Frank Russell - An Iowa City Gem

In 1892, Frank Russell was a 23 year old graduate student at the University of Iowa. On his own, he went on an epic trek through northern Canada with the task of returning with musk oxen and ethnographic materials. In 1894, he returned to Iowa City to a welcoming parade of excited patrons. He met several tribes along the way such as the Dog Rib and Cree. If you'd like to read a more detailed story of his expedition, the museum's website has it here. He also wrote a book called, "Explorations in the Far North" that can be found in the University library among other book store locations.
So why am I telling you all his? Well, I was lucky enough to visit the Russell collection that is stored away in "The Vault". From my last post, I told you all about my first visit to "The Vault". On Monday, I went back in and this time, I was able to see inside the two state of the art newest cabinets. The collection within these cabinets includes some of the Frank Russell collection, some of the Philippines collection and varying other fragile artifacts. Cindy Opitz, the collections manager, led me through the drawers one by one. Ms. Opitz has been with MNH for several years now, beginning as a part-time position and eventually helped create her full time position as collections manager. Her training has mainly arisen through experience, which is essential in the collections world. She's currently finishing her formal training and attends several conferences which she says is very beneficial in learning new methods. As she puts it, her job allows her to act like a kindergartener every day as she molds new ways to protect artifacts in the collection. She loves her job and it shows in her enthusiasm with the collections.
The funnest part of the Russell collection is how eclectic it is. There are so many varying objects from varying groups. These artifacts are varying, but still somehow connect together. I almost felt like I was seeing the journey and not just a grouping of random artifacts. There were Cree trousers and Dog Rib children's rattles among the varying items. Ms. Opitz explained to me some of the items that had to be wrapped in extra tissue for protection. Some of the items were in makeshift boxes. This opened my eyes to a whole other issue in museum collections. Although these items were housed in state of the art cabinet drawers, they still needed special attention. When you open drawers, some items like bowls, arrows and other artifacts tend to rock or roll around and might touch each other. So, collections managers like Ms. Opitz, have to always be prepared to get creative and protect their items while still being able to see, examine and study them. She explained to me that these issues tend to just come up randomly as she opens a drawer to check on something for a researcher or other purpose. As with everyone else I've had a chance to speak with in the museum world, she always seems stretched thin. Ms. Optiz has one full-time collections assistant and a part-time assistant for her various work, but she still is overwhelmed with work. Currently in a three phase inventory plan, the team is overloaded with inventory work and all the regular collections duties. In the past few years, they conducted the first phase which was a quick count of every item in the collection. According to their old register book, they believed they had about 40,000 items. Once they conducted the count, they realized they actually had 115,000 items in the MNH collections! This was quite a shock to the entire MNH team and they have now moved onto furthering the inventory with updating records and eventually will be digitizing the collection into databases. An inventory plan of this magnitude takes several years to conduct, but when complete will create a very beneficial result.
After viewing The Vault's collection, we traveled up to a storage closet off Mammal Hall that houses several Philippine items and a bit more of the Russell collection. This large storage closet has several shelves on the walls, two more state of the art cabinets and high rolled textiles wrapped in tissue. This little room is a hidden treasure off of Mammal Hall that is easily passed by patrons. This tour was very interesting both because I got to visit pieces of a collection protected in the back rooms and also because I got to learn what another museum professional gets to do on a regular basis. Below are some of my favorite pieces from the collection!

Varying Arrows in a constructed box so they won't roll around.

Beautiful beaded belts from the Cree

My favorite piece: A child's rain parka made of seal bladder. Cindy Opitz said that they would wear these while going out in the ocean in kayaks to harpoon fish!

Shelves and Shelves of woven baskets actually from the Philippine collections; This was in the third floor closet.