TAKING CARE OF HISTORY

Anthropologist Emily Starck works to build a more culturally-sensitive Native North American exhibit

Emily Starck making internal supports for collection items. Photography by Michelle Brownlee, courtesy of Emily Starck.

Emily Starck sees her possessions as artifacts of her own life history; the 29-year-old keeps a dress from high school, “because what if in 70 years, someone needs to know what teenage girls were wearing to Homecoming in 2008?”

It isn’t surprising to find out that Starck’s habit of collecting and preserving items has landed her at the Field Museum in Chicago as an assistant anthropology collection manager.

She was hired at the Field to work on the redesign and renovation of the Native North American exhibition, which is slated to open in 2022.

Starck has been an avid museum visitor since the age of seven. Around that time, her sights were set on Egyptology-- what her mother, Christina, recalls as Emily’s “first love.”

“Emily just soaked everything in like a sponge,” Christina says.

She would watch scientific cartoons on PBS Kids shows and relate it to real life. Christina remembers pushing Emily in a stroller in the small mammal house at a zoo and Emily saying, “Look, Mom, that’s an opossum. It has a prehensile tail,” when she was only three-years-old.

In grade school, Starck’s family would be sitting around watching television, and Emily would be reading an atlas or encyclopedia, her mom said.

Starck remained steady in her love for all things historic and went on to earn her undergraduate degree in anthropology and museum studies and master’s degree in anthropology. She calls herself lucky for knowing what she wanted to do from a young age, but with her parent’s mutual love for history, people and culture, it’s a path that makes sense.

Starck admits the previous Native American exhibit needed substantial work, as it remained mostly unchanged from the 1950s, when conversations surrounding Native people were still outdated and offensive, she said.

The physical items weren’t properly cared for either. Displayed in Old Hall 8 of the Field, items were exposed to light for over 70 years. One item Starck believed to be light brown, but after taking it down and unfolding it after decades of display, the creased parts revealed an indigo color, indicating the whole item had undergone excessive light damage.

“Emily really got interested in doing some behind the scenes research,” said Katie Hillson, a former coworker of Starck’s at the Field.

Starck dug deep into accession records and what little information was provided about objects’ histories including how they were collected and everything the museum knew about the object prior to acquisition.

Starck is concerned with adjusting the NA exhibit into something overall more responsible, ethical and caring to history, which includes finding how to best facilitate NA items. She learns how to do this from direct collaboration with native people who inform her with the history of objects and technical knowledge of how to appropriately handle and care for them.

“We especially want to make sure that we’re caring for the ceremonial or otherwise sensitive items in a way that’s really respectful and appropriate,” Starck says.

Maritza Garcia of the Mississippi Choctaw performing a jingle dress dance at the land acknowledgment ceremony on October 26, 2018. Photography by Michelle Kuo, courtesy of the Chicago Field Museum.

Anthropologists once believed Native American culture was disappearing forever, so workers attempted to “salvage” all they could. Items were taken from communities with the goal of representing “vanishing” people, but those items were not always obtained in respectful ways and native communities were often underpaid for items, Starck said.

“We’re really trying hard to be different now and acknowledge that the way things were done in the past wasn’t right,” Starck said. “It’s really important to own up to that history.”

When collecting new items now, museum workers focus on building relationships with the artists and creators and learning the backstories of each item from the communities.

“Some items [in the collection] were used every day-- that was something that a person in the past used as a part of their day-to-day life,” Starck said. “Even those [items] for me, I think are really special... I get kind of emotional.”

Starck hopes that visitors take away how “vibrant, powerful and alive” native cultures are, their deep history, and that they did not disappear.

“Every item has a story and kind of a life behind it and getting to look behind the curtain just sort of feel that connection is really powerful. It's really an honor,” she said.

Starck’s mother said she’s always been this compassionate of people, things and their histories.

“Even telling her father they had to leave pebbles behind at a national park, because you should ‘leave it better than you found it,” she said.

Assistant conservators Nicole Passerotti (pictured on the right) and Erin Murphy (pictured on the left) test cultural materials for harmful chemicals that may be present due to old collection practices. Photography by John Weinstein, courtesy of the Chicago Field Museum.