The restoration and conservation of archaeological and ethnographic Native American materials has become a major problem in this country. These materials are irreplaceable for anthropological research. The Rochester Museum and Science Center is a major repository for northeastern and historic Seneca objects. Their systematic collections number over 1,000,000 items and include large quantities of materials from an unbroken sequence of over 50 sites from A.D. 1540 to 1820. The collection serves as as a primary data base for anthropologists studying Native and European contact in the northeastern United States and Canada. Many of these collections are fragile and rapidly deteriorating and hence can no longer be handled by researchers. In this project the museum staff will equip a conservation laboratory and begin preserving these damaged objects. Stabilization and conservation will preserve these important anthropological and national resources while improving accessibility for researchers.
