7r" 

 The Pacific 



Field Museum's Newest 

 Permanent Exhibit 



by Phyllis Rabineau 

 Senior Exhibit Developer 



W'hat are the first thoughts that come to mind 

 when you hear the words "Pacific islands"? If 

 you're like most of the hundreds of Field 

 Museum visitors we asked, you probably think of palm 

 trees, blue water, and white sandy beaches. Perhaps 

 you think of exploding volcanoes, or of coral reefs 

 teeming with exotic fish. Maybe you've vacationed in 

 Hawaii, or fought at Guadalcanal. You probably know 

 the story of the mutiny on HMS Bounfy, or about the 

 voyage of the raft Korx Tiki. You've seen Gauguin's 

 Tahitian paintings, or read island tales by Maugham, 

 Stevenson, Melville, or Michener. 



For more than two centuries. Pacific islands have 

 captured the imagination of westerners. We tend to 

 think of them as lush, exotic environments — as para- 

 dise where native peoples live easy lives. But how 

 much of that is true? 



In the United States, little public education has 

 been devoted to Pacific islands, and few museums 

 have comprehensive exhibitions about them. The 

 Field Museum, housing one of the world's greatest col- 

 lections of artifacts from Pacific cultures, is uniquely 

 qualified to help our visitors learn more about the is- 

 lands and their peoples. The Museum's new exhibi- 

 tion program, emphasizing innovative techniques and 

 interdisciplinary topics, provides an opportunity to 

 enhance public understanding of this enormous (and 

 little-understood) part of the world. 



Supported by generous funding from the 

 Regenstein Foundation, the National Endowment 

 for the Humanities, the National Science Founda- 

 tion, and the Chicago Park District, a staff of fifty 

 exhibit developers, designers, and preparators aided 

 by nearly two dozen scientific consultants has been at 

 work behind the scenes for three years, planning the 

 Regenstein Halls of the Pacific, new exhibit spaces 

 devoted to Pacific islands. The first results, a 10,000- 

 square-foot installation entitled Traveling the Pacific, 

 opens this November. When the second phase is com- 

 pleted a year from now, the Field Museum will have 

 more than 17,000 square feet of exhibit space devoted 

 to Pacific islands, the largest exhibit the Museum has 

 yet produced. 



Traveling the Pacific incorporates a geographic 

 orientation to the islands and introduces many aspects 

 of their natural and cultural history. The final phase of 

 the Pacific installation, opening in November 1990, 

 will constitute a closer look at the rituals and cere- 

 monies of Pacific peoples, emphasizing their spectacu- 



