Search

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Inquiry for Shared Stewardship and Ethical Return Form

This form should be used to guide specific inquiries to the Shared Stewardship and Ethical Returns Steering Committee. This committee, under the authority of the NMNH Shared Stewardship and Ethical Returns Policy, is led by the NMNH Office of the Registrar. You can utilize this web form to directly contact the Shared Stewardship and Ethical Returns team or you can submit the information requested below by email to NMNHEthicalStewards@si.edu..

Follow the prompts below to inform the Steering Committee of your request. In addition to this form, you are welcome to provide letters of support from the community, partner organization, or national body.

Be specific regarding the collection items, including history and origin, as well as your understanding of how items came to be in the possession of the NMNH. You may wish to consult the NMNH Collections Search page to provide identifying object names, catalog numbers or any other necessary details.

For example, are you a descendent or make claim to be the rightful owner? Are you affiliated with a cultural or governmental organization?

Be specific as possible.

If the NMNH finds evidence that the requested items fall within the SSER policy, are you or your institution interested in shared stewardship of the items or are you requesting a physical return of the material? Additionally, affiliated institutions or individuals may seek surrogates (images, reproductions, etc.) of the items under inquiry.

One file only.
100 MB limit.
Allowed types: txt rtf pdf doc docx odt ppt pptx odp xls xlsx ods.