Small Museum Research Strategies at the Alaska State Museum

ABSTRACT The Alaska State Museum in Juneau is a small, remote institution that must lean heavily on cultivating relationships with experts in other disciplines, graduate interns, and conservation colleagues, as well as adherence to three interrelated guiding principles to carry out research with its limited staff, sole conservator, and small budget. The first principle is called comparative observation with known positives and negatives. Examples include using microchemical spot testing, polarized light microscopy, and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry. The second principle is defined as a preponderance of the evidence and will be illustrated through the characterization of indigenous and archaeological objects such as the Alaska Fur ID project and generation of a collections care “What’s That White Stuff” blog for small museums. The third principle is referred to as collaborative consensus, using examples of testing of adhesives for collections labeling, treatments of waterlogged archaeological basketry, and ongoing research about dyes used in Chilkat robes combining the expertise of a local group of weavers with GCMS analysis performed at Portland State University through the Pacific Northwest Conservation Science Consortium serving to highlight this concept. This manuscript shows how adherence to these principles has generated practical research results for more than twenty years.