by D.A. Barber

Spanning 2000 years of cultural traditions of the American desert southwest and northern Mexico's indigenous peoples, some 20,000 southwest Indians whole-vessel cermanics in Arizona State Museum's pottery collection reflect almost every cultural group of the region, including prehistoric Hohokam, Mogolon, Pueblo and the largest collection of Casas Grandes pottery outside of Mexico.

Being the oldest and largest anthropological museum in the Southwest; the official repository for the State; and, the largest non-federal repository for tribal lands, it makes sense the collection is housed at ASM.

Research on these vessels has formed the foundation for understanding the past but the collection is in imminent danger of deterioration due to inadequate environmental controls in the museum's two historic buildings where they are stored. Both buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places and though they are charming, their age is reflected by the lack of environmental controls. In fact, almost one-third of the collection has already shown signs of deterioration due to fluctuations in humidity and temperature and the threat requires actual physical upgrades of the museum buildings' storage and lab facilities.

This urgent need for preservation resulted in the Pottery Project, a move by museum scientists to protect and preserve the collection Ð the largest and most comprehensive of its kind and one of the nation's most significant cultural resources.

The plan is to modify and renovate an area in the north building, the former University Library building.

"The idea is to bring the collection to a single storage area and this will allow us to reorganize and better preserve it, making them a little more accessible and more secure," says Nancy Odegaard, the driving force behind the Pottery Project to provide badly needed environmental controls, relieve overcrowding and enhance access.

"The problem with the 1926 building and its various additions is that its air handlers are pretty out of date for providing adequate climate control. So to create an upgrade in that area where the pottery will be stored will provide a more stable and desirable temperature, humidity and air filtration system so that we can better preserve them," says Odegaard.

"We'll also be able to incorporate some of the concerns that Native Americans have about how the pottery is stored and handled," says Odegaard who notes some of the vessels are actually sacred burial artifacts which the museum has been repatriating long before state or federal laws were established.

At ASM since 1983 as the only conservator in the state university system, Odegaard first brought the pottery preservation problem to the forefront in the summer of 1999.

"Going public has its plus and minuses," she says, "because you sound like idiots."


"Almost one-third of the collection has already shown signs of deterioration due to fluctuations in humidity and temperature. The idea is to bring the collection to a single storage area...to reorganize and better preserve it." -- Nancy Odegaard, Arizona State Museum Pottery Project Coordinator. (Photo: FOTOSMITH)

That public perception - that the University dropped the ball on protecting these treasures Ð is unfounded based on the size of the collection and expense of the solution - some $2 million. And the fact that funding for such projects has been spare until recently.

Unlike most other units on campus, ASM has no significant pool of major donors at a time when state budget cuts threaten the entire University system. That changed in 2000 when the Pottery Project was designated an Official Project of the Save America's Treasures - the only objects collection of Arizona's five designated projects - a public private partnership formed in 1998 between the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to celebrate and preserve our nation's cultural legacy. Washington set aside about $30 million to be distributed among all the official projects through a granting process and ASM received $400,000.

But it got better when donor Agnese Nelms Haury, widow of ASM's second director (1938-1964) Emil W. Haury, pledged $1 million in October toward the Pottery Project. The Museum also recently received a $700,000 challenge grant from the NEH, but while they're close to the $2 million goal, not all the grant money will go to the construction project.