​ As many of you know, Bead Society of Greater Washington (BSGW) Member Barbara Cade Pringle has worked tirelessly and heroically over the course of several years to find a secure home for BSGW's Bead Timeline.  It is now permanently housed and curated at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, and access is also available online. Links are in cranberry on this page.

Because of her sustained efforts Barbara now reports the following important milestone:
​
"The Bead Society of Greater Washington gifts of funds to catalogue the Timeline donation have borne fruit.  All beads on the Timeline have now been registered in the Yale Peabody Museum catalogue, which means that photos of the beads plus basic information about each one (or group) will be accessible on the Internet."

Our thanks once again, to Barbara Pringle for finding the appropriate home for the BSGW's important collection where it will be cared for and shared widely for all who may be interested in and love beads.

The Bead Timeline of History

The Bead Museum in Washington, DC, opened the exhibit of The Bead Timeline of History in 2000.  Our 38-foot exhibit displayed over 5,000 beads in their historical, geographical, and cultural contexts dating from as far back as 10,000 BCE up until to today.  Created with permission from Lois Sherr Dubin, whose fold-out “Bead Chart:  A Time Line of Bead History” in her landmark book, 'The History of Beads from 30,000 B.C. to the Present', had already inspired two previous timelines with real beads, it was co-curated by Jamey D. Allen and Dr. James Lankton.  It became the core of the Bead Museum’s permanent collection.

​After the closing of the Bead Museum in Washington, DC, in January of 2008, the BSGW donated the Bead Timeline to the Peabody Museum at Yale University.  Presently, several panels of the Timeline are on exhibit in the Archaeology Department building, across from the Peabody Museum itself, in connection with current research being done by professors and students in the department. Click this link to reach articles on both the Timeline donation and the research now being done, in part by referring to the beads that are on it. Scholars from other institutions, both in the US and abroad are welcome to do research using beads on the Timeline by prior arrangement with the Museum.

​As our Timeline will always be a part of the BSGW, we are proud to give you an opportunity to visit it in its new home at the Peabody Museum by clicking the image below for an interactive experience:
For researchers seeking detailed information on the beads donated to the Timeline, ​​click the button below.
For an advanced search for beads specifically donated by the BSGW,
​type BSGW in the first field and a sub-category of your choice in one or both of the others.