National Museum of the American Indian

While scrolling through our online sources, the one that stood out to me was The National Museum of the American Indian. I immediately clicked to visit the site and watched the short one minute video describing the museum and how it is geared towards children as well as teachers.  I noticed immediately that there is a NY location, and before even clicking on the link, I thought " I must visit this place". I don't know what it is about museums any museums really, but I love them! It's always so interesting to discover and learn new things. 

In regard to the museum in general, there are 2 location, one as mentioned in NY and the other in Washington DC. The museum has one of the most extensive collections of Native American arts and artifacts in the world—approximately 266,000 catalog records (825,000 items) representing over 12,000 years of history and more than 1,200 indigenous cultures throughout the Americas. The museums have tons of pictures, ranging from the 1860's until present day. "There is a  Media Archive (approximately 12,000 items) including film and audiovisual collections such as wax cylinders, phonograph discs, 16mm and 35mm motion picture film, magnetic media of many varieties, and optical and digital media recorded from the late 1800s through the present; and the Paper Archive (approximately 1500 linear feet) comprised of records dating from the 1860s to the present that preserve the documentary history of the NMAI, its predecessor, the Museum of the American Indian (MAI), Heye Foundation, and their collections, as well as other documentary and archival materials" (http://nmai.si.edu/explore/collections/).

Just scrolling through the online collection was amazing, I can't even fathom the experience in person!The pieces ranged from a Ute shoulder bag from the 1860/1870's to a women's dress from the Sioux tribe dating back to 1865, even a duck bill from the year 100AD! These pieces I chose to look at were from the Great Basin area which is what chose to write about in Module 2, as I did not have a specific person, rather a very large topic; alcohol. I really am excited about this museum as I find all this stuff incredible and I cannot wait to go visit, take it all in and implement it into what I have learned so far, and what I will learn.

Sources:
http://nmai.si.edu/explore/collections/