Spurlock Museum
Encyclopedia
The William R. and Clarice V. Spurlock Museum, better known as the Spurlock Museum, is an ethnographic museum
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
. The Spurlock Museum's permanent collection includes portions of collections from other museums and units on the Urbana-Champaign campus such as cultural artifacts from the Museum of Natural History and Department of Anthropology as well as historic clothing from the Bevier Collection of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. The Museum also holds objects donated by other institutions and private individuals. With approximately 45,000 objects in its artifact collection, the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
collects, preserves, documents, exhibits, and studies objects of cultural heritage. The Museum’s main galleries, highlighting the Ancient Mediterranean, Africa
, ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, East Asia
, Oceania
, Europe
, and the Americas
, celebrate the diversity of cultures through time and across the globe.
and Art and the Museum of European Culture. These were joined in 1917 by the Oriental Museum, which merged with Classical Archaeology and Art in 1929. In 1954 the Museum of European Culture joined with the merged Classical and Oriental Museum to form a single museum, which was renamed the World Heritage Museum in 1971.
From its beginnings in 1911, the museum in its various forms had operated out of a space on the fourth floor of Lincoln Hall. In 1995 a donation by William and Clarice Spurlock made it possible for a new building to be constructed to house the museum and its growing collections. In June 2000, the World Heritage Museum was renamed the William R. and Clarice V. Spurlock Museum, and on September 26, 2002, the Museum opened to the public.
The size and age of the Museum's collections made moving them from Lincoln Hall to the new Spurlock building a formidable task. The first complete inventory of the Museum's holdings since 1972 was conducted before any of the objects were packed. More than 150 fields of information were recorded on each item. To pack the more than 30,000 items took thirty-five undergraduate students two years. The packing job took approximately 10000 cubic feet (283.2 m³) of bagged Styrofoam peanuts, 1,822 boxes, and 148 crates. Many of the boxes and crates for the most fragile artifacts were custom-made. The actual move between buildings took ten days.
frieze casts, Merovingian bronzes, Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets, and Amazonian bark cloth. Artifact preservation and public education are the main jobs of Spurlock Museum. Preservation is achieved by keeping the majority of artifacts in storage; following professional standards, the Museum only displays four to five percent of its holdings at any one time. Stored artifacts can be made available for scholarly study or loans to other institutions, as well as serve as a core for temporary exhibitions. They may also be used through the information and images provided on the internet. Note: Not all of the artifacts mentioned below are displayed currently in the Museum.
and Meiji period
s in Japan
and from the Qing Dynasty in China
. The subject material depicted includes an assortment of human, animal, utilitarian and abstract images.
Collection consists of over 200 artifacts and hundreds of photos collected between 1913 and 1917 by an Arctic
exploration team led by ethnologist Donald B. MacMillan
. The photographs highlight the Inuit
, landscapes, and wildlife while the ethnographic or cultural artifacts include hunting and whaling tools, clothing and sled equipment.
dates from the Third Dynasty of Ur
in the 21st and 20th centuries BCE to the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian periods(ca. 625-520 BCE). This collection includes texts written in both the Sumerian
and the Akkadian
languages. The script called cuneiform, is the earliest writing system in the world.
, East and Southeast Asia
, Oceania
, Europe
, and the indigenous cultures of the Americas
.
Location:
The Spurlock Museum building offers the following public areas and facilities:
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
. The Spurlock Museum's permanent collection includes portions of collections from other museums and units on the Urbana-Champaign campus such as cultural artifacts from the Museum of Natural History and Department of Anthropology as well as historic clothing from the Bevier Collection of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. The Museum also holds objects donated by other institutions and private individuals. With approximately 45,000 objects in its artifact collection, the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
collects, preserves, documents, exhibits, and studies objects of cultural heritage. The Museum’s main galleries, highlighting the Ancient Mediterranean, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, East Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, celebrate the diversity of cultures through time and across the globe.
History
The foundations of the modern Spurlock Museum can be traced back to 1911, when the University established the Museum of Classical ArchaeologyArchaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
and Art and the Museum of European Culture. These were joined in 1917 by the Oriental Museum, which merged with Classical Archaeology and Art in 1929. In 1954 the Museum of European Culture joined with the merged Classical and Oriental Museum to form a single museum, which was renamed the World Heritage Museum in 1971.
From its beginnings in 1911, the museum in its various forms had operated out of a space on the fourth floor of Lincoln Hall. In 1995 a donation by William and Clarice Spurlock made it possible for a new building to be constructed to house the museum and its growing collections. In June 2000, the World Heritage Museum was renamed the William R. and Clarice V. Spurlock Museum, and on September 26, 2002, the Museum opened to the public.
The size and age of the Museum's collections made moving them from Lincoln Hall to the new Spurlock building a formidable task. The first complete inventory of the Museum's holdings since 1972 was conducted before any of the objects were packed. More than 150 fields of information were recorded on each item. To pack the more than 30,000 items took thirty-five undergraduate students two years. The packing job took approximately 10000 cubic feet (283.2 m³) of bagged Styrofoam peanuts, 1,822 boxes, and 148 crates. Many of the boxes and crates for the most fragile artifacts were custom-made. The actual move between buildings took ten days.
Administration
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Director | Wayne T. Pitard |
| Assistant to the Director | Dee Robbins |
| Program Coordinator | Karen Flesher |
| Special Events Coordinator and Volunteer Coordinator | Brian Cudiamat |
| Collections Manager | Christa Deacy-Quinn |
| Assistant Collections Manager | John Holton |
| Collections Coordinator | Melissa Sotelo |
| Registrar | Jennifer White |
| Assistant Registrar — Acquisitions | Amy Heggemeyer |
| Director of Education | Tandy Lacy |
| Assistant Director of Education | Kim Sheahan |
| Education Coordinator | Beth Watkins |
| Education Program Coordinator | Brook Taylor |
| Learning Center Coordinator | Julia Robinson |
| Director of Information Technology | Jack Thomas |
| Head of Security | Harold Bush |
Current collection
The Spurlock Museum’s artifact collection contains approximately 45,000 objects, covering six continents and one million years of human cultural history. A few of the significant collections include ParthenonParthenon
The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...
frieze casts, Merovingian bronzes, Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets, and Amazonian bark cloth. Artifact preservation and public education are the main jobs of Spurlock Museum. Preservation is achieved by keeping the majority of artifacts in storage; following professional standards, the Museum only displays four to five percent of its holdings at any one time. Stored artifacts can be made available for scholarly study or loans to other institutions, as well as serve as a core for temporary exhibitions. They may also be used through the information and images provided on the internet. Note: Not all of the artifacts mentioned below are displayed currently in the Museum.
The Fred A. Freund Collection of Chinese and Japanese Wood Carvings
A collection of over 200 Japanese and Chinese wood carvings and associated materials have been received as a gift of Mr. Fred A. Freund. Donated since 1999, the artifacts date from the EdoEdo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
and Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
s in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and from the Qing Dynasty in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. The subject material depicted includes an assortment of human, animal, utilitarian and abstract images.
The Crocker Land Expedition-Collection from the Arctic
The Crocker Land ExpeditionCrocker Land Expedition
The Crocker Land Expedition was an ill-fated 1913 expedition to investigate Crocker Land, a huge island supposedly sighted by the explorer Robert Peary from the top of Cape Colgate in 1906...
Collection consists of over 200 artifacts and hundreds of photos collected between 1913 and 1917 by an Arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
exploration team led by ethnologist Donald B. MacMillan
Donald B. MacMillan
Donald Baxter MacMillan was an American explorer, sailor, researcher and lecturer who made over 30 expeditions to the Arctic during his 46-year career...
. The photographs highlight the Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
, landscapes, and wildlife while the ethnographic or cultural artifacts include hunting and whaling tools, clothing and sled equipment.
The Edgar J. Banks Collection of Sumerian and Babylonian Clay Tablets
This collection of approximately 1750 inscribed tablets from ancient sites of Umman and Drehem in MesopotamiaMesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
dates from the Third Dynasty of Ur
Ur
Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
in the 21st and 20th centuries BCE to the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian periods(ca. 625-520 BCE). This collection includes texts written in both the Sumerian
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...
and the Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
languages. The script called cuneiform, is the earliest writing system in the world.
Feature galleries
The feature galleries make up the core structure of the Spurlock Museum. The galleries feature exhibits on the ancient Mediterranean, AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, East and Southeast Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and the indigenous cultures of the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
.
- Workman Gallery of Ancient Mediterranean Cultures
- Workman Gallery of Asian Cultures
- Faletti Gallery of African Cultures
- Laubin Gallery of American Indian Cultures
- Leavitt Gallery of Middle Eastern Cultures
- Simonds Pyatt Gallery of European Cultures
Education and public engagement
Tours and programs are available to groups of ten or more on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9 am to 5 pm and Saturdays from 10 am to 4 pm. Most are free of charge, but do have maximum group sizes. Fees and group size limitations are listed with the tour and program descriptions found on the Museum's website. Reservations for tours, guided or self-guided, are required to ensure that all groups have full and equal Museum access and must be made at least three weeks prior to the visit date.Location and access
Admission- Free, suggested donation is $3.
Location:
- 600 S. Gregory Street
- Urbana, IL 61801
- On the campus of the University of Illinois, just to the east of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
The Spurlock Museum building offers the following public areas and facilities:
- Five feature galleries covering Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, Europe, The Americas, and The Ancient Mediterranean.
- The Campbell Gallery, featuring exhibits that change twice a year.
- The 215-seat Knight Auditorium, site of lectures by local and visiting scholars as well as performances by musicians, dancers, actors, storytellers, and choral groups.
- The Dene W. and Marie C. Zahn Learning Center, a space for small-group activities, including teacher training workshops, craft activities, and hands-on artifact opportunities.
- The World Heritage Museum Guild Educational Resource Center, the source of a wide assortment of educational materials for instructors.