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Copyright by Katherine Morris Boeckman December 2018 A PARADIGM SHIFT IN AFRICAN CULTURAL EXHIBITS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY __________________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts University of Houston ___________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts ___________________ by Katherine Morris Boeckman December 2018 A PARADIGM SHIFT IN AFRICAN CULTURAL EXHIBITS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ___________________________ Katherine Morris Boeckman APPROVED: ___________________________ Rex Koontz, Ph.D. Committee Chair ____________________________ Sandra Zalman, Ph.D. ____________________________ James Conyers, Ph.D. ________________________ Andrew Davis, Ph.D. Dean, Kathrine G. McGovern College of Arts A PARADIGM SHIFT IN AFRICAN CULTURAL EXHIBITS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY __________________ An Abstract of a Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts University of Houston ___________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts ___________________ by Katherine Morris Boeckman December 2018 Abstract As the National Museum, the Smithsonian Institution echoes American identity and promotes U.S. values. In a 1999 article, From Dioramas to Dialogics: A Century of Exhibiting African at the Smithsonian, anthropology curator, Mary Jo Arnoldi stated that the 1967 Cultures of Africa exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History was outdated the day it opened. I examine how curators’ reluctance to abandon 19th century evolution theories for this 1967 exhibition, may have reflected one side of a cultural discourse over race that has been ongoing for most of the century. African hall displays that came before and after the 1967 installation are analyzed with coeval developments in African exhibitions outside the Smithsonian. Changes in American mainstream thought about race may be indicated in a paradigm shift in museum narratives, for the 1997 African Voices exhibition, as Africans are finally allowed to tell their own story. v Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................v List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................ vii Introduction ..........................................................................................................................x Chapter 1: Cultural Evolution and the Taxonomic Shift .....................................................1 Chapter 2: Arnoldi’s Time Machine ..................................................................................47 Chapter 3: Tu Wa Moja and a Paradigm Shift ...................................................................97 Endnotes ..........................................................................................................................147 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................182 vi List of Illustrations 1.1 Exhibit Hall in new United States National Museum ....................................................4 1.2 Wolof Man. Smithsonian ethnology exhibit, circa 1915 ...............................................5 1.3 Life Groups on Display: Zulu diorama ..........................................................................6 1.4 Installation view of “Statuary in Wood by African Savages” .....................................10 1.5 Interior of Arensberg’s Apartment, New York ............................................................12 1.6 Cover, Primitive Negro Art, Chiefly from the Belgian Congo .....................................14 1.7 Typological arrangement of African objects ...............................................................16 1.8 “Primitive Negro Art”: View of African gallery. .......................................................16 1.9 Installation view of “Primitive Negro Art” ..................................................................17 1.10 Spoons. “Primitive Negro Art” exhibition .................................................................18 1.11 South Wall, Room 22. Barnes Foundation ................................................................23 1.12 Barnes Foundation Master, Inagaki. Seated Couple ..................................................25 1.13 View of the Ward Collection exhibit .........................................................................31 1.14 “Weapons of Central Africa” .....................................................................................32 1.15 Case with carved figures ............................................................................................35 1.16 Herbert Ward. Defiance, 1909 ...................................................................................36 1.17 Herbert Ward, Sleeping Africa, 1902 .........................................................................37 1.18 “African Negro Art” installation view .......................................................................40 1.19 African Negro Art Catalogue .....................................................................................42 2.1 “The Bushman Diorama” .............................................................................................50 2.2 “Zulu Diorama” ...........................................................................................................51 vii 2.3 “The Lunda Initiation Dance” ......................................................................................51 2.4 “Iron Artifacts from Northern Cameroon” ..................................................................53 2.5 “African Arts: Old and New” exhibit ..........................................................................54 2.6 African-American Fife & Drum .................................................................................63 2.7 Master Weaver Ngaharin Lebitileg Nguru Basket Weavers Group ...........................67 2.8 The Anacostia Historical Society at the Carver Theater ..............................................69 2.9 “Couple Enjoys ‘Black Wings’ exhibit”, Anacostia Museum .....................................69 2.10 “The Rat: Man’s Invited Affliction”, .........................................................................71 2.11 “Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner” .............................................................75 2.12 The Gullah Ring Shout ..............................................................................................75 2.13 Warren Robbins instructs with his “focus exhibits” ..................................................76 2.14 Catalogue, African Art: The de Havenon Collection .................................................78 2.15 Ekoi Headdress ..........................................................................................................81 2.16 Catalogue, Tribute to Africa .....................................................................................83 2.17 Portrait of Kubanyim Mbopey Mabiintsh ma‐Kyeen ...............................................84 2.18 Catalogue, The Sculptor’s Eye ...................................................................................86 2.19 Installation view of “African Textiles and Decorative Arts.”....................................89 2.20 Installation view of “African Textiles and Decorative Arts.”....................................90 2.21 “African Art of the Dogon: The Lester Wunderman Collection” .............................92 3.1 Installation view of “Primitivism’ in 20th Century Art” ...........................................104 3.2 Picasso’s “Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon” hung next to African masks. ..................104 3.3 “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art installation view .................................................104 3.4 “Primitivism” Catalogue: Tusyan Mask and Bird-Head ...........................................106 viii 3.5 Installation view of Marble Stone Circle by Richard Long .......................................107 3.6 Installation view of “African Negro Art.” .................................................................110 3.7 “African Voices” Floorplan .......................................................................................124 3.8 Chewa Kasiyamaliro Mask ........................................................................................127 3.9 “African Paper Currency Interactive” ........................................................................127 3.10 “Toys from Congo, Ghana, Mali, and Rwanda” ......................................................128 3.11 “African Muslims Rule Spain” ................................................................................128 3.12 “Mud cloth mini skirt ensemble” .............................................................................131 3.13 Somali aqal...............................................................................................................133 3.14 Mudmason still from Masons of Djenne video........................................................135 3.15 “Masons of Djenne” .................................................................................................136 3.16 “Airplane Coffin by Paa Joe” ..................................................................................138 3.17 “Model of Ernestina