Logan Museum of Anthropology: Ongoing Exhibitions

Ongoing Exhibitions

A.H. Whiteford Curatorial Center

The Andrew H. Whiteford Curatorial Center is the centerpiece of the lower level. The two-story, glass-enclosed facility is the main storage area for ceramics and baskets, as well as the center for curatorial activities in the museum. This workspace is used by museum studies students cataloging artifacts and preparing exhibits. At the north end are Pre-Columbian ceramics from Central and South America. The south end holds the museum's extensive collection of basketry. The mezzanine houses North American ethnographic objects in movable storage, as well as larger North American ceramics. Visitors are free to walk around the perimeter of the facility, viewing the extensive collections and the curatorial staff at work.

"History of Man" Murals - J.W. Norton

Around the perimeter of the Shaw Gallery, above the display cases, is a series of twelve mural paintings. Entitled "The History of Man", these murals were created between 1924 and 1926 by Chicago artist John Warner Norton (1876-1934) and were commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan specifically for the museum. They depict various periods in human history relating to the composition of the Museum collections. The Museum also possesses study paintings for the murals.

To Show Our Reverence: Beloit, the Civil War, and Memorial Hall and Sons of Beloit

These two small, student-curated exhibits can be found in the foyer of Memorial Hall. To Show Our Reverence explores the history of Memorial Hall, which was built in 1869 as a memorial to the soldiers of Beloit and Beloit College who died in the Civil War. Sons of Beloit provides information on the men whose names are enshrined on the walls.

Beloit College Field School Artifacts

William Simpson Godfrey once noted that "you can't learn about digging in the basement of a museum". That statement rings true even today. There are limitations to what students of anthropology can learn without leaving the classroom and doing anthropology. In 1918 George Collie sent class of 1918 member Alonzo Pond to study and purchase paleolithic artifacts in Europe. Since then, Beloit College anthropology students and professors have been involved in field work in many different regions of the world:

1928 - Central Asiatic Expedition
1926, 1927, 1929, 1930 - North Africa
1930-1945 - Ten investigations of Anasazi and Mogollon sites
1930 - The Dakotas, Mandan archaeology and ethnography
1937 - Field methods in Shirland, Illinois
1948 - Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin burial mounds
1950 - Popayan, Colombia
1950s and 1960s - La Magdalena, Mexico
1966 - Taiwan ethnography
1967 and 1969 - Costa Rica, conical and effigy mounds
late 1960s - Northern Lakes area, Wisconsin; Cahokia ancient city, Southern Illinois; Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin.
1978 - Antofagasta, Chile
1990 - Arizona
Ongoing - Gottshall Rock Shelter, Muscoda, Wisconsin
Ongoing - Atacama Desert, Chile

Further explorations have been undertaken in West Africa, Barbados and Brazil throughout the years. Artifacts from all of these expositions form a large portion of the Logan Museum collections, with some of the more prized finds being displayed along the east wall of the lower level of the museum.

Study Drawers In the Shaw Gallery on the museum’s second floor, you can find several small exhibits located in study drawers in the center of the gallery. See a sample of regional archaeological artifacts from Paleo-Indian times 13,000 years ago to the mid-19^th century, Native American beadwork and dolls, elaborate door locks from Mali, Catlinte (pipestone), "turtle culture," and Ojibwa Quillwork.