National Anthropological Archives

The National Anthropological Archives in the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Anthropology, collects and preserves historical and contemporary anthropological materials that document the world’s cultures and the history of anthropology. The collections include fieldnotes, journals, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, maps, artwork, and sound recordings created by Smithsonian and non-Smithsonian anthropologists, Native peoples, and other scholars, scientists, and researchers. Created out of the merger of the Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) and Department of Anthropology (DOA) in 1965, the NAA holds one of the world’s largest and richest archival collections related to North American archeology and ethnography, indigenous artwork, and historical photographs