Beloit College is well-known for its anthropology department and the learning opportunities provided by the Logan Museum, where each year over 1,000 students from diverse disciplines make use of the museum’s exhibits and collections for research and practice hands-on skills in object preservation. In 2025 anthropology at Beloit College marks several important milestones deserving of reflection and celebration.

George Collie, Logan Museum Curator and Department of Anthropology Chair.
Credit: Logan Museum of Anthropology

First, the Department of Anthropology commemorated its 100-year anniversary. Dr. George Collie, the Logan Museum’s first curator, served as the Department of Anthropology Chair in that inaugural year, cementing their connection and ongoing relationship. In the decades that followed, the Logan Museum continued to collect material to support the study of anthropology at Beloit College. For a century, students have engaged in object-based learning at the Logan Museum to reinforce what they learn in the classroom.

In June of 1925, twelve large paintings were unveiled in the Logan Museum. Together, they comprise the “History of Mankind” series still on display. Frank G. Logan and his wife Josephine commissioned the works created by Chicago-based artist John W. Norton. Norton relied on the feedback of curators and the Logans to ensure his depictions of the past met the museum’s standards. In an issue of The Beloit Alumnus, he writes: “…I have tried to make my designs, while not scientific in their intention, sufficiently truthful so that they may not be criticized as being scientifically false.”

The Norton Mural Series “History of Mankind” after debuting on the first floor of the Logan Museum in 1925
Credit: Logan Museum of Anthropology

In October of that year, more than 4,800 miles from Beloit College, another major milestone was making tracks in the sand. The Franco-American Logan Sahara expedition of 1925 was the first of several into the Algerian desert to collect archaeological artifacts and cultural material from the nomadic Tuareg people. Alonzo Pond, assistant curator at the Logan Museum, was one of the leaders of the expedition and responsible for systematically collecting one of the museum’s most robust collections. The community can learn more about the events of the 1925 expedition and why the media spectacle it created put Beloit in international headlines in the ongoing temporary exhibit, “Sahara of Mysteries”.

“We meet an incoming caravan,” photograph from the 1925 Franco-American expedition in Algeria.
Credit: Logan Museum of Anthropology

This year’s anniversaries were an opportunity to remember and reconnect, compare and evaluate past and present. Throughout fall semester, museum staff installed exhibits and hosted programs to showcase the pivotal events of 1925. “Sufficiently Truthful: The Norton Murals at 100,” the newest temporary exhibit in the Shaw Gallery, invites visitors to hear from the people who made the mural series possible, while reflecting on how anthropology and our understanding of human diversity has changed throughout the century.

“We are fortunate to have the depth of history in anthropology here at Beloit, where we can see the development of the discipline from its colonial roots to today. Celebrating these milestones is important because they put our current efforts to dispel myths about humans past and present into context,” says Leslie Williams, associate professor and co-chair of anthropology.

The public is invited to celebrate past and present with the Logan Museum by attending the Winter Open House and Pop-up Gift Sale on Friday, December 5, from 4-7 p.m. The exhibition galleries will be open and the museum staff will be serving up festive treats and beverages. The pop-up gift shop will include a variety of handcrafted and artisanal items from around the world.