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Aboriginal Life Reproduced 
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at the Pan=American. 
A PART OF THE EXHIBIT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHRO¬ 
POLOGY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, WHICH DAILY DE¬ 
LIGHTS THOUSANDS OF VISITORS IN THE UNITED STATES 
GOVERNMENT BUILDING AT THE EXPOSITION. 
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRANCES B. JOHNSTON. 
By special courtesy of the United States Government Board. 
Near the middle of the main Govern¬ 
ment building at the Pan-American Ex¬ 
position, there stand some figures which 
no visitor is able to pass without looking 
at. They are the figures of Indians, 
grouped in big glass cases. They are of 
life size, and each group gives the im¬ 
pression of an Indian family suddenly 
stiffened and made immobile in the midst 
of its work and play, with the colors of 
life unchanged, and with all the imple¬ 
ments of its daily occupations scattered 
about. It is like the palace of the 
Sleeping Beauty; life is there without 
movement. Around the cases, all day 
long, eddies a curious throng. The 
blanketed redskin from the Indian 
village, and the spectacled man from Bos¬ 
ton, the woman in the shirt waist and the 
trim soldier, elbow each other and look 
into the cases. All alike understand the 
spectacle and enjoy it; it is science made 
easy. 
The groups are a portion of the exhibit 
of the department of anthropology of the 
National Museum. The department has 
other exhibits in other places, including 
some lent to the Ethnology building, 
but here, beside the departments of bi¬ 
ology and geology in the section of the 
Government building devoted to the 
Smithsonian Institution and the Museum, 
it has its chief exhibit. These groups 
portray representative types of .the Amer¬ 
ican aborigines. 
The departihent of anthropology of the 
National Museum had six months in which 
to prepare its exhibit for the Pan-Amer¬ 
ican. The nature of the exhibit was easi¬ 
ly fixed upon. The display, it was decided, 
should give an idea of the life and arts of 
the aborigines of the Western Continent. 
It was planned, therefore, to form groups 
of typical Indians, and so arrange them 
that by passing through the exhibit from 
north to south or from south to north, a 
consecutive view would be obtained of the 
Indians of the Three Americas. So Curat¬ 
or William H. Holmes of the department 
•of anthropology went to work on these 
figures. But the time was very short. 
Much of the material was on hand, but 
some of the costumes needed, particularly 
those of women and children, were not 
possessed by the Museum. Four expedi¬ 
tions were sent out to gather the missing 
material, among them two to Brazil, but 
only one of the four got back in time 
for the exposition. There was not time to 
finish all the groups, too, in the size : 
planned. Two of them, those for the East- j 
ern Esquimaux and the Patagonian In¬ 
dians, are in cases eight feet by twelve, 
but the others are smaller. In three of 
the cases the groups are not represented 
in typical occupations, but are merely 
standing figures. When the groups are 
prepared for their final destination in 
the National Museum, changes will there¬ 
fore be made so as to bring them all to 
the dimensions of the original plan. But 
as it is, they are such groups as have nev¬ 
er been seen before. Ordinarily, in the 
museums, one sees one or two figures, 
perhaps the adult male and female, as 
representatives of the tribe; but here one 
sees the whole family, engaged in typical 
occupations. 
Most people who look upon these figures 
think that they are made of wax. Their 
perfection and their lifelike colors give 
this idea. But in reality they are plaster 
casts, .colored like life. Clay models were 
prepared by sculptors under the direction 
of Curator Holmes. His direction to the 
sculptors wa'sTo represent the physical 
characteristics of the people under con¬ 
sideration, but not to reproduce the masks 
and casts taken from individuals, which 
necessarily presented a view of the sub¬ 
ject different from natural conditions. He 
himself had to furnish many of the racial 
characteristics. Built up in this way, the 
groups possess both artistic qualities and 
a likeness to life which impress even the 
careless observer. From the clay models 
casts were taken, and suitably costumed 
and mounted, and the result is seen in 
these groups. It may be added that these 
casts are the only ones which were made. 
Visitors to the Pan-American Exposition, 
therefore, see something here that was 
never seen before. 
One of the new ideas carried out in 
these groups is the taking of the family as 
the basis of the exhibit. It was felt that 
the unit for illustrating the peoples 
should be family groups, of men, women 
and children, with costumes, personal 
adornments and general belongings. 
There are from four to seven figures of 
human beings in the larger groups, and 
three in those wherein are only 
standing figures. In some of the groups 
there are animals as well as human be¬ 
ings; the horse and the native ostrich in 
the Patagonian group, and several dogs in 
one of the Esquimau groups. 
The purpose at the base of the exhibit 
was, as remarked, to give a general view 
of typical groups of the aborigines from 
one end of the continent to the other. 
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