Museum Practice: Confronting the Past

The Exhibition

Hoffman had created 104 sculptures—27 life-size, 27 busts, and 50 heads—for the exhibit. By 1969 the exhibition’s message about racial types was known to be scientifically inaccurate, and The Races of Mankind was deinstalled. By the time the exhibition was deinstalled, more than 10 million people had seen it—as well as its misguided message that human physical differences could be categorized into distinct "races". The exhibit was so influential that the statues became famous, and were reproduced in textbooks and maps.

Who decides what will be on display in an exhibition?

These sculptures were on display with very little information on who the individuals were.

How is Malvina's work and the exhibition's message scientifically inaccurate?

The 1933 exhibition promoted scientific racism, which defined a set of racial categories based on physical appearance. Having concluded that people belong to fundamentally different racial categories, it was only a short step to decide that they should be treated differently. 

Put yourself in Malvina's shoes. Opportunities for women in the 1930s to showcase their work was very limited. How might you feel if you were put in this position?
A San family from the Kalahari region of southern Africa
What stories were left out from this exhibit?

People in the San ethnic group are an example of that different treatment. Often depicted as “primitive,” or “stone age,” the San have repeatedly been forced off their land.  Today most San people live in or near the Kalahari desert. The San have a long history of using creativity to adapt to the harsh but fragile desert environment. Here, a woman holds her baby on her back and uses ostrich egg containers to store water. A man hunts with an arrow that may be poisoned with the larvae of leaf beetles.

CHECK IN: Has your thinking surrounding this topic changed at all? What are you feeling as you read about this exhibit?
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