Founding faculty members, professors emeriti Dr. Alan Bryan and Dr. Ruth Gruhn have
been instrumental in the formation and ongoing success of our departmental teaching and
reference collections. Drs. Bryan and Gruhn have spent their academic careers attending
to our ethnographic and archaeological collections. Both are past curators of the
Archaeology collection from its inception until the mid 1990’s. They have shared the
curatorial duties of the Ethnographic collection for its entire existence and Dr Gruhn
continues this role today. Over the years they collected specimens for the various
collections as with the walrus at left. Drs Gruhn and Bryan collected many traditional
items from North, Central and South American groups that are part of the Archaeology
and Ethnographic collections. They also understood the importance of collecting goods
which have appeared in the market as a reaction to the tourist trade. These items, curated
in the collections, form a snapshot of the beginning of globalism and the impact of
outside forces on regional economies.