Search the UMMA Digital Image Database

The Museum of Anthropology's image database is the culmination of 5 years work to digitize its immense collection of color 35mm slides that represent over 60 years of archaeological work throughout the United States, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. The slide collection was put together mainly for use in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at the University but also for talks and presentations at annual conferences. The majority of the slides are original photographs taken by past and current curators and students working on archaeological projects and dissertations. The collection also has a large number of commercial (purchased) slides and images taken from various publications that were useful for illustrating objects that the Museum did not possess. The last category of slides consists of images donated to the Museum by both professional and amateur archaeologists.

The Museum has been working very diligently to identify the sources of the slides in its collections, and has made an honest attempt to credit original photographs, book sources, and commercial vendors whenever possible. We know that the process will be ongoing and we welcome any comments or suggestions for the identification of images. Please review the Museum's Copyright Information for use of images both from the database and from this site in general.

The Museum has scanned over 33,000 images to date and plans on adding more as they are ready for viewing. In cooperation with the Digital Library Production Services Department at the University's Hatcher Graduate Library, the Museum has been able to distribute its scanned images to the general public and interested researchers.

The Museum Digital Image Database was designed by Patrick Livingood with the help of Julie Solometo and Karen O'Brien. During the first year and a half of digitizing, the project was funded by a grant from the University's College of LS&A Information Technology Committee. The monies allowed the Museum to purchase a Creo-Scitex flatbed scanner and computers for data entry and development of the database, and to hire graduate and undergraduate students for data entry and digitizing. The Museum also applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities for monies to work on the slide collection of James B. Griffin, a collection of approximately 18,000 slides. Awarded in the spring of 2004, the grant enabled the Museum to finish the digitizing project.

The Museum would like to thank the many individuals involved in the project for all their hard work and dedication:  Erica Beebe, Amy Lawson, Patrick Livingood, Julie Solometo, Margaret Prest, Hallie Jones, Brad Krueger, Jessica Meulendyk, Jeannette Bond, Cameron Gokee, Amy White, John Weise, Michelle Sweeter, and Liz Konzak.