Recently, the Department of Anthropology initiated renovations to improve care and preservation of objects and archives. These improvements enhance the “life” of the objects and facilitate teaching, research, and exhibitions.
In the spring of 2009, undergraduate students Theresa Heindel and Jacqueline Pozza were working under the direction of the Curator, Danielle Benden, when they unearthed 1950’s photographs documenting Menominee Indian lifeways in Wisconsin.
Benden alerted her colleague cultural anthropologist Dr. Larry Nesper, whose research focus is Great Lakes Indians. Nesper recognized the photos as the work of Drs. George and Louise Spindler, prominent anthropologists who lived among the Menominee while graduate students at UW-Madison.
Several of these photographs are published in the Spindlers’ book “Dreamers Without Power: The Menominee.”
- Another image uncovered by anthropology undergraduate students this spring.
In July, Nesper presented David Grignon, Director of the Menominee Nation Office of Tribal Historic Preservation, with a duplicate copy and a digital version of the photographs as a gift from the Department of Anthropology and the University.
Grignon and his assistant identified persons and buildings that are no longer standing and for which the tribe had no photographic record, and they expressed appreciation for the gift.
As additional renovations are ongoing in Anthropology, what other treasures will be discovered?