This series originally existed as its own fonds, the "Miraim Clavir fonds." It was converted to a series within the Conservation Care, Management and Access fonds in 2017 (when this fonds was created).
Dr. Miriam Lisa Clavir was the Senior Conservator of the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia and Associate of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of British Columbia from 1980 to 2004. In 1969, she obtained her bachelor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Ontario, in 1976 her masters in Art Conservation at Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario, and in 1998 her doctorate in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. In addition, Miriam Clavir was received as a Member of the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators in 1987 and as a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation in 1993.
Prior to employment at the University of British Columbia, Clavir was an assistant conservator at Parks Canada, National Historic Sites Service, Quebec Region from 1976 to 1980, a conservation assistant for Parks Canada from 1973 to 1976, and an assistant for the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto in the Archaeology and Conservation Department from 1969 to 1972.
During her employment at the Museum of Anthropology, Miriam Clavir was involved in the following committees: Ellen Neel’s Thunderbird Pole Committee (2001 to 2004), Aboriginal Relations and Repatriation Committee, (Chair 1996 to 2004); Exhibits Committee (Chair 1997 and 1998); Collections Committee (to 2004); Executive Committee (1995 to 1996), and; Acquisitions Committee (to 2004). In 1982 she chaired the conference “Doing Yourself In? The Artist as Casualty.”
As the head of the Conservation area, Clavir’s responsibilities and functions included:
• Managing the conservation function, including the lab at MOA;
• Initiating and implementing processes, policies and actions to ensure that the collections housed in MOA do not deteriorate;
• Responsibility for teaching museum conservation at UBC, including credit courses, directed studies, and supervising interns and students;
• Ensuring that conservation practices at MOA are sensitive to the concerns of First Nations communities and other groups;
• Performing MOA managerial work not directly associated with conservation (such as chair or a member of committees and/or manages selected MOA projects);
• Responsibility for planning and prioritizing future conservation needs at MOA, with the assistance of other conservation staff;
• Examining objects in MOA travelling exhibits and loans to ensure that artefacts are stable and travel would not endanger their condition;
• Acting as liaison conservator with receiving institutions for MOA objects on loan;
• Supervising and advising staff, students, and Volunteer Associates on conservation questions and issues;
• Providing services to the public on questions in conservation directed to MOA; and,
• Conducting research necessary to support the functions and responsibilities of the Conservation Area and for meeting requirements set in the mandate of the Museum.
As an instructor, Dr. Miriam Clavir taught the following courses: Anthropology 451: The Conservation of Inorganic Materials; Anthropology 452: The Conservation of Organic Materials; Anthropology 43 1: (1991-1992); Classics 440: Field school (1987); Archival Studies 610: (1983-1988). In addition, she was an instructor for the Continuing Education Department at the University of British Columbia (1986, 1983, 1981). She also supervised conservation interns from 1989 to 1997. Miriam Clavir was also the principal instructor and course organizer for “Collections Care”, University of Victoria Course #HA488D taught at the UBC Museum of Anthropology for the Aboriginal Cultural Stewardship Program. Furthermore, she taught Mus.482 (Conservation) at the Burke Museum, University of Washington, Seattle (1999, 2000, 2002).
In 1999, Clavir took a leave of absence from the Museum to publish a book based on her Ph.D. thesis, “Preserving What Is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations,” (2002) which won the 2002 Outstanding Achievement Award in the Conservation Category from the Canadian Museums Association. The book discusses the profession and ethics of museum conservation, and how conservation ideas and practices contrast with the values and concerns of First Nations.
She is also credited with numerous independent journal articles. Among these: “Museum Changes to First Nations Objects, and their Physical and Conceptual Reversibility” (1999); “The Future of Ethnographic Conservation: A Canadian Perspective” (2001) and “Heritage Preservation: Museum Conservation and First Nations Perspectives” (2003).
Miriam Clavir retired as Senior Conservator at the Museum of Anthropology in 2004.
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Title based on provenance of the records.
Series consists of records associated with the functions and responsibilities assigned to Miriam Clavir in her role as the conservator of the Museum of Anthropology, and/or are related to the Conservation Area, as well as to her teaching activities. Included are: correspondence, memoranda, reports (published and unpublished), evaluations, building (architectural) plans, photographs, slides, e-mails, facsimiles, computer disks, and audio cassettes.
The series is arranged in the following six subseries:
1. Administrative Records
2. Conservation Records
3. Exhibit Records
4. Teaching & Internship Records
5. Building Records
6. Conference Records
Order imposed by archivist.
A second accession was acquired in 2004 and a third processed in 2007. No further accruals are expected.
Some restrictions apply, consult archivist.
Some subseries contain records with copyright and reproduction restrictions.
The Museum of Anthropology does not hold copyright for the papers contained in “Doing Yourself In? The Artist as Casualty” contained in Box 1, File 38.
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Subseries consists of records created, received, and/or used by Miriam Clavir in the course of her administrative duties, including her activities on the Collections Committee. Also included are records relating to repatriation activities, personal job descriptions, and a leave request. These records come in the form of correspondence, memoranda, annual reports, collection policy notes, (staff) retreat reports, budget reports, minutes of meetings, typewritten notes, a collection survey report, and a conservation photograph for the MOA website.
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Box 1.13
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Box 3.3
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Box 3.14
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Subseries consists of records related to conservation issues that Miriam Clavir created during her duties and activities as conservator. These include: correspondence, memoranda, photos, conservation reports (including priority reports), and notes related to her laboratory activities in the form of proposals and policy notes, suggested conservation supply stock for the MOA shop, as well as a student’s conservation course paper. Records relating to her conservation internship with the Public Archives of Canada (1982), and her collaborative participation with Virginia Salazar on the International Partnerships Among Museums (IPAM) report on museum conservation (1991-1992) are also included.
Other records related to Clavir’s conservation activities can be found in the subseries, “Exhibit Records.”
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Box 1.1
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Box 2.32
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Box 2.39
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Box 3.4
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Subseries consists of records related to Miriam Clavir’s involvement (which was primarily consultative and/or advisory) with exhibits and exhibition planning. Some records focus on conservation issues, while others include exhibit proposals and planning records. The exhibits include: “The Third Eye,” “Fluff and Feathers,” the “Coat of Many Colours,” “Ancient Cloth…Ancient Code,” “Multiplicity,” “Bob Boyer: A Blanket Statement and the “Open House Conservation Exhibit.” Other records relate to a paper loan from MOA to the Vancouver Paper Fair.
Also included in this subseries are funding proposals relating to two further exhibits (one of which Clavir was proposed to curate), as well as general exhibit information relating to an assessment of the Museum’s exhibits in the form of visitor studies.
The records in this subseries include: correspondence, memoranda, computer printouts (drafts) of exhibit proposals, committee meeting notes (on exhibit and public programming), budget summaries, conservation notes, brochures, packing & crate lists, artifact lists, photocopies of images taken of display items, exhibit planning notes, display drawings, contact sheets (with images of display cases and artifacts), case labels, and visitor study reports.
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Box 1.3
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Box 1.41
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Box 1.43
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Box 2.38
The transcript indicates the addition of further audio cassettes, but these were not included in the accrual.
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Subseries consists of records related to a symposium, “Doing Yourself in? The Artist as Casualty,” held in 1982 which Clavir organized and chaired. Included are an unedited transcript of the 1982 Symposium, and six audio cassettes of papers presented there. Also includes a number of conservation conferences Clavir attended between 1984 and 1989, some at which she was a presenter. These later conference records were accessioned in one unlabelled folder, and were subdivided by the archivist in relation to each conference attended.
Order has been imposed by the archivist (see Scope and Content note)
Audio cassettes are located in audiotape Box 11 (tape cassette range: MOA 223 to MOA 228)
The transcript is for research purposes only. Copying for research purposes only unless otherwise noted. The audio cassettes are protected under copyright law. Consult Archivist for details.
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Box 1.38
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Box 2.9
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Audio cassette box 11, tapes MOA 223-228
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Box 2.16
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Box 2.17
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Box 3.11
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Subseries consists of records related to courses taught by Clavir at the Museum of Anthropology, her training of conservation interns which was primarily funded through the Museum Assistance Programme (MAP), and to Clavir’s participation in the Aboriginal Cultural Stewardship Program. The subseries includes: course outlines, teaching notes, correspondence, memoranda, reports, application forms, cost summaries, funding contracts, a published discussion paper, and a program module.
The subseries is arranged in the following three sub sub subseries:
a: General teaching records
b: Museum Assistance Programme (MAP)
c: Aboriginal Cultural Stewardship Program
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Sub subseries consists of records related to courses taught by Clavir at the Museum of Anthropology such as those for the Centre for Continuing Education, guidelines and applications for internship funding through the Teaching Enhancement Fund, and syllabi (1991-2001) for ANTH 431, a course she taught from 1991-1992. Records include course outlines, teaching notes, memoranda, applications and conservation forms.
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Box 1.4
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Sub subseries consists of records related to Clavir’s training of conservation interns at the Museum of Anthropology. Much of the funding for internships came from the Museum Assistance Programme (MAP) which was established by the former National Museums of Canada (currently supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage). The sub subseries also includes records related to a search for funding through MAP and provincial government sources for a new conservator position, the establishment of a laboratory conservator position (1993), as well as student reports on internships sponsored by both MAP and the Getty Conservation Institute.
Included are: correspondence, memoranda, reports, application forms, cost summaries, funding contracts, handwritten notes, and one published discussion paper to help develop policy for conservation assistance through the Museum Assistance Programme.
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Sub subseries consists of records related to Clavir’s participation in the Aboriginal Cultural Stewardship Program which was developed for Aboriginal people from B.C. to receive training in different cultural centres. Clavir served on the Advisory Committee for the AC Stewardship Program and ran the Conservation section of the program at the Museum of Anthropology. The records include correspondence, a summary report of the program and its participants, and a module outlining the museum’s coverage under the Program.
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Box 2.1
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Subseries consists of records related to the MOA facilities and services including Conservation Laboratory construction, expansion and renovations, from initial proposal through design and development, including a large amount of records relating to the development of visible storage. Records also relate to building maintenance operations, earthquake mitigation, museum environmental concerns, and building security. Subseries consists of correspondence and memoranda, reports, photographs, blueline prints and other architectural drawings, handwritten notes, photomicroscopic images and negatives, and published materials.
The subseries is arranged in the following two sub subseries:
A: General Building Records
B: Visible Storage
Records in the subseries include: 24.5 cm of textual records, 43 architectural drawings : 19 blueline prints, 1 blackline print, 1 photocopy, 22 architectural drawings: photocopied, 3 micrographic photographs and negatives : b&w, 25 photographs: b&w and col.
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Sub subseries consists of records related to Clavir’s involvement with the visible storage area of the museum, predominantly from a conservation perspective. Most files relate to a new case in the Kwakwaka’wakw area, as it was the end result of a plan to upgrade the entire visible storage area.
Included are: copies of early articles and reports, grant and architect proposals, staff meeting minutes, photographs, and development & working files.
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Subseries contains files related to Miriam Clavir's service to the Task Force on Museums and First Peoples. It contains correspondence between members and stakeholders, meeting minutes, drafts of reports, reports, and Mrs. Clavir's handwritten notes. A substantial portion of the subseries consists of submissions to the task force made by various stakeholders, which consists of reports and papers related to the relationship between First Nations and Canadian museums and institutions in general.
Material was brought to the archives by Sue Rowley, who had somehow ended up with these files created by Miriam Clavir.
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