Anthropology
Library
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The
Anthropology Library, officially known as the John Wesley Powell
Library of Anthropology, is one of 20 branches in the Smithsonian
Institution Libraries' system. It is located within the Anthropology
Department and supports the research, publication, exhibitions,
and public programing of the department and other museums and offices
within the Smithsonian. Its collection reflects the important role
that the Smithsonian Institution played in the development of anthropology
as a formal discipline in the United States.
The
Anthropology Library was established in 1965 with the merger of
two principal Smithsonian collections--the library of the Bureau
of American Ethnology (BAE;1879-1965) and the divisional collections
of the Department of Anthropology. The former supported "anthropological
researches" among the indigenous people of the Americas and
was considered one of the best such resources in the world. Today's
library is named after John Wesley Powell, the BAE founder and first
director who is also well known for his early exploration of the
Colorado River region. The latter collections grew out of the work
of other museum staff not only in the Americas but also many places
abroad, including Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Oceania.
Although
there was no formal Department of Anthropology until 1897, anthropology
has always been a part of the Smithsonian, with related collections
predating the Institution's founding, initial publications shortly
thereafter, and appointments to curators of archaeology and ethnology
as early as the 1880s.
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