Former Met curator finds new home at Matson Museum of Anthropology

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — James Doyle, former assistant curator, art of the ancient Americas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, has been named director of the Matson Museum of Anthropology at Penn State. He succeeds Associate Research Professor and Museum Curator Claire Milner, who led the museum for nearly two decades before retiring in 2021.

Informally established in the 1960s when collections from the Department of Anthropology were first put on display, the museum was renamed in 1991 for Penn State Professor Emeritus Frederick Matson. Located in Carpenter Building since that time, the Matson Museum will continue to be the public face of the department as a cornerstone of the new Susan Welch Liberal Arts Building, scheduled to be completed sometime in 2024.

“The Penn State Department of Anthropology is one of the leading departments in the country,” Doyle said when asked what prompted him to apply for the position. “The opportunity to join such a dynamic faculty and to support teaching and research at this level while also reimagining the new museum space is very exciting to me as an archaeologist and a museum professional. The chance to have a purpose-built space for a museum, to work with the architects, and also to bring in my own expertise in exhibition design is a rare opportunity. The consortium of museums already on campus and the opportunity to partner with other Penn State units are real pluses as well.”

Acknowledging the "tremendous contributions and leadership" of Claire Milner, Doyle said he is looking forward to the opportunities the new museum space will represent for students and faculty as well as for the University and local communities.

“My vision is for the Matson to be an integral contributor to critical discussions about human diversity and inequality, leading the University-wide efforts to create a more inclusive campus, through activities and outreach that build meaningful relationships with Indigenous and international collaborators,” he said, adding he hopes to activate the Matson’s collections for a variety of classes as well as to train students for museum careers, especially those traditionally excluded from the job pipeline in the academic or non-profit sectors.

According to Tim Ryan, head of the Department of Anthropology, the Matson Museum is a central unit in the department in terms of supporting research, teaching and outreach. Doyle “rose to the top” following an international search, Ryan said, and his role will include not only designing the museum space and curating the collection, but also working with University and community audiences to offer engagement and learning opportunities.

“He [Doyle] is leading efforts not only to continue the work that Claire Milner started but also to develop new programs and initiatives,” Ryan said. “The new space gives us an opportunity to reimagine the museum and how we highlight the research of the department to the University community and the general public. James has taken the lead in working with the architects to design the gallery space, develop plans for innovative exhibit opportunities, and to modernize collections storage.”

Doyle holds a doctorate in anthropology from Brown University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Pre-Columbian Studies at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he said he has always been interested in the past and “the layers of things we live on top of.”

That interest became a professional calling the summer after his first year in college, which Doyle spent in Guatemala on an excavation project led by one of his archeology professors. “I was hooked,” Doyle said. He returned to Guatemala for his dissertation fieldwork, collaborating with local archaeologists and communities, which led to numerous publications on ancient Maya art and architecture. His interests broadened through the years to encompass working with museum collections and public education about the Indigenous civilizations of the Americas, which led him to his former position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There he worked on major exhibitions ranging from art of the ancestral Caribbean region to ancient Maya gods to historic Native American art. “I am interested in sharing my passion, and this new challenge gives me a chance to do that.

“Anthropology is the study of people, so an anthropology museum shows everything about people and created by people in narrative ways,” he continued. “What we have at the Matson talks about the development of humans as a species and the exciting things we can learn from our bones or ancient DNA, or from the art and clothing and vessels of people from all over the world. How can we see ourselves as the inheritors of people’s traditions? The new Matson in the new Welch Building will be a flexible, high-quality space for discovery and exploration of the wonderful, diverse history of humankind.”