The Utah State University Museum of Anthropology is a small museum located in the Old Main

Old Main (Utah State University)

Old Main was the first building built on the campus of the Agricultural College of Utah, now Utah State University. It sits at the top of Old Main Hill, overlooking the city of Logan to the west, and facing the quad to the east...

 building on Utah State University

Utah State University

Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....

's main campus in Logan

Logan, Utah

-Layout of the City:Logan's city grid originates from its Main and Center Street block, with Main Street running north and south, and Center east and west. Each block north, east, south, or west of the origin accumulates in additions of 100 , though some streets have non-numeric names...

, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

History

Begun in the 1960s with a single professor's personal collection of artifacts, the museum took up house in the Old Main building in 1984, first in the basement. It moved upstairs to its present location, in the south turret, in 1992.

Relocation and expansion plans

In 2010, university officials announced a plan to relocate the museum from its current 2000 square feet (185.8 m²) room to its own building, the former "Art Barn" on campus, which will be completely overhauled in order to house both the growing museum and a USU Welcome Center. The museum will occupy 12000 square feet (1,114.8 m²) in the new building and will begin expanding its collections and exhibits to fill the space. The move is scheduled to take place in 2012.

Mission and research

The museum has a mission of educating the local public on the fields of anthropology and museum studies. It also serves as a training and research ground for the USU Department of Anthropology. Students may hold internships at the museum and work toward a Museum Studies certificate.

The museum is also home to the popular "Saturdays at the Museum", wherein free family-centered lectures and hands-on activities are held each Saturday throughout the year.