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Museum curators led development of the discipline of anthropology in the late nineteenth century, and at the same time developed foundational systems for cataloguing cultural materials. Although entering and accessing catalogue information now relies on keyboards rather than inkwells, the earliest systems continue to influence our understanding of objects. Among the most influential of the early systems was that of the Smithsonian's United States National Museum (USNM), with its first anthropological catalogue entry dating to 1859. Analysis of the material culture of the ubiquitous catalogue books of American museums both before and after the establishment of the USNM system reveals its wide and lasting impact. This system normalized certain fields as essential and disciplined data accordingly, resisting alternate ideas about information offered by donors and by later developments in anthropology. While many museums have now moved through successive generations of information management systems, the effect of early data choices has seldom been examined.

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A distinct form of Plains Indian historical narrative, the recounting of war deeds known as coup, was once produced through two linked forms of expression: oral recitation and pictorial representation. Many nineteenth-century examples of the visual component have survived, now separated from their oral component. A rare example in which both narrative strands have been preserved presents an opportunity to examine the types of information included in each, to consider the ways in which the different strands were deployed toward social ends, and to gain insights into Lakota historical consciousness. The materials were created by the Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull in 1882 while a prisoner of the US Army.

Museum anthropology is a vigorous and growing perspective within anthropology. It applies insights from cultural anthropology to the assessment of how museums represent cultures, and increasingly looks to museum collections as the material record of cultures over time. It is a theoretical approach, distinct from technical aspects of museum operation, such as collections care and exhibit production, although in best practice, each informs the other. Degree programs in Museum Studies may include training in either theoretical museum anthropology or operational aspects, although more programs focus on the later aspect and are not specific to the discipline of anthropology.