Copy of my letter to the Austin Chronicle on 3/19:

As a former Curator of Anthropology at Texas Memorial Museum, now
living out of state, I was outraged to learn recently of the plans
for removing all of the TMM cultural collections and exhibits.

(See:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2003-02-21/pols_feature.html)

Many of those fine specimens were acquired prior to the opening of
the Museum during the Texas Centennial of 1936.  Some were moved from
the former campus Anthropology Museum in the old Pearce Hall to TMM
in the 1960's.  Others were acquired through the years by active
efforts of TMM staff and by donations from Texas citizens.

In recent years, we have seen the interest in Anthropology at TMM
reduced, with no staff engaged in research or available to keep the
exhibits from being reduced and now eliminated.

An exchange of e-mails with TMM Director Dr. Edward C. Theriot has
informed me of his sincere and professional interest, I believe, in
changing TMM to a focused, and hopefully superior museum devoted to
Natural Sciences.  Unlike many Natural History museums, that focus no
longer includes Anthropology.

The historical Texana collections will have a new home on the UT
campus, as they probably should have had long ago, but the
Anthropology collections, acquired during the past 7 decades, will be
dispersed and possibly even sold.  That is a discredit to the
citizens of Texas, who deserve to have those collections and exhibits
continue to be available to students and to the interested public.

Other major universities, such as Harvard, Yale, Pennsylvania,
Arizona, New Mexico, and  the University of California, Berkeley,
have long-standing and highly successful Anthropology and Archaeology
museums.  Why not the University of Texas?

Dr. Dudley M. Varner
P.O. Box 28214
Fresno, CA  93729



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