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University of Kentucky
Department of Anthropology
211 Lafferty Hall
Lexington, KY 40506
Phone: 859-257-2710
Fax: 859-323-1959

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Last update: 10/2003

History of the Museum

The W.S. Webb Museum of Anthropology was founded in 1931 by Dr. William S. Webb, a professor of Physics, and Dr. William D. Funkhouser, a Professor of Zoology. Their lifelong interest in Kentucky's cultural history had already led them to conduct the first county-by-county archaeological survey of Kentucky during the 1920s, and to establish the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky in 1927. The Museum was founded as a nonprofit, permanent, educational institution operated for the benefit of students, faculty, and staff of the University of Kentucky and, more generally, for the citizens of the Commonwealth. The Museum provides secure storage and curation of ethnographic and archaeological materials, particularly for artifacts collected during the numerous surveys and excavations conducted by professional archaeologists throughout Kentucky.

Museum Mission

The William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology has three primary purposes. It acquires and maintains anthropological collections, supports anthropological research, and disseminates anthropological knowledge. The extensive holdings serve to link the past, the present, and the future. The Museum is charged with several responsibilities: to serve a diverse audience, from the layperson to professionals; to preserve significant, irreplaceable objects; and to contribute to our understanding of past and present cultures, especially those of prehistoric Kentucky. 

As an anthropology museum, it curates and exhibits artifacts that document many different aspects of human behavior. Some artifacts represent cultures from the "ethnographic present," while others from archaeological contexts provide the only surviving evidence of myriad adaptations to diverse, and at times inhospitable, natural and social environments. The Museum collects, preserves, studies, exhibits, and interprets these objects to reveal the technologies, artistry, and ingenuity of peoples belonging to cultures vastly different from our own modern society. As the major archaeological curation facility in Kentucky approved by the Kentucky Heritage Council, the Museum serves as a secure repository for more than 5,800 separate collections documenting more than 10,000 years of human habitation in the Commonwealth. 

As a university museum, the primary goals of the Museum are education and research. The museum provides exhibits and interpretive programs designed to broaden visitors' views of the achievements of other cultures. Guided tours and outreach programs help to educate future generations about human cultural and biological diversity. Graduate and undergraduate students learn professional methods of preparing and curating anthropological specimens and preparing interpretive exhibits. The collections provide an invaluable database for research by faculty, staff, and students, as well as scholars from other educational institutions, museums, government agencies, and professional organizations, particularly in the fields of archaeology and physical anthropology.