Boxes and boxes, missing context, and an avocational archaeologist : making sense of the Frank Watt collection at the Mayborn Museum Complex.

Museums often find themselves with more collection than they are capable of properly inventorying, documenting and cataloguing. The Mayborn Museum Complex at Baylor University has one such collection of Native American artifacts and documents collected by Frank H. Watt, a local archaeologist. The late Watt worked many years as an avocational archaeologist in Texas. Examination of both his collection of papers and Native American artifacts led to the discovery that some of the documents corresponded with particular objects. By matching the two collections, Frank Watt's papers are linked to actual specimens, and the objects are united with their history, giving them context in a written record. This project combined both collections and archival work in addition to research regarding the life and writings of Frank Watt and a brief review of Texas pre-history and early history.