Old New York Diorama

Behind the Updates to Old New York Diorama

[Bradley Pecore stands in front of the Museum’s Old New York Diorama, depicting three Native men approaching two European colonists.]

BRADLEY PECORE (Visual Historian): I sat down one and was looking at the visitors’ reaction to the diorama.

[Close-ups of the faces of Native men in the diorama.]

PECORE: And a family came up and they said, “Look at the Indians. Let’s go see the Indians. 

[American Museum of Natural History logo animates over footage of Museum exhibition staff applying labels to the diorama glass.]

[Close-up on Bradley Pecore, looking at the diorama, and talking to Museum staff.]

PECORE: I’m Menominee and Stockbridge Munsee from northeastern Wisconsin,

[Pecore speaks to interviewer. On-screen text reads, “Bradley Pecore, Visual Historian.”]

PECORE: …and my interest and specialty are Native American visual culture.

[Pecore consults with Museum exhibition staff in front of the Old New York diorama.]

PECORE: My role in the New York diorama was to offer an Indigenous perspective.

[Pecore speaks to interviewer.]

PECORE: The idea of the Indian in America is its own thing. But to actually know the cultural diversity of this continent and understand the plethora of languages and cultures that are here is another thing. And those are not “Indians.”

[Medium shot of Native figures in the diorama.]

PECORE: Those are a group of Hackensack, of which we know are Munsee people.

[Wide view of the Old New York diorama, with a large label on the glass reading, “Reconsidering the scene.”]

LAURI HALDERMAN (Vice President, Exhibition): The Old New York diorama is a scene with Peter Stuyvesant…

[View of Dutch colonist figures in the diorama.]

HALDERMAN: …and a Dutch soldier encountering Oratamin…

[View of Oratamin, a sachem (leader) of the Munsee branch, and accompanying Native men in the diorama.]  

HALDERMAN: …and two others from the Hackensack group.

[Halderman speaks to interviewer. On-screen text identifies her as, “Lauri Halderman, Vice President, Exhibition.”]

HALDERMAN: I grew up personally in Massachusetts in pilgrim country, so the number of scenes that I grew up with…

[Various animated archival images depicting friendly encounters between Native people and European colonists.]

HALDERMAN: …where Native people and European colonists were peacefully shaking hands—

[Halderman speaks to interviewer.]

HALDERMAN: …I’ve seen that scene a lot. And I think it’s almost always invented, imagined,

[Wide shot of Old New York Diorama where Oratamin and Lenape men offer items to Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch colonists. 

HALDERMAN: …a trope, or a stereotype.

[Archival black and white image of Old New York diorama soon after its completion.]

HALDERMAN: So, this diorama was finished in 1939. I think our eyes are different today than they were in the 1930s.

[Black and white photo dissolves into present-day view of the diorama where a Oratamin is now seen through a translucent label that provides more context for the scene.]

PETER WHITELEY (Curator, Division of Anthropology): Basically, you’d want more history,

[Another transparent label on the diorama reads, “Women in the background.” The painted figures of Lenape women can be seen out of focus behind the label.]

WHITELEY: …you’d want more of the cultural reality of the Native people who were depicted,

[Camera zooms in on signage to the right of the Old New York diorama that tells the story of one contemporary Lenape woman.]

WHITELEY: …and you’d want Native voices from the present…

[Whiteley speaks to interviewer. On-screen text identifies him as “Peter Whiteley, Curator, Division of Anthropology.”]

WHITELEY: … trying to situate what they saw as the appropriation of their lands in Manhattan and elsewhere.

[Pecore speaks to interviewer.]

PECORE: What was missing was, well, where are the Munsee today? Do they still exist? So, we’re left with “Once there were Munsees in this place. They are now gone.”

[Old New York diorama is on left of screen, and on the right is signage headlined, “The Lenape people, then and now.”]

PECORE: But that’s not true. Actually, Lenape people still live in Manhattan.

[Pecore speaks to interviewer.]

PECORE: They still live in the New York area. You know, they may not be as politically unified as we once were, but we’re still here.

[Museum exhibition staff apply the transparent contextual labels to Old New York diorama glass.]

WHITELEY: The diorama’s not a realistic representation in any way. And unless you introduce different kinds of information, you’re only going to end up reproducing…

[View of Lenape figures in the diorama, seen through contextual label headlined, ‘Oratamin, sachem and diplomat.”]

WHITELEY: …stereotypical representations of the Native people who are present.

[Camera pans across diorama.]

WHITELEY: You definitely want people to have an awareness of past depictions.

[Whiteley speaks to interviewer.]

WHITELEY: We don’t want to forget that because otherwise we forget a history of oppression. And until we’re prepared to recognize that, the possibility for genuine reconciliation is not going to be there.

[Pecore speaks to interviewer.]

PECORE: If the diorama was simply covered up and blacked out, all it would do is put that history in a cupboard, in a box that we don’t have to look at. Is it somewhat shameful? Sure. But we need to talk about that.

[Museum exhibition staff cleans the Old New York diorama display.]

PECORE: There needs to be a conversation and I hope that this just begins a conversation that we can have.