$3 Million Renovations Begin At Harvard's Peabody Museum

The Peabody Museum of Archacology and Ethnology last month launched an 18-month, 53 million overhead which should transform the nation's oldest archacological muscum into the nation's must advanced, Peabody Director C.C. Lamberg Karlovsky said yesterday.

The two main aspects in the renovation of the 108-year-old building are the computerization of the museum's collection and the installation of a new sliding shelf system, only recently adopted by archaeological museums.

Lamberg-Kariovsky said the Peabody improvements would match those made three years ago at the Field Museum in Chicago where the innovations, were first implemented. But be said Peabody would avoid several logistical problems experiences at the Field.

Field officials served as consultants in planning the work a Peabody to help prevent problems with the computer system and the self system be added.

Although Lamberg-Karlosky would not detail how much money for the project would come from the Harvard Campaign and museum resources, he said that 5600,000 had been raised from the sale of 65 sketches' to the Canadian government four years ago.

The largest amount of money will be spent on the "compactor storage" shelving system, which will; permit the museum to organize systematically and safely she collection previously stored unprotected in century-old cartons, shelves and cabinets, the director said.

Without the roll-away shelves and compensation. Peabody has been like Widener library without a catalog, he added.

More than one third of the museum's space is being rebuild to accomodate the new equipment, including the enter basement and attic which have in the past been disorganized and inefficient, according to museum officials.

The flurry of activity brought numerous inconveniences, but everyone at the Museum seems to accept the problems as an expected part of the renovation process still in Its preliminary stages.

A recurring problem has been the temporary loss of electricity of phone service caused by the inadvertent cutting of lines by workers who have not had the luxury of following blueprints to the building.