Behind the Locked Door

An archaeology of the store rooms of the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford Don’t you often wonder about what museums keep in their store rooms, but rarely manage to display? The hidden, perhaps forgotten, treasures of “The Archive” Last year, between March 2007 and April 2008, in a small gallery off the main stair well in…

Mortal remains, guilt and the loss of the past

Press release from the Ministry of Culture in the UK UK National Museums Get New Powers To Return Human Remains Nine national UK museums, including the British Museum and the Natural History Museum, have this week acquired powers to move human remains out of their collections as the Government brought section 47 of the Human…

Invented traditions – the case of the Percy family

Alnwick Castle, Scottish borders – Northumberland UK – home of Harry Potter As I prepare for a month of fieldwork along Hadrian’s Wall in the UK and north into Walter Scott country, never mind the rock art and superbly preserved agricultural landscapes, I came across a new attraction at Alnwick Castle, the fabulous medieval border…

Tim Webmoor on social software and heritage politics

Great talk last night from Tim Webmoor at our New Media workshop at Stanford. He is working at the fabulous site of Teotihuacan, Mexico, on different attitudes and understandings of the site – local and beyond. Teotihuacan has become emblematic of the Mexican state and Mexican heritage. I posted some comments last year from Meg…