>Kevin Coffee wrote:
 
>This statement is unsubstantiated.
>
>Could you identify when this incident happened? The exhibition? The
>curator(s) who resigned? The labels you allude to? The issues of Museum
>News that you say reported on this or your source for this information?
>
>
>Manager of Exhibitions
>American Museum of Natural History
>[log in to unmask]
 
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. Their major
objection was that the exhibit team had not provided a substantial thesis
and had trivialized what could have been an important exhibit.  I am sorry
to have not documented the statement but I did not think it was so out of
the ken of most of us that no one would remember this very important
conflict. My comment was and is made from memory not a substantiated
database of evidence. Maybe someone from Chicago area will have a memory or
two.
 
Paul Apodaca
Bowers Museum
Santa Ana, CA
[log in to unmask]