Separation and Forging New Relationships: 1985-2006

By the mid-1980s, the Maxwell Museum had become a large and organizationally complex unit under the Department of Anthropology. The Museum’s collections needs, scale, public focus, and distinctive goals made its position within an academic department an increasingly difficult fit. Working with the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Bawden developed a plan to establish the Maxwell Museum as an administratively independent unit within the College of Arts and Sciences. This plan was implemented in 1992 and for the first time in its history, the Museum assumed full responsibility for the development, implementation, and administration of its own programs. Ties between the Department and Museum remained strong, as they continued to share a building and both Bawden and Salvador maintain appointments in both units. 

The Hibben Center and Trust

In his two decades as Director, Bawden oversaw a number of consequential changes. Among the most important was his work with Frank Hibben to create a new facility and lay the groundwork for the Hibben Fellowship. In the late 1980s, Hibben donated his home to UNM for the benefit of the Museum; he also gifted the museum ethnographic objects from his personal collection. Several years later, he donated funds to create an endowment to support collection and field research. But his most visible and lasting achievement was his donation of funds to build what is today the Hibben Center for Archaeological Research, which stands directly south of the Maxwell Museum main building.

Frank Hibben did not live to see the opening of his Hibben Center. He died on June 11 2002, and the Center was dedicated on October 8 of that year. The Hibben Center contains a large basement space for storage of archaeological collections and research and photographic archives, and a first floor containing staff offices, an auditorium, two seminar rooms, the Maxwell Museum archives, and a teaching laboratory. The second and third floors hold the Chaco Culture National Historical Park collections and archives, continuing the long-standing partnership between UNM and the National Park Service. Since 2015, the office of UNM’s interdisciplinary Museum Studies Program has also occupied space in the Hibben Center. 

Shortly before his death, Hibben created a charitable trust to support graduate students in anthropology. The highest priority of the Hibben Fellowships is to support Native American graduate students studying Southwestern archaeology; the Trust has also supported Native students in ethnology and non-Native American graduate students working in the US Southwest. Since these fellowships were first offered in 2004, they have provided critical financial support to more than 80 anthropology students. Most Hibben Fellows work 10 hours per week in the Maxwell Museum throughout the academic year, providing critical assistance in collection documentation, rehousing, and exhibition projects