Agency history, 1988-

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Subject

  • Smithsonian Forum on Material Culture
  • Smithsonian Forum on Material Culture Steering Committee
  • Smithsonian Material Culture Forum Steering Committee

Category

Agency History

Notes

  • This is an agency history. It does not describe actual records. The Smithsonian Institution Archives uses these histories as brief accounts of the origin, development, and functions of an office or administrative unit to set that unit in its historical context. To find information on record holdings, please double-click the highlighted field "Creator/Author", which will open on a brief view of relevant records.
  • Smithsonian Material Culture Forum website, https://mcf.si.edu/, accessed June 24, 2022
  • The Smithsonian Forum on Material Culture was organized in 1988. Its purpose was to provide a forum for maintaining a sense of a scholarly community throughout the Smithsonian museums, libraries, and reasearch and cultural centers. The Forum provides staff with regular opportunities to interact with their colleagues in other disciplines, to share information about their fields, to think about different directions in their research, to develop new collaborative projects, or to just learn. The Forum considers topics from the vast world of objects that the Smithsonian collects, preserves, studies, and presents. Quarterly meetings of the Forum are open to all, including members of the outside academic community. The Steering Committee of the Forum consists of representatives from all Smithsonian units and offices involved in material culture studies. volunteer representatives from across the Smithsonian. The group changed its name from the Smithsonian Forum on Material Culture to the Smithsonian Material Culture Forum in 2002.
  • In 1991 the Forum started publishing a bulletin, "The Grapevine," to document the activities of the Forum such as meetings, presentations, articles focusing on exhibitions and research, and matters concerning Smithsonian scholars. In 2001, the bulletin was renamed as "Material Matters" and it appears to have ceased being published in 2014.
  • For a history of the larger creating unit, refer to "Forms part of" above.

Repository Loc.

Smithsonian Institution Archives Capital Gallery, Suite 3000, MRC 507; 600 Maryland Avenue, SW; Washington, DC 20024-2520

Date

  • 1988
  • 1988-

Topic

  • Education
  • Museums
  • Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
  • Material culture
  • Museums--Educational aspects

Form/Genre

Mixed archival materials

Local number

SIA AH00449

Full Record

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