The Peabody Museum has retained records since its founding in 1866 as North America’s first anthropology museum. This first ‘formal’ Archive was established in the 1980’s and houses early museum records including letter books of incoming correspondence (1866-79), daybooks of the curators and directors, and trustee minutes. Note that some early administrative records are held at Harvard University Archives. The Peabody Museum archives also holds field notes from museum expeditions throughout the world as well as documentation of the artifact collections and the papers of many anthropologist collectors. Active accession files, dating from 1866 and corresponding with the artifact collection, are available for research.