Irislalling a ivhdli- skcliiim m llic Hall oj Osti'alugy (H/ill 

 28), 1961 in l'^)h2. This is llic jnst exhibit at the rotunda 

 entraiuc ta tlw hull, l.i'/l In iis^ht: Leonard Blush, Frank 

 Greenivell, Leon L)edeiuh, W'atsini Penygo, and Carleton 



Ltngehach; the three 

 photograph of the 

 RepcH-t of 1964. 



standing leeie le»ipora)y employees. A 

 eompleted exhibit appears in the Annual 



manikins have come into the exhibits in recent decades.) 

 "Inchans of the Americas," all in all, was a good hall in 

 content, design, and display, and it attracted interest. 

 Still, everything depends on the observer. One day when 

 Ewers was walking through the hall, he saw a small boy 

 standing entranced in front of the case of Hopi Indian 

 ceremonial snake dancers. The boy yelled for his father 

 to come. "So what?" said the father, taking a look. "It's 

 just a fellow chewing on a snake." 



Next to come was the bird exhibit in Hall 13, in the 

 west wing on the first floor. Herbert Friedmann had 

 been thinking about how he would like to change this 

 display almost from the day he joined the staff. Watson 

 Perrygo did most of the work — and did most of it within 

 a year. The day before the hall was scheduled to open, 

 in March 1956, a stepladder toppled into a case, and 

 everyone worked all night to repair specimens and build 

 a new case. 



Next to open was Hall 26 on the second floor, above 

 the American Indian Hall. "Everyday Life in Colonial 

 America" displaced the lace and the chickens, and 

 whether one called it ethnology or cultural history, it 

 was a major improvement. Because of the ultraconser- 

 vatism of head curator Setzler and curator Krieger, it 

 had been impossible for Malcolm Watkins, hired in 

 fiscal year 1949, to do anything that deviated one iota 

 from the routine; but Friedmann, as exhibits chairman, 

 recognized the problem and got around it by ordering 

 Watkins in writing to prepare plans for a new hall im- 

 mediately. This administrative ploy — Watkins's idea — 

 worked, and the hall was started. The timing was not 

 the best, since the contract for the new hall was followed 

 in a matter of weeks by the authorization for building 

 the new Museum of History and Technology. But al- 

 though this hall thus ended up being dismantled and 

 moved out within a few years, it was another fine ex- 



90 



The Exhibits 



