The Chicago world exposition in 1933 as an ethnographic museum presenting African-Americans
1. Representation
- black movement:
- Philip Randolph (black trade unionist and editor) organised a ‘Negro Day’ at the Chicago expo -> it was poorly attended
- Blacks marginalised in organising committees and not employed as construction workers, rarely as shop assistants or service persons
- Struggles during this expo against racial discrimination in employment at expos -> improvements of laws in this domain
see also under historical background and exclusion
- eugenics:
- Laughlin (eugenicist) tried to convince organizers of 1933 fair to include his eugenics exhibits
- Due to financial situation (depression) and objections from scientists expo officials were against Laughlin’s plans
- But he got a small area among genetics exhibits in Hall of Science
- Laughlin’s exhibit consisted of four panels -> success, there were always people studying his panels
- four panels and description on eugenics at Chicago world’s fair: http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/26/4/155?ck=nck
2. Classification
- native villages (at the fair) as origins of African-Americans can be considered as natural museums nevertheless they were selected and planned by Americans -> could be considered as artificial museum
- eugenics exhibits as artificial museum, ‘Negro Day’ as an artificial museum
3. Motivation
- to teach a wide audience about African Americans
4. Interpretation/idea conveyed through objects/panels
- the world exposition in Chicago as a means of knowing and possessing the ‘culture’ of others or ethnographic museum -> African Americans presented like objects to be possessed
- one important basis of eugenics were family trees -> eugenics tree logo according to a pedigree
- eugenicists tried to justify their approach in a pseudo-scientific way, the picture shows that eugenics involves different sciences, but it was exploited by the elites that decided who is superior and who inferior
- Harry H. Laughlin wrote in the Journal of Heredity: “THE Century of Progress Exposition was the first world's fair to include eugenics as a matter of course in the classification of the basic sciences.”
- eugenics is against human rights (e.g. sterilization of insane people) and should only be applied on animals or plants
- today, eugenicists have practically no influence but the basic ideas still exist
