Big Hole National Battlefield Administrative History

Chapter Four:
Curation

The Park Service did not formally establish guidelines for collection acquisition, care, and use until the 1967 publication of the Museum Handbook. As established in the handbook, a "well-managed collection" met five basic criteria: "its specimens are selected purposefully, they are readily available for study, they are well preserved, they are accompanied by adequately organized data, and they are used to their potential in the park program." Prior to the 1960s, however, NPS curators generally had the advantage of a clear and formal statement of a unit's natural and cultural significance as defined in the enabling legislation. Beginning in 1925, when Director Mather restricted the subject matter of park museum collections to the park story, and as formalized in a 1939 policy memorandum establishing the scope of museum exhibits, the Service defined unit significance (whether natural/geographic or historical/thematic) as the foundation criterion for all acquisition efforts. At Big Hole Battlefield, acquisition efforts therefore closely followed discussion over the significance of the site. Funds and formal guidelines for the more prosaic tasks of purchase, care, and presentation, proved more difficult to secure." [49]

In 1944 and 1945, Seasonal Ranger Samuel Beal made the first concerted effort to collect artifacts for the monument museum. Beal "barraged" newspapers in Dillon, Butte, Anaconda, Deer Lodge, Hamilton, Darby, and Salmon with requests for information and donations of artifacts related to the battle specifically, to Nez Perce culture in the second half of the 19^th century, and to western military regiments. Yellowstone park personnel, including Chief Ranger Maynard Barrows and Chief Naturalist Max Bauer, supported this effort, providing a truck "for the purpose of making these collections," display cases designed by Yellowstone staff, "some funds for expenses," and (belatedly) a lock for the museum door, which until 1947 was nailed shut during the unmanned winter months." [50] Bauer directed Beal to accept anything "that will help tell the story of the conflict," including military and Nez Perce artifacts from the general period of the battle. Upon completion of the collection effort, Beal had acquired a number of guns either used in the battle or representative of those that would have been used, empty shells and miscellaneous Nez Perce artifacts collected at the battlefield site and also from the larger Big Hole and Bitterroot regions. During the winter when the monument was closed, District Forest Ranger, Earl M. Walton displayed part of the collection at the Wisdom Ranger Station. Additional pieces were displayed at the Basin Mercantile Company and the Wisdom Public Library. [51]