THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



WEST WING 

 COLLECTIONS FROM AFRICA 



"So geographers in Afric maps 

 With savage pictures fill their gaps." 

 Swift. 



This hall differs from others containing ethnographical 

 specimens in having introduced a number of characteristic 

 African mammals. While inspecting the exhibits the visi- 

 tor would do well to bear in mind that the installation is 

 geographical, i.e., collections from the natives of south 

 Africa (Bushmen, Hottentots and Negroes) are installed 

 on the south or entrance side of the hall, those from the 

 tribes of east Africa on the right or east side, those from 

 the north at the north end, and those from the west along 

 the west side. 



On the south the exhibits are given over to material col- 

 lected from among the Bushmen, the most ancient and 

 primitive of African natives. Full-size, life-like plaster 

 figures of the natives, also their works of art and their 

 implements, are exhibited. That the negro is above all an 

 artisan in iron work is demonstrated by the finished prod- 

 ucts (curiously formed knives, axes and spears) which are 

 in evidence throughout the hall. While his work as a 

 blacksmith seems to predominate, one must not lose sight 

 of his work in textiles. In the large central rectangle de- 

 voted to Congo ethnology, are beautiful examples of this 



-64 



