For External Researchers

SUAC's museum quality archaeological and ethnographic collections are available to external researchers on a limited basis. Please contact us to learn more. Please note: tribal and descendant community inquiries regarding repatriation or other collection issues are always welcome.

The collection of over 60,000 items includes important accessions in the archaeology and ethnography of the American west including the Bay Area and northern California, British Columbia, Alaska, the Southwest, and West Mexico. We have important collections from the ancient Andes and modern Peru. SUAC holds additional materials from the Plateau, Plains, eastern North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as the modern Pacific. Please see the Poster: Visualizing Collections for a visual guide to collecting areas.

Outgoing research loans are considered on a case by case basis. 

SUAC collections are always being added to our Collections Online database, but we have many more holdings than are published online. For more information about current holdings of archaeological, ethnographic, and archival collections, please contact us. Please see our Collections Management Policy for more details on current policies and procedures. 

We regret that limited staff and resources, as well as priority projects such as inventory, exhibitions, and repatriation, may substantially delay response time for research requests. In addition, SUAC is closed to research during the summer.