A Blast from the Past

For my final project, I’m going to be looking at Mesa Verde, specifically trying to trace the cataloguing of the cliff dwellings and artifacts found within by Gustaf Nordenskiöld.  A mineralogist by training, Nordenskiöld was a part of the first concerted effort to explore the cliff dwellings after decades of the occasional explorer visiting.  As a part of his cataloguing, Nordenskiöld shipped a large number of artifacts back to Sweden, where they eventually made their way to the National Museum of Finland.  Given what we have learned, I am curious to know the fate of the artifacts shipped out of the country, any issues that have been raised by said transfer, and what occurred in Mesa Verde after Nordenskiöld.

“INTERLUDE: History of the Antiquities Act and Background on the Federal Lands Transfer Movement.” Voices from Bears Ears: Seeking Common Ground on Sacred Land, by REBECCA M. ROBINSON et al., University of Arizona Press, TUCSON, 2018, pp. 95–99. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv6zdc76.15. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020. 

This article talks about the Antiquities Act, enacted in 1906, which allows the president to declare sites national monuments.  This was done to curtail looting, incentivized in part by Nordenskiöld’s brazen looting of Mesa Verde.  The article continues to explain the history of the act through to almost present day. 

Lister, Robert H. “Archeology for Layman and Scientist at Mesa Verde.” Science, vol. 160, no. 3827, 1968, pp. 489–496. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1723952. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020. 

An article from the May 1968 Science publication, this piece goes into a lot of the detail of Mesa Verde’s history and what is known about the ancestral Puebloans.  Although it does suffer some from when it was published, using outdated terminology and having less advanced archaeological technics, it does provide a decent overview of the park’s history and a focus on what archaeological knowledge they had at the time. 

“Losing Their Identity: National Park Service Museums and Federal Collections.” Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History, by Denise D. Meringolo, University of Massachusetts Press, 2012, pp. 59–83. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vk1kt.7. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020. 

A chapter of a book on museums, monuments, and national parks as a whole, this part brings to life some of Mesa Verde’s early history as a park, including detailing the extreme mismanagement of the park early on.  As a side note, it includes how influential anthropologist Franz Boas in 1905 left his job at the American Museum of National History and two years later wrote a piece on how museums are problematic and oversimplify human history, as well as organizing stuff on a scale of “savagery” to “civilized.”  This doesn’t necessarily tie into my project, but I thought it was interesting that some of the problems we have been discussing were brought up over a hundred years ago. 

Nordenskiöld Gustaf. The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde Museum Association, 1990. 

The book that Gustaf Nordenskiöld himself wrote about the cliff dwellings and what he found there.  I feel that I’d be remise to not include his own voice in all of this.  Additionally, it may provide some enlightenmnet about him shipping artifacts off to Sweden and their journey afterwards to eventually rest in the National Museum of Finland. 

Nordenskiöld Gustaf, et al. Stones Speak and Waters Sing : The Life and Works of Gustaf Nordenskiold. Mesa Verde Museum Association, 1984. 

Similar to the one above, this book looks at Nordenskiöld’s life as a whole, including his numerous expeditions in Mesa Verde, and talking about the Nordenskiöld collection, as the artifacts he took from the sites became called. 

SELLARS, RICHARD WEST. “A Very Large Array: Early Federal Historic Preservation–The Antiquities Act, Mesa Verde, and the National Park Service Act.” Natural Resources Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, 2007, pp. 267–328. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24889175. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020. 

Similar to the first article, this one talks about the creation of the 1906 Antiquities Act and the subsequent creation of Mesa Verde as a national park.  It goes on to talk about the park’s history and the history of national parks as a whole, with their philosophical and policy foundations.