck by the effort that indigenous communities have put forward in the last four decades to reclaim their own history and the manner in which they are represented in museums. What effects have Native American groups had on the development of museums, specifically in areas such as presentation and preservation in museums? Continue reading
Author Archives: Grace DeVries
Mechanisms of Power: How National Governments and Archivists Influence the Archives
National archives are widely understood as records of a country’s history, culture, and government activities. Though we hold ideals that these collections will be complete, neutral, and available to anyone who has an interest in them, this is rarely the case. Both national governments, and the archivists employed by them, influence the archives with their own political and cultural agendas, both on purpose and unintentionally. Examples of these occurrences are documented in Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History, a recent collection of essays by historians with experience working in national archives from around the world. The “Historians Workshop” course at the University of Richmond studied these “archive stories” alongside two UR historians who visited our class and shared their own experiences: Dr. Manuela Meyer, a historian of Brazil, and Dr. David Brandenberger, a Soviet historian. Their stories raise an important question: In what ways do national governments and archivists affect the neutrality and accessibility of national archives? Continue reading