Museum of Northern Arizona

The Museum of Northern Arizona is a museum in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, established as a repository for Indigenous material and natural history specimens from the Colorado Plateau.

The museum was founded in 1928 by zoologist Dr. Harold S. Colton and artist Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is dedicated to preserving the history and cultures of northern Arizona and the Colorado Plateau.

The museum has a cultural and research center, the Colton House, located outside of Flagstaff and is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museums program.

History

Harold Sellers Colton a zoology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton moved to Flagstaff in 1926, helping found the Museum of Northern Arizona in 1928. Harold became director and Marry-Russell became curator of art and ethnology.^[1]

In 1930, Katharine Bartlett, a physical anthropologist from Denver, became curator and would remain so for the next 51 years.

The private, nonprofit organization grew from two rooms in the Flagstaff Woman's Club to a 24,700-square-foot Exhibits building. Research and collections facilities are adjacent. The Ethnology Gallery focuses on the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and Pai tribes.^[2]

References

^ Sutherland, Mary (2015). DK Eyewitness Travel USA. DK Publishing. p. 520. ISBN 978-1465412065.
^ Stoutamire, William F. (Summer 2022). Turpie, David C. (ed.). "'Every Yard Boasted a Metate': Pothunting, Archaeology, and the Creation of the Museum of Northern Arizona". The Journal of Arizona History. 63 (2). Tucson, AZ: Arizona Historical Society: 153–186. ISSN 0021-9053.