Maxwell Museum Blog
In 1974, the Laboratory of Human Osteology entered into an agreement with the State Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) in 1974 to serve as the official forensic science consulting agency and to act as the repository for remains from forensic cases. In addition, the Mimbres Foundation was created and became a temporary division of the Maxwell under its director Dr. Steven LeBlanc. From 1978 until 1984, the Mimbres Foundation had a vigorous program of field and laboratory research that set new standards for the study of the Mimbres culture in southwestern New Mexico. The museum served as the institutional partner and repository for the collections generated.
Under Brody’s leadership the Maxwell forged partnerships with the Pueblo of Acoma and the Jicarilla Apache Tribe, as well as the Mimbres Valley Museum and the Florence Hawley Ellis Museum of Anthropology at Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu to support them in the creation of their own museums.
Like Campbell and Hibben before them, Brody along with Chief Curator Dr. Mari Lyn Salvador and Curator of Osteology Stan Rhine were active faculty members of the Department of Anthropology. All taught and mentored graduate students. Brody and Salvador developed a museum studies program in the late 1970s that included anthropology, art history, and biology faculty. By the mid-1980s, there were 16 staff members in the museum and the annual budget was over $220,000. Brody retired as Director in 1984, and, in 1985, after a 1 year interim directorship by Dr. Lewis Binford of the Anthropology Department, Dr. Garth L. Bawden, a specialist in Andean archaeology, succeeded him.
