Arizona State Museum's founding day is April 7, 1893
ASM by the Numbers
130 years serving the state, serving the university, serving the community.
Established in 1893 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly with House Bill 42.
4 early, temporary homes on the UA campus: Old Main, Douglass Building, Forbes Building, Arizona Stadium.
Currently housed in 2 historic buildings on the University of Arizona campus and fundraising for a third.
$4.2M annual budget, more than half self-generated through earned income, grants, contracts, and private donations.
45 full-time employees.
About 50 volunteers help with a range of daily duties, dozens more help with special events and public programs, totaling an average of 10,000 hours a year.
More than 3 million cataloged objects dating back 13,000 years:
- 40,000 cubic feet of bulk archaeological research collections
- 525,000 photographic prints, negatives, and transparencies
- 300,000 individually cataloged archaeological artifacts
- 100,000 books and journal volumes
- 40,000 ethnographic objects
- 35,000 basketry/perishable fiber specimens dating back some 7,000 years
- 24,000 whole ceramic vessels dating back 2,000 years
- 6,000 maps
- 4,000 vertebrate specimens, 600 species
- 1,500 linear feet of archival documents
- 1,200+ microfilm reels of Spanish colonial documents
- 1,000+ sound recordings
- 250 motion picture films
1,000 cubic feet of new collections accessioned each year.
3 separate collections designated American Treasures (pottery, basketry, photography), underscoring their importance to the nation's shared cultural history.
Average 140 permits issued annually for archaeological activity conducted on 9.5M acres of state land.
Repatriation totals 1986 to date:
- 130 Federal Register Notices Published
- 81 Repatriations Completed
- 17 Native Nations, 1 foreign government (Costa Rica), 1 other group (Los Descendientes del Presidio de Tucson)
- 3,477 Sets of Human Remains
- 64,794 Funerary Objects
- 11 Sacred Objects (SO)
- 224 Objects of Cultural Patrimony (OCP)
- 110 Items considered both SOs and OCPs
ASM faculty and staff interact in meaningful ways with approximately 2,500 UA students through classroom instruction, laboratory training, field work, internships, and employment, for an annual average of approximately 46,000 contact hours
108 years of impactful peer-reviewed scholarship.
New knowledge is created by more than 100 researchers from around the world (including graduate students) who access the collections each year.
ASM’s conservation laboratory hosts, assists, and trains staff from dozens of other museums, libraries, and cultural centers each year.
50+ public events, programs, workshops, summer camps, and travel tours each year.
Scores of exhibits, many award-winning, that have featured collections, shared research, and helped tell the stories of the region’s peoples.
Approximately 2,000 teachers and K-12 students served annually through field trips, in-class presentations, and teacher workshops.
200 objects loaned to 16 institutions in the past 5 years.
Currently striving to expand to a 3rd building.