The George Washington University/Smithsonian Institution Anthropology for Teachers Program
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Selig, Ruth
setName: label: See more items in
content: Ruth O. Selig papers
label: See more items in
content: Ruth O. Selig papers / Series 3: Outreach
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1978-1983
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2024-02, Subseries 3.2
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Folders focus on the GWU/SI Department of Anthropology's Anthropology for Teachers Program (AFTP), funded by the National Science Foundation from 1978-1982, which included a two-semester course, a museum-based Resource Center of Anthropology Teaching Materials, evening lectures, and AnthroNotes, the National Museum of Natural History Publication for Teachers. In addition to the NSF grant proposals and admission questionnaires filled out by the applicants, the largest subseries section focuses on the course, which included four monthly topics, each topic the focus of an introductory lecture; a week devoted to teaching activities; a Saturday morning session for all three classes of teachers gathered at a central location (some shown in photos and slides); and a week during which teachers shared their teaching units prepared for their own classes incorporating the monthly topic. The graduate level course was offered by GWU's College of Arts and Sciences, but documents reflect the 1982 decision of the federal government to cut all NSF funding for the Pre-College Teacher Development in Science Program, resulting in the cancellation of the second two years of a 3-year 1981 grant. The Smithsonian's Education Outreach Fund provided funding for 1982-83, including the cost of AnthroNotes. In 1983 Selig took a one-year leave of absence, moving to Laramie, Wyoming with her husband. 

A decade later, several boxes of materials related to the GWU/SI teacher training program were sent to NAA by Department of Anthropology staff. These boxes were accessioned (NAA 1992-05), but not processed. In the fall of 2023, Selig determined that this material included multiple copies of NSF grant proposals, and other folders duplicated her own records, as well as administrative records that did not need to be retained. The few unique materials (program applications to the program and teachers' program evaluations) Selig incorporated into her collection.