AMNH

I went to the American Museum of Natural History today, which I absolutely love. However, I am always astonished by its nature as a timecapsule to an era in which no one questioned putting the mummyfied corpse of an unknown Andean copper miner behind glass, or having vast wings exploring the exotic nature of bygone cultures from essentially every inhabited region of the world except for western Europe. The new exhibits do not display this level of what, for want of a more appropriate, informative and informed phrase, I will call sensitivity toward minoritized and exoticized peoples. However, the sizeable majority of the museum is old, and though much of it is devoted to minerals, flora, and non-human fauna in magnificent display cases (which I had gone to photograph), I can't help but wonder about the museum's complicity in perpetuating a style of cultural learning emphasizing otherness that many other institutions have sought to reform. Thinking about this, I remember the remark Justin gave upon seeing the statue of Teddy Roosevelt outside of the museum. He remarked that if the statue is designed to visually reinforce that Teddy was friend to Indian and Negro alike, perhaps the artist would do better to break with the convention of the equestrian prortrait in which all is submissive to the rider, and let the flanking men have horses.
Anyway, happy Halloween week.