This exegesis is an exploration of issues involved in making an exhibition -The Gay Museum (2003) -at the Western Australian Museum. Inspired by the work of artist Joseph Kosuth at the Brooklyn Museum (1990) and curator Peter Emmett at the Museum of Sydney (1994), this project attempts to explore and extend the role of artists as curators in contemporary museums. The project also shows that by re- interpreting objects in museum collections artists can actively challenge and support museums in a period of change and that collaboration between artists and museums as 'makers of meaning' can open up new possibilities for both. The curatorial vision for the exhibition therefore included strategies from contemporary museums - a multi-disciplinary approach and the use of non-linear narrative - and strategies from the contemporary art world -those that explore an aesthetic approach to objects and installation. Research for the project was determined by the expectations, unique histories and political choices that shaped and connected three 'communities' - Jo Darbyshire from the visual arts community, the Western Australian Museum community and the gay and lesbian community of Western Australia. As The Gay Museum project shows, the collaboration between artists and museums can contribute to museums being sites that vibrantly reflect contemporary cultural changes.

An internship experience in the Office of the Registrar and Collections Management at the New Orleans Museum of Art is reviewed alongside discussion of the Museum’s history, structure, and permanent collection, in addition to analyses of the organization’s finances and its institutional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Discussion topics also include the intern’s experience, best practices in similar institutions, and a conclusion with recommendations made by the intern.

Dietary practice during the transition from Early Intermediate Period (200 BC-AD 600) to the Middle Horizon (AD 600-1000) is crucial to understanding Pre-Hispanic life on the southern coast of Peru. The Cerro Del Oro material was excavated in 1925 by Alfred Kroeber and since been biochemically unstudied for almost ninety years; left dormant at The Field Museum in Chicago. Through bioarchaeological reconstruction of diet and health at the site of Cerro Del Oro from a cemetery sample (N=35) in the Cañete Valley, the effects of demographic and subsistence changes can be examined through a combined analysis of osteological and light isotopic data. Stable carbon (13C/12C, or δ13C) and oxygen (18O/16O, or δ18O) isotopic values from tooth enamel carbonate are utilized to reconstruct diet during early childhood of each individual. Results indicate that the majority of the population were consuming a moderately variable terrestrial protein or C3 diet. This is significant due to the close proximity to marine resources.

This case study explores the collaborative conversation between curators and educators in the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, and how these conversations affect didactic texts in the museum galleries. By situating the Blanton Museum in a larger historical framework, the focus of this study maps out the historical perspectives informing the museum during a pivotal integration of collecting areas, including Latin American and American modern and contemporary collections, and explores how the Blanton Museum attempted to facilitate learning and meaning-making for the visitor through didactic wall texts. / text

O objetivo deste trabalho é refletir sobre critérios para a organização do conhecimento do acervo do Museu Afro-Brasileiro da Universidade Federal da Bahia, o MAFRO, recorrendo a instrumentos de gestão, dentre os quais os meios e instrumentos para uma padronização da documentação. Considera a dimensão social do acervo e discute estratégias para implementar um sistema de documentação na perspectiva da informação enquanto conhecimento, recorrendo a procedimentos que visam representar o acervo, bem como a recuperação e socialização das informações, sem esquecer a garantia da segurança e preservação. É também seu objetivo adequar parâmetros para um melhor desempenho da plataforma de disponibilização virtual das coleções mantidas pela instituição. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida com base nas observações realizadas durante a etapa de pré-produção da sistematização do acervo, bem como nas reflexões realizadas a partir da literatura. Parte do entendimento de que a gestão de acervo envolve estabelecer critérios sobre aquilo que deve ser memorizado, enquanto uma ação política que permeia toda e qualquer atividade relacionada à guarda, proteção, conservação, documentação e disseminação da informação. Realiza um relato sobre uma experiência concreta de tratamento da informação de coleções do acervo MAFRO, e incorpora inquietações sobre a contextualização de seus objetos, além de observações sobre as recomendações internacionais relativas à documentação em museus. Do ponto de vista metodológico, a pesquisa é exploratória e descritiva, com uma abordagem etnográfica, em consonância com o caráter das coleções abrigadas no MAFRO. Aborda o objeto de museu, sua conceituação e aspectos de sua documentação e gestão utilizando contribuições da Museologia e da Ciência da Informação. Observa aspectos da organização do conhecimento - a catalogação, a classificação e a indexação - enfatizando a importância da padronização. Aborda o ambiente experimental com a apresentação do MAFRO e destaca a importância de Pierre Verger no que toca à aquisição do acervo e a expografia e, em seguida, as ações práticas desenvolvidas na reserva técnica do MAFRO. A discussão é adensada com a reflexão desenvolvida no Mestrado Profissional, quer a partir da exploração de bibliografia, como do exercício de sistematização crítica de uma experiência concreta. / The objective of this work is to reflect on criteria for the organization of knowledge of the collection of the Afro-Brazilian Museum of the Federal University of Bahia, MAFRO / UFBA (MAFRO), using management tools, among them the means and instruments for a standardization of documentation. It considers the social dimension of the collection and discusses strategies to implement a documentation system in the perspective of information as knowledge, using procedures that represent the collection, as well as the recovery and socialization of information, not forgetting guaranteeing the security and preservation. It is also its objective to adjust parameters for a better performance of the platform of virtual availability of the collections maintained by the institution. The research was developed based on the observations made during the pre-production stage of the systematization of the collection, as well as in the reflections made from the literature. It is part of the understanding that the collection management involves establishing criteria about what should be memorized, as a political action that permeates all and any activity related to the safeguarding, protection, conservation, documentation and dissemination of information. It reports on a concrete experience of processing information from collections of the MAFRO collection, and incorporates concerns about the contextualization of its objects, as well as observations on international recommendations regarding documentation in museums. From the methodological point of view, the research is exploratory and descriptive, with an ethnographic approach, in consonance with the character of the collections housed in MAFRO. It approaches the museum\'s object, its conceptualization and aspects of its documentation and management using contributions from Museology and Information Science. It observes aspects of the organization of knowledge - cataloging, classification and indexing - emphasizing the importance of standardization. It approachesthe experimental environment with the presentation of MAFRO and highlights the importance of Pierre Verger in acquiring the collection and expography and then the practical actions developed in the MAFRO technical reserve. The discussion is thickened with the reflection developed in the Professional Master, both from the exploration of bibliography and from the exercise of critical systematization of a concrete experience.

Die Universität Leipzig unterhält drei Museen und zahlreiche Sammlungen, wobei auch letztere teilweise für die interessierte Öffentlichkeit zugänglich sind. Universitäre Sammlungen zeichnen sich dadurch aus, dass sie neben den klassischen Museumsaufgaben des Sammelns, Bewahrens, Erschließens, Präsentierens vordringlich Lehre und Forschung dienen. Bei der Ausbildung der Studenten ermöglichen Sammlungsstücke ein Begreifen im doppelten Sinne. Trotz moderner Wissensvermittlung auf audiovisuellem Weg kann in vielen Fachgebieten auf ein Lehren, Lernen und Forschen anhand konkreter Sammlungsobjekte nicht verzichtet werden. Die Stücke in unseren Museen und Sammlungen sind nicht totes Inventar, sondern Anschauungsobjekte, die ihre Geschichte und Geschichten erzählen.:Ägyptisches Museum; Museum für Musikinstrumente; Antikenmuseum Kustodie; Sondersammlungen der Universitätsbibliothek; Herbarium Botanischer Garten; Sammlung Ur- und Frühgeschichte; Sammlung am Altorientalischen Institut; Sammlung am Institut für Zoologie; Sammlung am Institut für Anatomie; Sammlung am Institut für Rechtsmedizin; Sammlung am Institut für Pathologie; Medizinhistorische Sammlung am Karl-Sudhoff-Institut; Sammlung an der Poliklinik für Zahnärztliche Prothetik und Werkstoffkunde; Mineralogisch-Petrographische Sammlung; Geologisch-Paläontologische Sammlung; Veterinär-Anatomische Sammlung; Veterinärmedizinhistorische Sammlung

This study assessed ways compositional analysis, facilitated by portable X-ray fluorescence technology (PXRF), can be applied in the museum setting to resolve provenance issues and other collections management questions. A major segment of the study evaluated PXRF as a non-invasive geochemical analysis technique to address concerns about whether the resolution of results is sufficient to draw meaningful conclusions. Compositional analysis, mainly facilitated by PXRF, was successfully applied to three clay artifact collections from the southwestern United States. Pottery sherds from Fourmile Ruin were analyzed using PXRF and compared to analyses from invasive wavelength-dispersive XRF and X-ray diffraction techniques. Expanding the data associated with the artifacts increases the collection's research value. The results of hierarchical clustering suggest further compositional analysis of Fourmile Ruin ceramics to verify this study's conclusions and evaluate current assumptions regarding where certain wares are produced. The iconic Pilling figurine collection was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and PXRF to evaluate the authenticity of a figurine that had been returned after being lost for forty years. The geochemical tests confirmed the results from the basketry-imprint analysis that the returned figurine was the missing figurine, allowing the museum to restore the artifact's provenance. A pot being offered as a potential donation was analyzed using PXRF to evaluate if there was evidence of forgery or previous repair and help the museum decide whether or not to accept the donation. The study concluded the vessel has not been constructed or partially reconstructed using plaster of Paris. If the vessel has been constructed or partially reconstructed using pieced-together pottery sherds, they all came from a similar clay source. Based on these results, the museum decided to accept the pot as a donation. This study demonstrates the viability of PXRF as a useful geochemical research technique, particularly in cases where higher resolution invasive and destructive analysis techniques are not permitted. It establishes that PXRF can be used to authenticate and restore provenance both within a collection of objects and within a single object. Compositional analysis facilitated by PXRF can be a valuable tool in museum collections management and research.

Environmental change is a major threat to marine ecosystems worldwide. Understanding the key biological processes and environmental factors mediating spatial and temporal species' responses to habitat alterations underpins our ability to forecast impacts on marine ecosystems under any range of scenarios. This is especially important for calcifying species, many of which have both a high climate sensitivity and disproportionately strong ecological impacts in shaping marine communities. Although geographic patterns of calcifiers' sensitivity to environmental changes are defined by interacting multiple abiotic and biotic stressors, local adaptation, and acclimation, knowledge on species' responses to disturbance is derived largely from short- and medium-term laboratory and field experiments. Therefore, little is known about the biological mechanisms and key drivers in natural environments that shape regional differences and long-term variations in species vulnerability to global changes. In this thesis, I examined natural variations in shell characteristics, both morphology and biomineralisation, under heterogeneous environmental conditions i) across large geographical scales, spanning a 30° latitudinal range (3,334 km), and ii) over historical times, using museum collections (archival specimens from 1904 to 2016 at a single location), in mussels of the genus Mytilus. The aim was to observe whether plasticity in calcareous shell morphology, production, and composition mediates spatial and temporal patterns of resistance to climate change in these critical foundation species. For the morphological analyses, the combined use of new statistical methods and multiple study systems at various geographical scales allowed the uncoupling of the contribution of development, genetic status, and environmental factors to shell morphology. I found salinity had the strongest effect on the latitudinal patterns of Mytilus shape. Temperature and food supply, however, were the main predictor of mussel shape heterogeneity. My results suggest the potential of shell shape plasticity in Mytilus as a powerful indicator of rapid environmental changes. I found decreasing shell calcification towards high latitudes. Salinity was the best predictor of regional differences in shell deposition, and its mineral and organic composition. In polar, low-salinity environments, the production of calcite and organic shell layers was increased, while aragonite deposition was enhanced under temperate, higher-salinity regimes. Interacting strong effects of decreasing salinity and increasing food availability on compositional shell plasticity predict the deposition of a thicker external organic layer (periostracum) at high latitudes under forecasted future conditions. This response potential of Mytilus shell suggests an enhanced protection of temperate mussels from predators and a strong capacity for increased resistance of polar and subpolar individuals to dissolving water conditions. Analyses of museum specimens indicated increasing shell calcification during the last century. Deposition of individual shell layers was more closely related to temporal changes in the variability of key environmental drivers than to alterations of mean habitat conditions. Calcitic layer and periostracum showed marked responses to alterations of biotic conditions, suggesting the potential of mussels to trade-off between the deposition of calcareous and organic layers as a compensatory response to strategy-specific predation pressure. These changes in biomineralisation indicated a marked resistance to environmental change over the last century in a species predicted to be vulnerable, and how locally heterogeneous environments and predation levels can have a stronger effect on Mytilus responses than global environmental trends. My work illustrates that biological mechanisms and local conditions, driving plastic responses to the spatial and temporal structure of multiple abiotic and biotic stressors, can define geographic and temporal patterns of unforeseen species resistance to global environmental change.

This thesis explores the history of British anthropology at the start of the twentieth century through a biographical focus on Maria Antonina Czaplicka (1884-1921). The title calls into question the marginalisation of people and processes in the history of anthropology that do not explicitly contribute to the dominant lineage of British social anthropology and offers to add depth and nuance to the narrative through analysis stemming from material sources. I use Czaplicka as a case study to demonstrate how close attention to a seemingly marginal person with an incomplete and scattered archival record, can help formulate a clearer picture of what anthropology was and what it can thus become. My research contributes to the understanding and appreciation of women's involvement in anthropology, calls into question national borders of the discipline at this point in time, highlights the networks that nurtured it, and demonstrates the potential that museum collections have for an enriched understanding of the history of anthropology. I propose that history of anthropology is better understood through a planar approach that allows multiple parallel developments to exist together rather than envisaging a linear evolution towards a single definition of social anthropology. The project lays the groundwork for further research into the role that museums can have for understanding anthropological legacy and the possibilities they may have in creating fresh understandings of the contemporary world.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo a elaboração de um vocabulário para compreensão de indumentária do século XIX, inserindo-se no campo da Documentação Museológica. Partindo da análise de anúncios de lojas e comércios de tecidos e vestuário, publicados no jornal Correio Paulistano, em São Paulo, em meados do século XIX, visa identificar vestuário e acessórios utilizados na época, a fim de reconhecer a moda usada pela sociedade paulistana naquele período. Moda, aqui, entendida como uma necessidade social, tanto de individualidade do ser, expressando personalidade através de detalhes, como de aceitação em um grupo de pessoas que compartilham dos mesmos anseios. Trata-se, assim, da construção de um instrumento de curadoria museológica a partir do desenvolvimento de conhecimento novo sobre o contexto histórico cultural de São Paulo no período estudado. Há poucas publicações nacionais sobre têxtil e moda, fazendo com que pesquisadores recorram continuamente a publicações estrangeiras, que não retratam fielmente o nosso país e menos ainda a região paulista. / The present work has as aim the preparation of a vocabulary to garment comprehension of the nineteenth century, adapting into the Museum Documentation field. From the analysis of shops announcements and fabric and clothing trades, published in Correio Paulistano newspaper, in São Paulo around the nineteenth century, aim identify clothing and accessories used at that time, in order to recognize the fashion used by the paulista society in the period. Fashion, here, understood as a social need, such as individuality, expressing personality through details, as approval in a group who share the same anxious. It\'s about the instrument construction of a museological curatorship since the new knowledge development about the São Paulo cultural and historical contexts in the period studied. There are few national publications about textile and fashion, making researchers appeal continually to foreign publications that not portray faithfully our country and much less the São Paulo region.