The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico celebrates 75 years in 2007. The Directors Lecture will kick off the yearlong celebration on Thursday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. with “The Search for Sir John Franklin,” presented by John Martin “Jack” Campbell, Maxwell director from 1969-1972. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Photo: Sir John Franklin
Several years ago Campbell was invited to join a Canadian expedition whose purpose was to track down a rumor that a ship – either the Terror or the Erebus – had been sighted on the shore of an Arctic island. The British Royal Navy ships were Franklin’s. They mysteriously disappeared while seeking the fabled Northwest Passage from Europe to the Orient. This is the story of the search expedition.
Campbell is former chairman of the UNM Department of Anthropology and director of the UNM Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. He is currently a research professor of Anthropology at UNM. Campbell has worked in the Arctic and Subarctic for 60 years. His field studies have taken place in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the former Soviet Union.
His photographs have been exhibited nationally and supported by the Smithsonian Institute. His most recent book, The Great Houses of Chaco, will be published in April by the University of New Mexico Press.
The Maxwell Museum was established in 1932 by Edgar Lee Hewett as a teaching museum. It is recognized as an important regional museum and a nationally known research center.
For more information, contact Mary Beth Hermans 277-1400, or e-mail mhermans@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu