Institute History
The Institute for Human Science & Culture was founded at the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology in the early 2010s. Following a generous gift from Jim and Vanita Oelschlager, the 3rd and 4th floors of the Cummings Center were renovated to include a stable storage facility and a dedicated gallery space to house and exhibit the Oak Native American Ethnographic Collection. The Institute opened to the public in September 2019.
Along with the Oak Native American Gallery, the Institute boasts a large, rotating-exhibition space named for Dr. Lynn R. Metzger, a cultural anthropologist and community leader who forged the connection between the Oelschlagers, the Oak Collection, and The University of Akron prior to the founding of the Institute.
In addition to the Oak Collection, the Institute houses three more key collections, each of which belonged to individual collectors before being donated to the University to be used as educational tools for campus and community.
- In 2018, the institute received the Lee L. Forman Collection of Bags from the Forman family.
- In 2019, the David P. Campbell Postcard Collection was assigned to the Institute and housed in a library open to the public. This collection was originally donated to the Archives for the History of American Psychology in 2010.
- In 2022, the Charles and Lucy Voris Baird Collection was transferred from Myers School of Art—a collection originally donated to the University in 1939.
Did You Know?
The Institute for Human Science and Culture is located on the ancestral lands of many Indigenous Nations, which include:
- Ohio Onödowága—“the People of the Great Hill” (Seneca)
- Ohio Gayogohó:no'—“the People of the Great Swamp” (Cayuga)
- Lënapeyok / Wënamiyok—“the Original People” (Lenni Lenape /Delaware)
- Myaamiaki / Mihtohseeniaki—“the Downstream People” (Miami)
- Sawanwa—“the People of the South” (Shawnee)
- Waⁿdát—“the Dwellers of the Peninsula” (Wyandot/Wyandotte/Wendat/Huron)
- Odawaa—“the People who Trade” (Ottawa/Odawa/ Odowa)
- Anishinaabeg—“the True People” (Chippewa/Ojibwe/Ojibway).
These lands were ceded in the 1805 Treaty of Fort Industry and tribes forcibly removed through the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
The Institute works closely with an Indigenous Advisory Council and other Indigenous scholars. Learn more about the Oak Collection.