| The
Department
of Anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences was established in
1900, forty-seven years after the founding of the Academy. Unfortunately,
the department was suspended when the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake and fire devastated the Academy's premises
on Market Street. The conflagration destroyed much of
the Anthropology collection, as well as large portions
of the collections of other departments. Although the
Department of Anthropology was no longer formally recognized,
materials and artifacts continued to be amassed by the
Academy. By 1976, thanks to the generosity of the Paul
L. and Phyllis Wattis Foundation, the Wattis Hall of Human
Cultures was opened, featuring the materials collected
through the mid-1970s. The Department of Anthropology
was re-created at that time, thanks to the endowment of
a Chair in Anthropology by the James Irvine Foundation.
Today, the Department's
collection consists of nearly 16,000 ethnographic
and archaeological items from around the world. The Department
actively collects material of the indigenous cultures
of western North America and the Pacific Rim.
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415-379-5378
anthropology@calacademy.org
