Division of Anthropology Archives houses approximately 670 linear feet of archival material, dating from the 1890's to the present. The collection includes accession documentation, original catalogs, field notes, photographs, artwork pertaining to AMNH publications in anthropology, and Divisional correspondence from 1894 to the present.

The Division of Anthropology is in the process of marking up our finding aids in XML using the standard EAD (Encoded Archival Description). Finding aids are now searchable by name, cultural group, subject, geographic location, genre/form, and associated object collections. Please note that this is a work in progress and that the finding aids currently listed represent only a fraction of the collections housed in the Division.

Starr Congo Expedition Field Notes (1905-1906). American Anthropologist Frederick Starr joined the missionary/explorer Samuel Verner on a collecting expedition to the Congo from 1905-1906. He collected nearly 5,000 artifacts including musical instruments, shields, baskets, masks, stools and games that have become part of the Museum's collection from the Congo region. During his year in Africa, Starr kept a field diary, housed at the University of Chicago Library, where he recorded his daily observations, lists of people he encountered, descriptions of the artifacts he collected.

Laufer's Guide to the Southwest Gallery (Chinese Hall). In 1904, objects collected by Berthold Laufer during an expedition to China (1901-1904) were installed in the Southwest Gallery (Chinese Hall) on the third floor of the museum. The exhibition illustrated the industrial and domestic life of the Chinese, their amusements, their religion, and their arts. Laufer's guide was never published. The guide is heavily edited by Laufer and still in galley form.