William Sage is an alumnus of ASU, whose collection of nearly 350 artifacts was built during the early 1970s when he worked in Laos. Along with basketry, musical instruments, jewelry, betel nut paraphernalia, weapons, pipes and forms of money, Sage collected 18 complete ‘costumes’ from 11 different Lao ethnic groups. Sage’s collection is an attempt to represent the ethnic diversity of the country.
The William Sage Collection is held within the Anthropology Collections by the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (SHESC) at Arizona State University. If you would like more information on the collection, please contact Dr. Arleyn Simon, Curator of the SHESC Collections, at 480-965-6957 or via e-mail at Arleyn.Simon@asu.edu.
Mr. Sage also donated to the ASU Libraries Special Collections a substantial archive of textual and visual materials. A description of the William W. Sage Collection on Laos is available here.