Four Things I Learned at The Field Museum

Here's a confession. Despite having lived in Manhattan for almost 15 years, I've never stepped foot in the American Museum of Natural History. Dinosaurs just aren't my thing. And truth be told, history--natural or other--isn't either. But an exhibit about the work of Jane Goodall proved sufficiently enticing to get me through the doors of The Field Museum during our recent trip to Chicago. It was a good outing. Here are four things I learned while there.

Jane Goodall totally kicked ass -- with a chaperone in tow. Yes, you read that right. Goodall had to have a chaperone when she first went to Africa (circa 1960) because she was 23 and unmarried. So her mother went with her. Consider my mind blown. I still can't quite figure out what her role was in the middle of a jungle. Now that I have that out of my system...

The exhibit took us through Goodall's extraordinary life in an engaging way. Her hologram even spoke to us directly about her experiences in Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park. (It was both cool and eerie.)  I loved learning some of the details of Goodall's early life, like that her first stuffed animal was a chimpanzee and that she believed that Tarzan had married the wrong Jane. The stage was set early. 

Goodall's initial breakthrough was made with the help of David Greybeard, her favorite chimp. While observing him one day, he stripped the leaves from a stem and used it to fish for termites in a termite mound. Yes, the chimp had fashioned a tool to make his life easier. The discovery led Dr. Louis Leakey, Goodall's mentor, to declare, "Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as human." 

If you're in the Chicago area, the exhibit is definitely worth taking the time to see. National Geographic also produced a film about Goodall's life that was culled from over 100 hours of footage. (Note: Goodall married the National Geographic photographer/videographer who came to Gombe to chronicle her work.) Click here for info about the film and to watch the trailer. https://films.nationalgeographic.com/jane-the-movie#watch-the-trailer

Fighting African Elephants by Carl Akeley

Carl Akeley's Fighting African Elephants has been called "the Sistine Chapel of taxidermy." Call me predictable. You throw in an art reference and my interest picks up. Anyway... Like Goodall, Akeley's interest in his chosen career began early. The story goes that young Carl's first attempt at taxidermy came when he stuffed a neighbor's pet canary that had died unexpectedly. I can only imagine her surprise when he presented it to her. 

At the age of 18, Akeley went to work as a junior taxidermist for Professor Henry Ward at Ward's Natural Science Establishment. While the job provided a good foundation, Akeley was dissatisfied with Ward's approach to taxidermy, calling it "the upholsterer's method of mounting animals." In his free time, Akeley worked to find better methods to preserve the animals' skin and to hide the seams in mounted animals. Today Akeley is considered the father of modern taxidermy for his revolutionary developments. 

Akeley was still working for Ward when P.T. Barnum retained the Establishment to preserve his beloved elephant Jumbo, who had died in a train accident. When Marshall Field of The Field Museum wanted to feature two African elephants at his museum, Akeley was the logical choice for the job. (Conveniently, Akeley was Chief Taxidermist for the Museum in 1905 when Field got his hankering.) 

Carl and his wife Delia set off to Africa for their prey. (In fact, it was Delia who took down the larger of the two elephants on their safari. To see Delia Akeley with her elephant, click here.) The elephants -- along with a dinosaur -- greet visitors to the Field to this day. For some lively videos about the Fighting African Elephants and to see what goes into conserving them, click here and here. Emily Graslie and her Brain Scoop truly makes science fun. 

"An Indonesian Cockfight" 
by Malvina Hoffman

The Museum is confronting the racism of a historic exhibit. Back in the 1930s, the Museum commissioned Malvina Hoffman to create sculptures for an exhibit to be titled "The Races of Mankind." The original idea was that multiple artists would divide up the project and that the sculptures would be painted plastic molds with real hair and glass eyes. Hoffman didn't agree with either approach. She believed the use of multiple artists would create an undesirable inconsistency among the sculptures. And as a former student of Auguste Rodin, she throught bronze statues were the way to go. 

Hoffman successfully argued her first point and was retained as the sole sculptor for the project. She decided to leave the second issue for another day. After completing some of her travels in search of the "racial types" her sculptures were intended to portray, Hoffman presented Mr. Field with two bronze examples of what she proposed to create. Mr. Field and the Museum's  Board of Directors unanimously approved the change in concept. After five years of travel and work, the collection contained 104 sculptures -- 27 life-size statues, 27 busts and 50 heads. "The Races of Mankind" was continually on display until 1969 when it was dismantled because its premise -- that physical differences could be used to categorize people into races -- had been proven to be inaccurate scientifically. 

Fast forward to today when 50 of Hoffman's works are back on display under the title "Looking at Ourselves: Rethinking the Sculptures of Malvina Hoffman." The Museum has taken great efforts to individualize the people shown and to include specificity as to their ethnicity and identity. Context is often provided as well. Take, for instance, "An Indonesian Cockfight." The display explains that this sculpture depicts individuals from four of Indonesia's 17,000 islands - Bali, Madura, Java and Borneo. The models for this work were found in Paris where Hoffman's studio was located. The mother was a Balinese dancer and wears a traditional batik skirt; the man in the loincloth was a waiter working at a Balinese restaurant. (No information was available on the other two people.) The display further explains that cockfights are a centuries old Balinese tradition believed to chase away evil spirits and to bring blessings to the harvest. The practice is illegal today outside of religious settings. 

With information like this in hand, viewers can learn about the lives of the people portrayed rather than focus on their physical characteristics. Kudos to the Museum for undertaking the work required to both restore the sculptures and to provide appropriate context for them. For more about Hoffman's work, click here for an interesting article from Art News. 

 

I didn't missing my calling as a pilot.  Always up for an experience, I hopped right onto this full body VR ride so I could get up close and personal with some dinosaurs. I lost control of my aircraft multiple times and crashed into mountains and trees and water. I found myself loudly swearing like a sailor despite knowing small children were the vicinity. 

The worst part was not the abject sense of failure but the overwhelming dizziness and nausea. (Even looking at this picture makes my head spin a bit.) I actually had the operator stop my flight before the three minutes were over! Happily, both Deb and Libbie proved to be much more adept pilots than I. 

All in all, it was a good field trip. (Get it? Feel free to moan.) And who knows? I might even make it to the American Museum of Natural History one of these days.