The Anthropology Museum was founded in 1957 through a major gift of archaeological and ethnographic materials from James A. Coulter, Miami class of 1905.
Mr. Coulter began his collecting career as a boy, collecting projectile points from the fields of his grandfather's farm in Butler County, Ohio. His chemistry major at Miami sent him on to the Colgate Palmolive Peet Corporation where he rose to become Vice President before his retirement. His collection continued to grow to include stone artifacts from North America, South America, Europe, and Java, pottery from Mexico and Peru, and a small collection of Native American historic pieces.
Dr. George Fathauer, an anthropologist in the Sociology Department, in 1952 began a search for materials to begin an Anthropology Museum. It was through Dr. Fathauer that Mr. Coulter expressed interest in donating his collection. Following the death of Mr. Coulter in 1955, Mrs. Coulter finalized the donation.
Over the next several decades the Museum's collections grew with small gifts of archaeological and ethnographic material. The majority of archaeological materials come from the Midwest. Ethnographic collections now include some Native American pieces, as well as items from Australia, New Guinea, China, South America, Japan, Africa, and the Philippines.
When the original collection came to Miami, it was housed in Irvin Hall until Harrison Hall renovations were completed. Until 1990, it was housed in a specially designed room in the basement of Harrison and exhibited in the first-floor lobby, with the first exhibit being presented in October of 1960. With the separation of Anthropology from Sociology and Gerontology, the Museum has maintained its identity and place, along with the Department of Anthropology in Upham Hall.
The most recent major aquisition is the collection of circus materials and the subsequent founding of the Brandmiller Circus Resource Center. The collection arrived at Miami on July 19, 2005.
