The Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology began in 1966 as the Museum of Man, at the bequest and initiation of Dr. Lowell Holmes, Professor of Anthropology at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Over the next 33 years it grew slowly and became known throughout the campus as a small but interesting museum. The collections and exhibitions include cultural items from around the world and archaeological objects predominantly from the American Midwest and Southwest. In 1999, the anthropology department and the museum moved to a new location in Neff Hall. The museum was expanded and Mr. Jerry Martin was hired as Director. This was the first time that the museum had a professional director whose only job was to work with, and develop the museum.Martin’s concept was to have the museum essentially run and operated by students as part of their museum studies training. He raised funds to hire student staff to run the day-to-day operations of the museum under his supervision. As of the fall semester of 2006, the museum has the funds to hire five student positions. The museum has a wide range of functions. It has exhibitions open to the public, houses a rapidly expanding collection, a support unit for the anthropology department and faculty of Wichita State University, a research facility for students, a repository for United States Government archaeological collections, and the basis for a growing museum studies program. These different functions provide a very wide range of experience for the student staff.Important collections housed at the Holmes MuseumAsmat art collectionIn 2001 the museum led an expedition into Western New Guinea, where they compiled a major collection of over 950 pieces of Asmat tribal art. In the fall of 2001, the museum received the Bakwin collection of nearly 120 pieces of Asmat art. Asmat art is famous for its large size, beauty, artistic quality and rarity. This collection is rapidly becoming well known. The only other comparable collections in the United States are the Michael Rockefeller Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the collection of the Asmat Museum of Art in St. Paul, MN.
