Case Study: The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology achieves 300% research growth and streamlined collections management with Gallery Systems (TMS & eMuseum)

Promoting Teaching and Research Through Excellence in Collections Management

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology needed to consolidate and make accessible a vast, complex collection — 1.4 million objects, 500,000+ images and 20,000 human remains — so students, researchers and Native communities could find and use material for teaching and research. Seeking a flexible collections management and web-publishing solution, the Museum selected Gallery Systems’ products, The Museum System (TMS) and eMuseum, to link 3D objects with archives and photographs and support specialized anthropology workflows.

Gallery Systems implemented TMS and eMuseum to centralize object records, enable configurable fields and modules (like Components and Events), track artifact movements for classes and research, and support NAGPRA compliance. The integrated system lets staff export usage statistics, attach research outputs to object records, and reduce handling; within three years of publishing collections online via Gallery Systems’ eMuseum, research activity increased by 300%, while staff time spent supervising researchers and moving objects was significantly reduced.

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

David DeBono Schafer

Senior Collections Manager