A Co-op Story

I was a student at Antioch College, Yellow Springs Ohio. As part of the work-study plan, I worked in the Anthropology Department from April through September of 1962. I was primarily cataloging new acquisitions in the Asian department. Several collections had recently arrived, and the brand new storeroom was being filled and organized. A museum photographer took the photo to the right of me that summer. I enjoyed the atmosphere upstairs in the museum that summer. I believe there was no air conditioning then, because we had the windows open and the soundtrack was the Midnight in Moscow, broadcast continuously from the Grey Line boat tour that docked next door at the Shedd Aquarium. The staff artists were working in the same large room, preparing the new Asian exhibits on calligraphy. I learned a lot about cataloging, before computers. I believe I was paid $200.00 a month.

I did not meet Paul Martin that year. He was away on sabbatical, and at the field station in Vernon, Arizona. But when he needed someone to catalog at the dig in the summer of 1963, people at the museum recommended me. I was 22 at the time.

By then I knew I was heading for a career in social work, not archaeology. But it was an opportunity, and the Antioch attitude kicked in: “It might be interesting.” So, I spent the summer in Arizona, my first time west of the Mississippi. I washed a lot of dishes; They happened to be broken, and very old. Other people were directing the research and interpreting the data. I had a seat near the table, and listened to the process, but I very little authority. At the end of the summer the staff went back to Chicago, and I returned for my last year of college.

Now we fast forward to 1998 when I visited the Museum for the first time in decades. I learned that Stephen Nash was organizing much of Paul Martin’s material there. We met, I told him some things I remembered, and later I sent him some photographs I made in 1963. There wasn’t a lot I could add to what he had.

Then in 2016 I ran into Stephen Nash again. I was reminded of how attractive I found Mimbres pottery, so different from the pot sherds I catalogued in 1963. I searched the internet and found a video of Stephen giving a lecture on categories of southwest pottery types. I contacted him again and found that his interest in the work of Paul Martin had only deepened. He had access to all the scholarly journals but wanted some background. We continued to correspond, and I offered to see what I could find by using genealogy resources.

I got caught up in old newspapers and census data. I learned some compelling stories about Paul’s father, and all sorts of side stories about his siblings. And it really added to what Stephen already knew. Stephen plans to publish articles about Paul’s work, give me credit as one of the researchers!

A couple of years ago Stephen left his job at a museum and became the director of an archaeology advocacy group in my state. We have connected again as I gave him some more photos and artifacts from the summer of 1963. He has also turned to me to find contacts in my state to help with fund-raising.

This job, that was never in my field, just keeps on giving.

Anna LeBlanc ‘64 is a leader of the Phoenix alumni chapter.