Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition (RBMVE), 1933-38 – The Last Great Expedition: A reunion and a look forward to an exciting, large-scale collaborative venture. The RBMVE was a multi-disciplinary scientific expedition that worked in Arizona and Utah during the heart of the Depression and remains a primary example of the power behind corporate support, an innovation pursued by the director o
r RBMVE, Ansel Hall. Archaeologists, biologists, geologists and other scientists worked with college students and Navajo residents to gather information on a larger scale than ever before and over a vast area of previously unmapped, isolated canyons and mesas that was just beginning to be the focus of national attention through tourism and the movies. The Expedition not only made significant contributions to science but also had a lasting effect upon the lives of the participants. The output included thousands of feet of film, thousands of photographs, glass lantern slides, the material from over 600 sites, and much more. It is spread amongst numerous institutions and individuals, as are the stories there are yet to tell. This inaugural conference, organized by the new non-profit, RBMVE-Onward!, was held at the Center for Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, in Durango, Colorado, during the weekend of October 10-12. The gathering of sixty represented the unique perspectives informed by the many and varied interests and backgrounds of the original participants--with some contemporary additions. The aim of the meeting was to share collective resources related to RBMVE, discuss the approach for a multi-venue exhibition, and talk about the application of innovative and relevant new technologies for exhibit presentation. Presentations related to content were given by a range of RBMVE content holders, stakeholders, collaborators, scientists, archaeologists, historians, native community representatives, and families of original participants introducing the extraordinary breadth and impact of the Expedition, its history, and its archives. There are many layers of stories to tell and rich data to mine from multiple archives as well as the many studies undertaken through the decades utilizing RBMVE material since the original Expedition took place in the 1930’s. Discussions following the sessions encouraged the connections we can make and the powerful potential that is possible with collaboration on a grand scale. The extraordinary breadth of material output by the Expedition has made it difficult to synthesize into a single project--until now. The afternoon sessions were devoted to digital frontiers and how we can harness the power of cutting-edge digital technologies to advance the mission of RBMVE-Onward! to bridge the divide between advanced landscape modeling and popular visualization technologies to help museum audiences and scholars understand the multidimensionality and multivocality of the RBMVE. The conference achieved its primary goal of obtaining commitments from a core group of institutions and individuals to participate in an unparalleled sharing of time, information, data and other resources as a primary step towards a very large cooperative venture. The result of this collaboration is intended to be unprecedented access to the depth and of the information and stories about the subject matter of the Expedition. It is believed that this process will also allow for the identification of previously uncharted aspects of this history. is intrinsically suitable for the large-scale collaboration that the original Expedition represented. It will allow for the natural reunification of these many fragmented and isolated segments of the Expedition’s output to come back together into one robust, deep and whole consideration of the history of the place and events. It is anticipated that the value of each individual collection will be greatly enhanced by the context provided by the collaboration. intends that the digital component we create will have multiple educational applications and new opportunities for scholarship far beyond the life of the exhibition program. We aim to provide an ease of access to a wide range of the subject matter representing a significant piece of history in the American Southwest through the narratives held in the Rainbow-Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition.
