Collection Manager, Anthropology
Biography
Deborah Harding is the collection manager of the Section of Anthropology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. She received her MA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994.
Harding’s interests focus on textile and basketry technology, North American Indian fingerweaving (a form of braiding), material gathering and processing (e.g. fibers), featherwork, beads and beadwork (especially North American Indian, South American Indian, and organic materials), and ethnic jewelry and jewelry-making techniques.
Seldom seen—archaeological textiles in the eastern United States
In my very first “Introduction to Anthropology” class, the professor, a cultural anthropologist, tried to steer us away from archaeology by telling …
Dressing Fleas
“If we do not mass produce products, we vie with one another in the difficult, exquisite and useless art of dressing fleas” …
Costa Rican Pottery Bird Adorno
by Deb Harding The people of ancient Costa Rica put a lot of bird and animal imagery in their pottery, both painted …
Costa Rican Archaeological Bowl
by Deb Harding In the process of photographing all the archaeological pottery in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s collection, this bowl caught …
Lakota Moccasins
In the Lakota culture, women sometimes express affection for men and children by beading every surface of their moccasins. These beaded moccasins …
Carved Wooden Gope Board
Gope boards are carved wooden tablets made by groups in the Gulf of Papua. They represent ancestral spirits who protect members of …
Professional Papers and Publications
1981 Anglo-American Basketry in Florida. In Florida Basketry: Continuity and Change, pp. 1-2, Florida Department of State (catalog for exhibit).
1982 A Brief History of the Early Florida Seminole. Florida State Museum Department of Anthropology Miscellaneous Project Series 16:1-5.
1982 Book Review: The Complete Book of Seminole Patchwork, From Traditional Methods to Contemporary Uses. Florida Historical Quarterly 61(1):103-104.
1984 Mat-Impressed Pottery from the Tick Island Site (8-Vo-25). Paper presented at the 41st Annual Meeting, Southeastern Archaeological Conference, November 8-10, Pensacola, Florida.
1988 Textile and Related Perishable Remains from the Windover Site (8BR246). (with R.L. Andrews, R.L. and J.M. Adovasio). Paper presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting, Society for American Archaeology, Phoenix, Arizona.
1990 Textiles from Medieval Egypt AD 300-1300. (with Thelma Thomas)
1991 Caring For Old Textiles. Bulletin of Primitive Technology 1(2):28-29.
1994 Bagging the Tourist Market: A Descriptive and Statistical Analysis of Nineteenth Century Iroquois Beaded Bags. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
1998 Cheyenne-style coiled willow gaming basket. Bulletin of Primitive Technology 15:75-76.
1998 Review of A Guide to Weft Twining and Related Structures With Interacting Wefts, by D. W. Fraser. Bulletin of Primitive Technology 15:86.
1999 Review of Androgynous objects: string bags and gender in central New Guinea, “Studies in Anthropology and History” Vol. 2, by Maureen A. MacKenzie, Australian National University, Canberra, Chur, Reading, Paris, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Melbourne: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1991. Bulletin of Primitive Technology Spring 17:23-24.
2007 Birds, Beasts, and Botanicals: Organic Beads and Pendants from the Amazon Basin, Beads 15:53-64.
2008 Sandra Olsen and Deborah G. Harding Women’s Attire and Possible Sacred Role in 4th Millennium Northern Kazakhstan in Are All Warriors Male?: Gender roles on the Ancient Eurasian Steppe Katheryn M. Linduff and Karen S. Rubinson, eds. Altamira Press pp67-92.
2010 Birds, beasts and botanicals: identifying organic materials in ethnographic collections. Paper presented at annual meetings of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, Ottawa.
2011 Little black seeds and their friends: identifying plant materials in ethnographic collections. Paper presented at annual meetings of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, San Francisco.
2012 Amy L Covell, Deborah G. Harding and Gretchen Anderson. Odd lots: storage supports for special situations. Poster presented at annual meetings of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, New Haven, CT.
