Museum Project Compare Two Museums

¶ … museums in order to understand the components of what makes a museums successful and interesting. I've selected the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of Eastern Woodland Plains Indians branch to compare with the National Museum of American Indian. Both of these museums, located in New York City, will help provide a balanced and fair comparison of two similar but not identical museum institutions.

I will first describe in detail some of the finer points of the American Museum of Natural History and specifically within the Hall of Eastern Woodland Plains Indians in order to provide contrasting material to the second museum. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is a scientific and cultural Museum that has been open for over 140 years. According to their website, their mission is to discover, interpret and disseminate information about human cultures in the world through a program of research education and exhibition.

Inside one of the key wings rests the Eastern Woodland Plains Indians branch of the museum. It is this section that I'll be focusing on in comparing and contrasting to the national Museum of American. This exhibition of interest is rather small compared to the rest of the museum's exhibitions. This specific wing only deals with the Eastern Woodland Plains Indians which are a conglomeration of many different tribes and groups so there is not a uniform theme amongst this part of the museum in terms of tribes. Some of the more interesting artifacts inside the museum deal with the different versions of metal and jewelry that these Indians crafted. Interesting colors and fine craftsmanship define these pieces of art and decoration.

In one of the display cases, the housing of these Indians were showcased in an attempt to present an idea of how these people lived many years ago. Inside these cases the five civilized Tribes of the Cherokee Creek Choctaw, Chicksaw and Seminole art presented to highlight how their natural resources provided many of the living necessities for these tribal people. The display of the Birchbark canoe inside this museum wing is the centerpiece to the entire floor. This replica of what many of these tribesmen would travel on water reflects a sense of realism that is accurately depicted in this exhibit. The two sides of the room are split in a fashion divided by Pre-European contact and European contact to North America. This is an interesting way to segregate and highlight different time periods of a certain segment of history without having to compromise the overall theme of the wing.

The national Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is quite a different experience than the American Museum of Natural History in my opinion. This museum is entirely dedicated to the history and anthropological interpretation of all Native Americans. This museum is much larger than its counterpart's wing at the American Museum of Natural History. The NAMI is dedicated to advancing knowledge and understanding of the native cultures of the entire Western Hemisphere past, present and future according to their mission statement. There are many wings and exhibitions with in this museum highlighting the different aspects of all Native American cultures. This differs from the American Museum of natural histories because of the intensity and depth of the subject itself.

There is more of an artistic feeling to this museum as well, where in the previous example it was a more scientific and anthropological examination of a smaller group of Indians. The many different Native American artists featured in this museum present a different light upon Native Americans by exploring their groups artistic side instead of just how they went about their daily business. While both subjects are interesting, their differences are represented by these two museums interpretations of Native American life.

Question 2

The relationship between these two museums is defined by its subject matter, Native Americans. It is quite obvious after observing the different exhibits from both of these places that they have a different interpretation of Native American life. Besides the differences in scope and size that these examples provide, there is also a different tone of respect and celebration as well. The NMAI seems to have fully dedicated itself to the Native American story and is justified by its over 800,000 artifacts stored at the museum. This is not to say that the American Museum of Natural History's representation of a specific part of Native American life is useless, it is just that the breadth of the examination is smaller within the larger scope of each museum's mission.

These museums are also related because of their geographical proximity to one another. Although New York City is a very large and complex place, there should be room for many educational museums dedicated to Native American life. While these museums are not that close to each other, anyone interested in Native American history or anthropology would probably be served better by going to the national Museum of American Indian due to the scope that it focuses on and the amount of information available there. It is not possible to gather as much information as you would need a couple days at the national Museum of American Indian where at the American Museum's wing of Eastern Woodland Indians, after an hour or two most of the information can be fully digested and you may proceed to the next display or exhibition.

Question 3