News 



Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 4 



JUNE, 1933 



No. 6 



HALL OF THE RACES OF MANKIND (CHAUNCEY KEEP MEMORIAL) OPENS JUNE 6 



Chauncey Keep 



By BEStTHOLD LAtJFBB 



Curator, Department of Anthropology 



Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall, which will 

 be opened to the public on June 6, contains a 

 series of statues, 

 busts, and heads of 

 bronze (with the 

 exception of four 

 which are of stone) 

 by Malvina Hoff- 

 man, sculptor of 

 international fame, 

 intended to illus- 

 trate the principal 

 racial types of the 

 human species and 

 depict their phys- 

 ical characteristics. 

 This hall, unique 

 among the mu- 

 seums of the world, 

 is named in honor 

 of the late Chauncey 

 Keep, a highly 

 esteemed member 

 of the Museum's 

 Board of Trustees 

 from 1915 until his 

 death in 1929. A 

 legacy of $50,000 which he left to the 

 Museum has been applied to the hall and 

 its contents, and the balance of the cost 

 has been met by generous contributions, 

 totaling more than $150,000, from Marshall 

 Field, Mrs. Stanley Field, and Mrs. Charles 

 H. Schweppe. 



In the carrying 

 out of its novel 

 idea, Chauncey 

 Keep Memorial 

 Hall required spe- 

 cial treatment, and 

 new resources of 

 museum tech- 

 nique had to be 

 developed. A great 

 deal of construction 

 work had to be 

 undertaken, alcoves 

 built to provide a 

 suitable setting for 

 the bronzes, and 

 careful studies 

 made for the pur- 

 pose of giving them 

 the best possible 

 display and light- 

 ing. Both in the 

 formulation of the 

 plan and in the 

 solution of the 

 many complex 

 problems connected 

 with the work. 

 President Stanley 

 Field has spent 

 much of his time 

 and energy, and 

 has to a considerable degree contributed to 

 the success of the hall. The plan was 

 carried out after long and mature delibera- 

 tion; as a matter of fact, its inception goes 



Blackfoot Indian 



back to the year 1915 when it was first 

 mapped out in the Department of Anthro- 

 pology. In the course of years it was fre- 

 quently modified 

 and improved, and 

 finally brought to 

 fruition with the 

 cooperation of 

 Henry Field, Assist- 

 ant Curator of 

 Physical Anthro- 

 pology. 



The hall is 

 divided into three 

 sections, the central 

 one being an 

 octagon. The 

 material is dis- 

 tributed by con- 

 Samoan tinents in geo- 



graphical order. 

 The section on the west side of the hall 

 contains the races of Africa and Oceania; 

 the octagonal section in the center is devoted 

 to the races of Europe, Asia, and America, 

 those of Asia being continued in the section 

 on the east side. The center of the octagon 

 is occupied by a 

 monumental bronze 

 group symbolizing 

 the unity of man- 

 kind. It consists 

 of a white, a yellow, 

 and a black man 

 of heroic size repre- 

 senting the three 

 principal racial 

 divisions. Each 

 figure embodies the 

 highest qualities of 

 the race. 



More bronzes 

 will be added to 

 the hall from time 

 to time; also, 

 colored transparencies of racial types will 

 be installed, and special exhibits of a 

 scientific character will be arranged at the 

 east end. 



Each sculpture is the result of careful 

 selection of subject and long anthropological 

 study. Malvina 

 Hoffman was sent 

 by the Museum on 

 an expedition to 

 Asia, visiting 

 Japan, China, Java, 

 Bali, Sumatra, the 

 jungles of the 

 Malay Peninsula, 

 Ceylon, and India, 

 studying racial 

 types and model- 

 ing her subjects 

 directly from life 

 in clay; from clay 

 they were trans- 

 formed into plaster 

 and finally cast in 

 bronze. As far as possible, the patina of 

 the bronze has been finished in conformity 

 with the skin color of the race. 



Mongol 



Sara Dancing Girl 



Mangbetu Woman 



Because of the rapid extinction of primi- 

 tive man due to the white man's expansion 

 over the globe many a vanishing race will 

 continue to live only 

 in the sculptures dis- 

 played in this hall. 

 Both the 

 racial and 

 the individ- 

 ual charac- 

 ter is grasped and por- 

 trayed in the bronzes 

 with a rare insight 

 into the mind of 

 primitive man. Pose 

 and action are chosen 

 in consonance with 

 the character of each 

 particular tribe and 

 permit the study of 

 the physical functions 

 which are more im- 

 portant for evalua- 

 tion of a race than 

 bodily measurements. 



Only a few can be 

 selected here for illus- 

 tration and some brief 

 comment. The Black- 

 foot Indian shows a 

 perfect development 

 of the body, which is 

 intense with health 

 and vigor; he is signal- 

 ing to his friends in 



the distance that he has hit his quarry. The 

 Samoan is a fine example of Polynesian stock. 



The graceful, 

 fifteen-year-old 

 dancer of the Sara 

 tribe and the 

 Mangbetu woman 

 from the Belgian 

 Congo well repre- 

 sent Negro types 

 of beauty. The 

 portrait bust of a 

 powerful Mongol 

 evokes memories of 

 the Mongol empire, 

 greatest in history. 



One of the most 

 attractive figures is 

 that of a middle- 

 aged Ainu, full of 

 dignity and poise, 

 an eloquent spokes- 

 man of the once 

 glorious past and 

 subsequent tragedy 

 of his vanishing 

 race. In a prehis- 

 toric age the Ainu 

 were the original 

 inhabitants of the 

 Japanese islands. 

 Clashing for cen- 

 turies with the 

 Japanese who were '^'"" 



migrating from southeastern Asia, the Ainu 

 finally yielded to forces superior in number, 

 retreating into the northern island of Yezo. 



PHOTOGRAPHS OF BRONZES COPYRIGHT FIELD MUSEUW 



