HOURS:
10 am - 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday
Free Parking is available just west of the museum, parallel to University Blvd. Parking permits are available at the Museum front desk or the Museum store. Paid parking areas are west of the Museum adjacent to permitted spaces and north of Las Lomas Rd. Free & Open to All (Donations are welcome)
Permanent Exhibits:
People of the Southwest
Ancestors
M
ission:
Working towards greater understandings of the fullness of human experiences in the Southwest and the world. Vision
The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at UNM contributes to
Reconciling injustices
Restoring voices
Realizing community
Land acknowledgment:
The University of New Mexico and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology sit on and among the traditional homelands of multiple sovereign nations. We acknowledge the deep connections of the Pueblo, Diné, and Apache peoples to the land and the significant contributions of past, present, and future Indigenous peoples and communities to life and culture in the greater Southwest, the United States, and the world at large. In acknowledging these connections, we express our gratitude for the opportunity to live, work, and learn on this land. We honor our relationships with Indigenous peoples and commit to working towards reconciling injustices, restoring voices, and realizing community going forward. Brief History:
In 1932, the University of New Mexico opened the doors of Albuquerque's first public museum: the Museum of Anthropology (now Maxwell Museum of Anthropology). Since then, our museum has been a center for research, teaching, and public communication on the archaeology and contemporary cultural diversity of the U.S. Southwest and the global human story- from our species' earliest origins until today. We began, more modestly, as a facility to store and display collections from excavations around New Mexico conducted by archaeological field schools of UNM's Department of Anthropology. Over nearly 90 years, our collections have grown to more than 3 million archaeological and ethnographic objects from around the world; osteological collections; and archives that document the storied history of UNM Anthropology. In addition to our core exhibitions People of the Southwest and Ancestors, we share current anthropological scholarship and debates with the UNM community, K-12 students, and the larger public through educational and public programs and temporary exhibitions. In 1972, we were renamed the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in honor of Dorothy and Gilbert Maxwell whose donation supported a major expansion of the building that we occupy today (along with the adjacent Hibben Center for Archaeological Research that opened in 2002- be sure to stop there to see the Smith Family Totem Pole). With our associated research units- the Office of Contract Archeology and the Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies- the Maxwell Museum is a vital center for the study and exploration of our region's- and humanity's - deep history and remarkable cultural diversity.
