>Well Kevin, I am sorry for your skepticism. The exhibit dealt with the
>South Pacific as I recall and involved a diorama dealing with navigation
>and Polyenesian craft. I have a copy of the wall label disavowment that was
>advanced to me by friends at the Newberry Library just this last year, so I
>imagine the controversy never has died down. The exhibit controversy
>erupted almost two years ago as I recall and I am sure that you can contact
>the archive dept. of  Museum News, as I believe that was the publication
>that carried the story. As I remember the story, a number of curators
>protested the exhibit and one high ranking curator resigned....
>Paul Apodaca
>Bowers Museum
>Santa Ana, CA
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Well, Paul...
 
The exhibition was/is Traveling the Pacific. I visited the exhibition along
with a few hundred other AAM members just at the time it opened to the
public in 1990. There were several seminars at that year's AAM conference
that featured that exhibition as a topic of discussion, and a summary of
the conference critique in a later issue of Museum News.
 
Regardless of the weaknesses of that exhibition, and I think there are
weaknesses, the sweeping statements you made about it are irresponsible.
 
The statement in your first post that I found most inexcusable was: "the
"team" so fouled the curatorial approach that curators resigned". You
modified it above to read
"a number of curators protested the exhibit and one high ranking curator
resigned.."
 
Both statements are completely untrue, and John Terrell is still curator of
their Pacific collection.
 
Perhaps you were misinformed by others, but I suggest that you exercise
more caution making statements that you report to be fact, especially when
that statement forms the basis of your argument.
 
Kevin Coffee
Manager of Exhibitions
American Museum of Natural History
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