Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

From Islapedia


Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History was organized in 1923 as an expansion of the original Santa Barbara Museum of Comparative Oology. Its first director was botanist Ralph Hoffmann, board member who was hired in 1923. He held the position until his accidental death on San Miguel Island in July 1932.
The museum directors:

In the early years during transition times (1958, 1963-1964, 1966-1969), long-time secretary Nora K. Morres served as acting director.

The museum Anthropology curators:

  • David Banks Rogers ~ curator of the SBMNH Anthropology Department (1923-1938) [15 years]
  • Phil Orr ~ curator of the SBMNH Anthropology Department (1938-1969) [31 years]
  • Dee Travis Hudson ~ curator of the SBMNH Anthropology Department (1973-1985) [12 years]
  • John Johnson ~ curator of the SBMNH Anthropology Department (1986-2023) [37 years]

Carey Stanton, Santa Cruz Island, was a board member of the SBMNH from February 1971 until his death in December 1987.


Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH) includes Channel Islands collections from:


The museum had the largest and most significant collection of Chumash artifacts, recovered primarily by curators David Banks Rogers and Phil Orr. For nearly 40 years, curator John Johnson conducted significant research based on the museum’s collections and dedicated a significant amount of time engaging members of the Chumash Tribe as a way to embolden their knowledge of themselves and their community. In October 2021, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash filed a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act request with the museum. The federal law requires museums and institutions of higher learning that receive federal funding to turn over such remains and artifacts to federally recognized Native American representatives upon request. It took the museum 7 months to fulfill the request, and resulted in more than 36,000 items leaving the museum.


  • 1991. Oglesby, Richard 75th Anniversary: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Noticias 37(4):61-120, Winter 1991



In the News~
Chumash beads, SBMNH


May 11, 2022 [Independent]: “ Santa Barbara Natural History Museum Transfers Chumash Remains to Santa Ynez Band. Human Bones and Funerary Artifacts Date as Far Back as 13,000 Years. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History turned over to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians the partial remains of about 1,000 Chumash and pre-Chumash people who had lived throughout the South Coast over a time span of 13,000 years. In addition, UCSB turned over the human remains of 400 individuals and nearly 4,000 funerary objects. Most of these were unearthed when the UCSB campus was first being built in 1950 and date back as far as 4,000 years.

This historic transfer was done in accordance with the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a law requiring museums and institutions of higher learning to turn over such remains and artifacts to federally recognized Native American representatives upon request. That request was issued in late October 2021 by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. The last of the remains, as well as a large number of funerary artifacts, were transferred from the Museum of Natural History and UCSB to the Santa Ynez Band officials in late April.

In a carefully crafted press release issued by both the Santa Ynez Band and the Museum of Natural History, Tribal Chairman Kenny Kahn stated, “These items have come home to our tribe, and it allows us to do the important work of repatriation and reburial. We will continue to have a close working relationship with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and consider it to be a collaborative partner in the community.” Museum director Luke Swetland added, “The Museum has been honored to care for this important cultural heritage for many years and finds it deeply satisfying that we can transfer custody back to the Chumash Community.”

The Museum’s Chumash and pre-Chumash collection, the most extensive in the world, included remains from 1,011 individuals and 36,943 associated funerary objects. With one notable exception, the bones in the museum collection date as far back as 7,000 bce. The exception is three femur bones found protruding from a creek channel on Santa Rosa Island in 1959 by Phil Orr, the museum’s then-director of anthropology. Scientific analysis has proved those bones to be 13,000 years old, a discovery that makes them the oldest human remains found anywhere in North America. The discovery adds considerable credence to a theory of human migration known as the “Kelp Superhighway Hypothesis,” which suggests that the first humans arrived in North America not by land, as has long been proposed, but by sea, following the coastline of the Pacific Rim of northeastern Asia and Beringia down to South America, where plentiful kelp beds provided sufficient food for the early explorers. Most of the remains and artifacts transferred to the tribe show the technology and art developed by Chumash and pre-Chumash residents of the region, how they adorned themselves, what tools they had at their disposal, what materials they used, and how they buried their dead.

The collection of Native American remains and artifacts kept by museums and institutions of higher learning has long been a highly charged issue. The Museum of Natural History first began amassing its collection in 1922 under the direction of museum anthropologists David Banks Rogers and John Peabody Harrington, who worked closely with Chumash people in the region recording their language and culture. By the 1970s, the presence of Native American monitors emerged as a force for cultural preservation at any major construction sites located near what had once been tribal land. In 1989, the museum created the California Indian Advisory Council, which included representatives from as many of the local Chumash bands as possible, not just those representing the Santa Ynez Band.

For the past 40 years, the museum ​— ​under the direction of John Johnson, the museum’s most recent anthropologist ​— ​collaborated with many academic researchers to study the museum’s collections consistent with the best practices established by the Society for American Archeology and the American Alliance of Museums. In addition, Johnson has engaged closely with many Chumash individuals to study their cultural heritage, he said, “as a way to enlarge their understanding of themselves and their community. ”


Serrated abalone ornaments, SBMNH
Deer bone tube with shell bead applique in asphaltum from Goleta slough, SBMNH


May 11, 2022 [Noozhawk]: “Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Returns Chumash Remains and Objects. 13,000-year-old bones found on Santa Rosa Island are oldest human remains discovered in North America. Following six months of collaboration with representatives of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH) curatorial staff has returned thousands of items, including human remains and associated funerary objects, to the Santa Ynez Band.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) is a federal law that provides a process for federal agencies and museums to repatriate or transfer from their collections certain Native American cultural items including human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony, to lineal descendants, and to Indian tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, and Native Hawaiian organizations.

After receiving the NAGPRA claim in October, museum curatorial staff inventoried and packed all the requested materials in an appropriate manner given the cultural sensitivities associated with the human remains and items found with them in grave sites.

The oldest remains to be repatriated were from the Arlington Springs Man, which consist of three human bones discovered on Santa Rosa Island by museum archaeologist Phil Orr in 1959. While excavating nearby, Orr discovered the bones, which due to erosion were visible in a stream bank.

The remains have been radiocarbon dated to 13,000 years old, making them the oldest human remains yet found in North America.

“These items have come home to our tribe, and it allows us to do the important work of repatriation and reburial," said Kenneth Kahn, tribal chairman for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. "We continue to have a close working relationship with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and consider it to be a collaborative partner in the community.”

“The museum has been honored to care for this important cultural heritage for many years, and now finds it deeply satisfying that we can transfer custody back to the Chumash community,” said Luke J. Swetland, museum president/CEO.

While NAGPRA facilitates repatriation for federally recognized tribes like the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, other Chumash bands are recognized under the broader state law, CAL-NAGPRA. SBMNH said it looks forward to working with California native communities to ensure that human remains and associated items are appropriately restored to their rightful ancestors. ”

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