The Museum's collections from the South American continent were founded with the materials collected from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Spectacular objects from the Inca and Colonial periods are represented by the Montez collection from that period. Likewise, some of the earliest scientific excavations were undertaken in conjunction with the W.C.E., including George Dorsey's excavations at Ancon, Peru, and Isla de la Plata, Ecuador. Later additions to the scientifically excavated collections include the two Captain Marshall Field expeditions to Peru conducted by Alfred Kroeber, J. Alden Mason's excavations in Colombia, and Donald Collier's work in Peru and Ecuador. Today, museum scientists continue to conduct research in South America and we continue a tradition of ethnographic collection that began with the W.C.E. expeditions in the last decade of the 19th century.
