Aztec Ruins Administrative History

FOR USERS
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Exhibits and Collections

The new museum exhibit plan worked out in 1957 by Museum Specialist Myron Sutton was approved by the regional chief of interpretation and the monument superintendent. [9] It drew heavily on recycled materials from the museum of 1937; in fact, displays simply were shifted from one room to another. [10] In the new, spacious, well-lighted location, they appeared shabby and old-fashioned. They relied too much on drawings, printed matter, and cluttered charts. The 20 intervening years between the third and fourth Aztec museums witnessed great changes in museum techniques in general and interpretations of Southwestern prehistory in particular.

Within several years after its installation, so much dissatisfaction was expressed about the supposedly updated Aztec Ruins museum that Museum Specialists Leland Abel, Western Museum Laboratory, and Franklin Smith, from the regional office, made a trip to Aztec to review the exhibits case by case. They agreed that only two of the 26 exhibits could be reused without alteration. For the others, they recommended corrections of labels, rewriting of texts, or complete redesigning of contents to make them current scientifically. [11] The corrected archeological map of the site replaced the Morris map of 1924. [12] Duplications of similar exhibits in other Southwestern monuments were eliminated. These included dendrochronological and archeological methods, the unique topography of the Four Corners, modern Northern Pueblos (who might be descendants of some of these Anasazi), and early life of a pueblo dweller.

The over-all emphasis of the revamped museum was on sparse but succinct wording, relatively few but diagnostic objects, and art work conveying meaning but also attracting attention. Retained were modified cases devoted to architecture, agriculture, hunting and gathering, healing and curing, weaving, pottery making, trade, and religion. Material in several cases outlined the discovery of the area by Euro-Americans and the site's excavation by Morris. An exhibit on food preparation contained a sketch of roasting pits similar to ones found the previous summer during stabilization of Rooms 51 and 52 in the East Wing. [13] Sixteen wall exhibits and three free-standing exhibits made up the presentation in new cases to which the Farmington Construction Company applied furring strips at a cost of $1,990. [14] The various changes were not completed until the end of 1965. [15]

One special object shown in a case prepared at this time was a coiled basketry plaque 36-by-31 inches. It was decorated at its outer edge with minute flecks of selenite and coils stained red and green. Morris called it a shield when he found it in a grave in 1921. Although a hard wooden handle attached to its under side made it an object that could be held erect in front of the body, whether it was a shield is uncertain. Regardless of function, it was a rare specimen whose fragile condition required expert preservation attention. This was particularly true if it were to be shown in a vertical position. The specimen was sent to the Archeological Preservation Laboratory at Globe in 1956 to undergo treatment. [16] Fearing that it would fall apart under museum conditions, curators there proposed that a display replica be commissioned from either a Hopi or Pima craftswoman. The original specimen should be kept in controlled storage. [17] That course of action proved to be an impossibility. Either modern Indian women did not want to copy an aboriginal object due to superstitions about it, or they could not imitate old basket making techniques. [18] In the end, the so-called shield was shipped to the Western Museum Laboratory, where it was rehabilitated, mounted, and returned to the monument in February 1964. [19]

Included in the Aztec Ruins museum case with the shield were Mesa Verde Black-on-White pottery vessels, bone awls, a hafted stone knife, and ornaments found associated with the remains of an adult male. Morris thought of him as a warrior because of the presumed shield. The actual skeleton of this individual was omitted from the exhibit.

Collections available for exhibition in the new museum at Aztec Ruins had not changed appreciably during the years between the first and fourth museums. Approximately 300 items were acquired because of excavations necessitated by stabilization or expansion of the interpretive program. [20] However, the basic resources remained materials loaned to, but not owned by, the government.

Two private collections received notable attention during the interim period between museums. One was that of Sherman Howe. In 1940, he withdrew approximately a third of his personal artifact collection, but in 1953, at the age of 83 he gave the balance to the Aztec Ruins museum. A small ceremony in the lobby featured his signing the necessary papers to make the transfer legal (see Figure 10.2). [21]

Figure 10.2. Sherman S. Howe, lifelong friend of Aztec Ruins.
Photograph taken in 1949 at age of 83 years.

A second withdrawal occurred in 1954-55 when Rosa Abrams, angered about transfer away from the monument of her family donations housed at the site since 1928, asked to have most of the specimens in the Abrams collection returned. The Abrams family was assured originally and as recently as the late 1930s that the entire assortment would be kept forever on exhibit. [22] Given the changing physical circumstances of the installation, this was a condition to which it was impossible for the museum to adhere. Furthermore, the acceleration of regional archeology robbed most of the specimens of their uniqueness. In 1954, Homer Hastings, who had returned to Aztec Ruins National Monument the previous year to be superintendent, tabulated 163 artifacts or groups of artifacts as donated by the Abrams family. Of that number, 70 were then on exhibit, 19 missing items were presumed to have disappeared from the earlier open displays in the ruin, and the remaining were moved for storage elsewhere. [23] A list of 1955 indicates that at that time 160 specimens were returned to Mrs. Abrams. Hastings acknowledged another 38 articles given by her to the National Park Service, of which 20 were kept. The remainder were so fragmentary or decayed as to be worthless. [24] The two listed assortments do not tally to 163 but probably diverge slightly because of numbers assigned to bulk entries or to fragments.

The Abrams misunderstanding resulted from movement of specimens from Aztec to the National Park Service's newly acquired facilities at Gila Pueblo in Globe, Arizona. This transfer began in 1953 and continued intermittently over the next 12 years. [25] Ultimately, between 1,700 and 1,800 artifacts of a total of 3,555 to more than 4,200 items were moved to the Southwest Archeological Center. [26]

The removal of artifacts from Aztec Ruins was necessitated by unacceptable storage conditions in the 576-square-foot basement of the house built by Morris in 1920. During his active years at the site, Morris stacked duplicate specimens, those too weighty or cumbersome to ship to New York, or other things needed for preparation of reports in cardboard boxes or put them on wooden shelves around the walls. After the house was given to the government, the American Museum requested permission to leave the artifacts stored there so long as Morris continued to hold a lease on it. [27] When Morris vacated the house in 1933, the collection was left in the basement under care of the monument custodian. In the course of the construction begun at that same time, much shifting of these materials occurred when sacks of cement were piled in what had been the cistern at a lower level and when a new furnace was installed in the basement itself. Predictably, some labels were lost, paper bags broke, contents of boxes were shuffled, there was not enough manpower to keep order, and there was no other adequate space available for what was then the largest artifact collection at any Southwestern monument.

Storage conditions did not improve during the next 20 years. As part of MISSION 66, the antique furnace was abandoned but not removed. [28] It, and a cement pillar supporting the lobby fireplace, continued to occupy most of the central floor. Steel shelving was provided for the remaining basement storage, and plastic sheeting kept some specimens dust-free. Because of lack of space, humid conditions or seepage, poor illumination, insects, rodents, the tendency to use the basement for extraneous goods, no physical security, and no curatorial help, arrangements remained unsatisfactory.

The principal collection upon which museum technicians could draw for the Aztec Ruins museum of 1958 was that which belonged to the American Museum of Natural History. National Park Service personnel mistakenly assumed it was given to the government, along with the various tracts of land, or was left at Aztec Ruins on permanent loan. Contributing to the clouded question of ownership was Morris's failure to keep complete records of specimens going to New York and those being kept at Aztec and the intermittent, inconsistent cataloging by National Park Service staff. One session of curation, carried out by Janet Case, was part of the 1934-35 Public Works Administration activities. Miss Case had no previous association with Aztec Ruins and may have made mistakes in attribution. Later, when war was imminent in 1941, an itemization listed 238 objects believed irreplaceable or unusually valuable as gifts from the American Museum. There is no verification of such transfers. [29] Another collection from the early excavations, comparable in size to that at the monument but considered superior in quality, was in New York. [30] In the meantime, some American Museum specimens had been or were being moved from Aztec Ruins to the Southwest Archeological Center. A second cataloging session at the monument came in 1957, when John Turney, then archeologist attached to the Southwest Archeological Center, brought accounts up-to-date in preparation for the new Aztec Ruins museum.

No articles exhibited in the new museum were borrowed directly from resources at the American Museum. Eventually 81 American Museum objects still at the monument or in Globe were incorporated into displays, where they have been for the past 30 years. Ten items included in exhibits in the new museum were part of the Howe gift. Three relatively insignificant Abrams artifacts -- a yucca pot rest, a piece of reed matting, and a sherd of trade pottery -- also were used. The remainder of displayed artifacts came from repair work or small individual donations.

The use of some artifacts from sites other than those in the monument is flawed presentation. Moreover, the available collections as a unit do not represent well the earlier phase of occupation present on the site. The major strength of the collections lies in the unusual range of perishables from the classic Pueblo III period.