All anthropology collections are temporarily closed to researchers as we transition to new collection spaces and review internal policies.
The Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection is under legal control of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and on permanent loan to and under the care of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (the Museum). It is our policy to respond promptly and respectfully to any repatriation request and determine appropriate next steps with the inquiring party. The Museum and CWRU are supportive of repatriation, we welcome claims, and we have respectfully repatriated human remains and funerary objects that fall under federal law (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) as recently as 2021. At this time, it is our policy not to provide details on repatriation requests publicly out of respect for the process.
Archaeology
The Museum’s archaeology collection houses artifacts and samples from more than 2,700 sites in Ohio. These collections total more than 1 million individual objects and groups of objects. Most of these were obtained after 1970 through systematic excavation by staff and other professional archaeologists. Other collections were obtained through donation.
Specimens from 65 Ohio counties are represented in the collection, but most Ohio materials were obtained in the state’s northern counties. These archaeological specimens range from 500 to 13,000 years in age. Objects from younger sites date to the last 1,000 years before European contact and are associated with the Whittlesey and Sandusky archaeological traditions. Documentation for the archaeology collection, including field records, maps, and photographs, is also maintained in the Department of Archaeology laboratory.
Contact: Director of Collections, Dr. Meghan Strong
Biological Anthropology
The Museum curates several biological anthropology collections, including the Hamann-Todd Human Osteological Collection, the Dudley Peter Allen Pathological Collection, the Johns Hopkins Fetal Collection, the Hamann-Todd Non-Human Primate Osteological Collection, and the Fossil Hominoid Cast Collection.
We are not currently accepting research requests for projects involving any of our biological anthropology collections. This includes new projects using existing datasets and any requests for digital data. Projects that have already been approved and for which data have been collected can proceed as approved. We are unable to provide a timeline for the reopening of the collections, and we cannot provide any letters of support for projects in development, including for grant application purposes.
We are currently revising our policies for research access. Please monitor this page for updates about the timeline and process for requesting access. In the meantime, please direct all inquiries about the collections to anthropology@cmnh.org.
Cultural Anthropology
The Museum’s cultural anthropology collection contains more than 15,000 objects. The objects range in date from more than 6,000 years old to modern, providing a wide temporal and geographic range of material culture. Notable collections come from Alaska, South America, and Africa, especially the Pokot and Kamba tribes. A large collection of baskets, numbering just over 1,000, are also housed in Cultural Anthropology. The majority were made by Native Americans throughout the United States, specifically those tribes known for their basketry skills, such as the Pomo of California and the many tribes of the Pacific Northwest, including the Tlingit and Haida. Many of these baskets were collected from the makers by late curator Esther Bockhoff, who conducted field research throughout the 1970s to 1990s on contemporary basket making.
Contact: Director of Collections, Dr. Meghan Strong
