The Museum of Northern Arizona is a museum in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, established as a repository for Indigenous material and natural history specimens from the Colorado Plateau.

The museum was founded in 1928 by zoologist Dr. Harold S. Colton and artist Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is dedicated to preserving the history and cultures of northern Arizona and the Colorado Plateau.

The museum has a cultural and research center, the Colton House, located outside of Flagstaff and is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museums program.

History

Harold Sellers Colton a zoology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton moved to Flagstaff in 1926, helping found the Museum of Northern Arizona in 1928. Harold became director and Marry-Russell became curator of art and ethnology.^[1]

In 1930, Katharine Bartlett, a physical anthropologist from Denver, became curator and would remain so for the next 51 years.

The private, nonprofit organization grew from two rooms in the Flagstaff Woman's Club to a 24,700-square-foot Exhibits building. Research and collections facilities are adjacent. The Ethnology Gallery focuses on the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and Pai tribes.^[2]