Neal, Arminta

Arminta Pearl "Skip" Neal was an influential exhibits designer and assistant director of the Denver Museum of Natural History, now the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. With the needs of the museum visitor always in mind, Neal designed, produced and supervised most of the exhibits created between her hiring by the Museum in 1950 and her retirement in 1982. Under her watch, exhibits were transformed from merely informational to interpretive displays.

Neal was born on August 12, 1921, in El Paso, Texas. Her family moved to southern California in 1923, and after what she described as a happy childhood she graduated from the University of California-Los Angeles with a fine arts degree. During World War II, she served in the Women's Army Corps, attaining the rank of Sergeant, and was awarded the Army Commendation Ribbon for her service.

After the war, Neal's museum career began when she was hired by the Denver Art Museum to do watercolor drawings of artifacts. Working under Frederic Douglas, curator of North American Indian art and renowned authority on Native American culture, Neal was introduced to many leading museologists and anthropologists. During this time, she also took anthropology classes at the University of Denver (DU). She prepared her first miniature dioramas for the art museum and her classes. In 1974, she received her MA in anthropology from DU, writing her thesis on the use of masks by the eastern band of Cherokee.

After a brief stint at the Colorado State Historical Society, where she worked in the exhibits department, Neal joined the staff at DMNH in 1950. In addition to her enormous influence on the exhibits, Neal also was instrumental in founding the museum's Native American Advisory Council, one of the first of its kind in the country, and wrote two influential books on museum exhibition: Help! For the Small Museum and Exhibits for the Small Museum . She was twice elected to the council of the American Association of Museums, and from 1973-1979 she was one of 15 elected members of the United States Executive Committee of the International Council of Museums. In 1973, she was appointed to a three-year term on the Smithsonian Institution Advisory Council for administration of the National Museum Act.

Under UNESCO sponsorship, Neal traveled to Nigeria in 1981 to teach a course on museum exhibition, and in 1982 she was appointed a Fulbright Professor and taught in Peru.

Neal was a singer, an artist and a teacher of art as well as a seasoned traveler and camper. Just months before her death, she retraced a portion of the Lewis and Clark trail. A lifelong lesbian, she also funded a grants program to support lesbian creativity.

She died in September 2003.

From the guide to the Arminta Neal Papers, 1940-1995, (Denver Museum of Nature & Science, )