With Support From International Paper and Gasquatch

This year marks the Museum of the Red River’s fiftieth anniversary.  To celebrate this milestone, staff members have planned five exhibits for 2025- each focusing on a particular decade of the Museum’s existence.  For each, fifty objects have been selected to illustrate a cross section of the Museum’s holdings for the respective period, and to commemorate the facility’s fifty years of service.  The current exhibit highlights the first ten years, 1975-1984.

Though it opened in 1975, the Musuem of the Red River was established by the Herron Research Foundation in 1974 and began accessioning collections that year.  The grand opening in April of 1975 was undoubtedly a proud moment for Museum founders Quintus and Mary Herron, who had long planned to establish a facility to curate and display regional archaeological materials, which in the past had been excavated and removed to repositories outside of the area.  As Mary Herron once explained, “area residents were losing the opportunity to learn about the rich heritage of their region.”  Because of this, the Museum sponsored field schools, published site reports detailing the findings of these excavations, and provided archaeological services under contract to various governmental agencies.  Collections were primarily archaeological, and exhibits reflected this, highlighting field projects, recovered artifacts, and the stories they told.

Even though regional archaeology was a primary focus in these early days, Museum founders and staff recognized the need to place these objects into a larger context.  As a result, materials from throughout the Americas, (North, Central, and South), from prehistoric to contemporary times were increasingly collected and displayed.  In 1974 alone, the Museum acquired significant donations of prehistoric stone and ceramic objects from Central America.  By the early 1980s, collections of material culture from the Wayana-Apalai of Brazil and the Guna of Panama, along with items from the Northwest Coast, Arctic, American Southwest, and Plains regions had been acquired by the Museum.  These small representative holdings of objects from across the Americas would form the core of collections that would be greatly expanded in later years. 

The pieces included in this exhibit were selected for their importance- to the history of the Museum, the people and cultures they represent, and to the general study of art and archaeology.  Obtained during the Museum’s first decade, (a period that saw over 8200 additions to the collections), these examples were also chosen to showcase the initial areas of collecting focus for the Museum; they stand as testament to the Museum’s commitment to serve the local community and the world.