Searching for Boas and Mead - A Mis-Adventure at the American Museum of Natural History

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to New York City for a few days. I went up the Sunday of MLK weekend and had a few hours to kill before my boyfriend got off work. So, I decided that it would be the perfect time to check out a museum I had never been to but had wanted to visit for ages: the American Museum of Natural History.

Being a rainy, holiday weekend, I knew that it would be busy. But having grown up in D.C. and having experience holiday weekends at multiple Smithsonians, I figured it wouldn't be too terrible. I was wrong. 

It was by far the one of the most hectic museums I have ever been in. I'm not sure if it was because of the sheer number of visitors, being short on staff, or something else. But I was not the only one to notice it. 

One of the main reasons I was excited for the museum was to see the ethnographic collections brought back from all over the country, and the world, by early American anthropologists. I had studied them in grad school and was excited to see what the museum had on display. 

I went over to the information desk and asked the ladies there if there were any exhibits on the work of Franz Boas or Margaret Mead or their collections. I was informed that there were not. I was confused and asked if there were any displays on anthropology in general. I was told - in a very snippy manner - that there were not.

And then I found this...

"The Hall of Northwest Coast Indians" - The oldest exhibit in the museum, with objects collected and curated by then museum curator Franz Boas. 

While I was excited to find this amazing hall with so many interesting objects from the American Indians of the Northwest Coast, I was shocked that I had been told by the people at the information desk that it did not exist. 

Having read Captured Heritage: The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts in grad school, I explored the hall with great interest. From the masks and ceremonial clothing to the variety of wooden cavings, the exhibit has an amazing collection of Northwest Coast objects. 

However, throughout my exploration of the hall, I over heard quite a few odd and off-putting statements from some of the other visitors. Some people likened the carvings to those they had in their backyard (via the Home Depot), while others complained about exhibit's age. While it was not the shiniest exhibit and there were no interactive touch screens, it does represent a very important time in American anthropology and museum studies. 

I left the hall more quickly than I would have normally, because I wanted to catch the free museum tour, which I had seen advertised in multiple places around the museum. 

I got to the meeting spot around 3:00pm, insuring that I would have plenty of time before the tour started. A few other people were waiting around the sign, too. But 3:15 came and went, without any signs of a docent. I went to ask the security guards about the tour and was informed that I must have missed it, even though I had been there 15 minutes before it began. I went back to the sign, thinking the docent might simply be running late.

I began talking with the other people who were still waiting at the sign. They had been waiting even longer than I had and we all were very disappointed that the tour did not happen. No one from the museum offered any explanation. I found out that the other people waiting for the tour were also avid museum goers and that they had so far had similar experiences to mine at AMNH. 

While we debated whether or not it was because of the rain, a lack of staff, or the amount of visitors in the museum, we all agreed that something was off. 

After saying goodbye to my fellow museum enthusiasts, I set off to explore the rest of the museum.

I explored the newly refurbished dioramas, which seemed to be a favorite with many of the young museum patrons.

I couldn't believe how detailed some of the landscapes were!

Then it was time to go and find the dinosaurs. They seemed to be one of the main highlights of the museum (even my mom told me to go say hi to them for her!). 

And I have to admit, the exhibit was pretty cool. No matter how old I get, I will always love a good dinosaur display. There was one issue in this exhibit, however, that seems to come up in almost any dinosaur related display. So to deal with it, I'm just going to say one thing here:

Archeologists do NOT dig dinosaurs. Paleontologists do. 

I'm hoping eventually people will get this right, but until then, I will just have to bite my tongue each time a parent tells their 4 or 5 year old all about how archaeologists dig up dinosaurs with pick axes. 

From there, I went to look at more of the exhibits on the different American Indian cultures. 

These exhibits were a little less crowded than the dinosaurs and gems, but were still pretty busy. Again, I heard some slightly off-putting comments from a few visitors, but I tried to block those out when looking at the different dioramas. 

As I made my way to my final exhibit, the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples, I noticed that the crowds were almost as large here as they had been by the dinosaurs. I was a bit confused about this, but then I realized that the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) moai cast was in the exhibit. It seems that the movie Night at the Museum has increased visitation to this particular object. 

(I also thought about how I had asked the women at the Information Desk specifically about Margaret Mead and told there was nothing in the museum about her work, only to find a very popular the exhibit hall named after her...)

I stayed in the entrance hall for a little while, reading the panels on Margaret Mead and her cape and walking stick, and watching a video about her life. She was such an important figure in American anthropology - and anthropology in general - that I was excited to see how she was described by the people who knew her best: her students and co-workers. 

While watching the video, I was shocked at how many times I was physically run into by other visitors. I was standing in front of the video screen, as close to it as I could without blocking it from others, and I was bumped into six different times. No one apologized; no one seemed to realize that I was actively engaging with part of the exhibit. Honestly, I'm not really sure how many people realized that the displays in that hallway were connected with the hall they were exiting. 

While I could understand it if it had been children, I was mostly run into by adults. It was disheartening how many people seemed to have so little regard for their fellow museum goer. Or the exhibits in that hallway.

After I finished watching the video, I made my way into the exhibit hall. I was greeted with so many amazing objects from the different regions of the Pacific. And a very large crowd of adults and children surrounding the Rapa Nui moai cast- or "Dumb Dumb" as most people were referring to the object. 

While I am very glad that so many people were excited about seeing this amazing object, I was horrified by some of the actions I saw. I saw many people touching the cast. Parents were encouraging their children to hug the giant object for pictures. Yes, it is a cast of the original object, but it should still be treated with respect. There were no security measures taken to prevent this that I  could see (although I couldn't get very close because of the crowd). No security guard came by to tell visitors that they should not touch the object. 

In fact, one of the main issues I had throughout the entire museum was how many objects people were touching. From the carvings in the Hall of Northwest Coast Indians, to some of the skeletons in the dinosaur exhibit, to the Rapa Nui moai, it was actually quite shocking. And it was not just children, but adults - both young and old. I don't know if this is because there were fewer security guards than I would expect to have seen on such a busy weekend or if it is because there is a larger issue in our society, where people are don't realize that they shouldn't touch certain types of objects in a museum (unless it was specifically designed to be touched, with a "Please touch" label). 

Either way, I was shocked by my experience at the American Museum of Natural History. This museum is regarded as one of the best natural history museums in the world and I had high expectations for it. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. 

It is possible that it is all because they were short staffed on a very busy day. I would like to go back and see if I would have a different experience on a quieter day. Or if this is a more serious issue.

Sorry again about the poor quality pictures. I did not bring my D-SLR to New York and I am kicking myself for it. I promise, the next entry will have higher quality pictures. 

On a positive note: for those of you who want to explore a museum but are traveling and have luggage with you, don't forget that many museums will check bags along with coats and umbrellas. For only $2, I was able to check my overnight bag, coat, and umbrella.

What makes us human? The Hall of Human Origins

Sorry its been so long since my last post, but I promise I will get more consistent with my writing schedule. So, to get back to exploring exhibits after a summer of research and moving, I decided to check out the Hall of Human Origins at the National Museum of Natural History. What could be more DC than a trip to the Smithsonian (and the Natural History museum has always been one of my favorites).

 Opened in March of 2010, the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins explores the story of human evolution over the past 6 million years.

To enter the exhibit, visitors must pass through a tunnel, which is reminiscent of images from the Back to the Future movies and other instances of time traveling seen in popular culture. As you walk through the short tunnel, with LED lights along the top of the tunnel and different images of early hominins and hominids flashing past on the video screens, it is possible to imagine that you have been - momentarily - transported to a different places and time.

 Video screens on both sides of the tunnel show visitors different stages of human evolution, although almost no description is given to these scenes. The videos, along with the tunnel itself, seem to transport the exhibit visitors in to the distant past, creating a type of physical barrier between the exhibit and the rest of the museum. 

As you move through the exhibit, it becomes evident that the curators wanted to connect the visitor to the exhibit in a personal way. Through a constructivist approach (allowing the visitor to make their own path around the exhibit, asking questions without a definite/finite answer, putting the patron in the exhibit in different ways), the curators were able address why different stages of evolution should matter to modern visitors, and thus connect with their audience. 

By using broad questions and statements, the label text throughout the exhibit is designed to draw the visitor into the rest of the didactic, by evoking both curiosity and emotional responses from the visitor. From simples questions that mankind has struggled with for lifetimes, like "what does it mean to be human?".... 

...to placing the visitor on a family tree, something so familiar to us today, but made so different because of the other branches surrounding our own. 

The exhibit is also has many interactive areas, from discerning the difference between early fossilized footprints (can you find the Australopithecus afarensis?)

to solving archaeological mysteries from Shanidar Cave, where Neanderthal burials were discovered. 

There are also sculptures scattered throughout the exhibit of different hominins carrying out ordinary, everyday tasks, another way to evoke an emotional connection from the exhibit visitor. These statues include a Paranthropus boisei gathering food and a Homo heidelbergenisis (below) sitting next to a fire. 

Around the exhibit are more traditional didactic panels - in contrast with the more interactive panels - that cover various aspects of life, from body shapes to social life. 

These panels still maintain some interactive aspects, mainly in the form of asking different questions of visitors. 

They even created an app that allows visitors to transform themselves into an earlier hominin.

Here I am as a Homo neanderthalensis! (don't all Neanderthals were red lipstick?)

One of the most interesting parts of the exhibit for me was the section on early art. Using images from cave paintings from around the world, the curators were able to show that art - often considered a defining characteristic society and mankind itself - has been an important part of the evolutionary story. Yet another connection between the visitor and the subject of the exhibit. 

At the end of the exhibit, the visitor is greeted with the fact that the story of human evolution is not complete. By showing how we continue to manipulate our environment and how that in turns effects both our culture and physical bodies, the exhibit comes full circle. The visitor is brought back to the present at the end by a very simple device: a electronic screen displaying a number. The number is constantly changing, increasing as the visitors stand there. It displays the current population of the world. Once again, putting the person standing there (who is one of those billions of people) into the story of human evolution. 

I want to briefly apologize for the low quality of my pictures in the post. I was using a non-flash setting that was not working as well as I had hoped.