Museum Pasts in the Present
In 1897, two teams of researchers affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History embarked on what is considered perhaps the most ambitious expedition in the history of American ethnology. The Jesup Expedition, named after then-President of the Museum, Morris K. Jesup, was designed to determine whether the first people to populate the Americas had migrated across the Bering Strait. While Dr. Franz Boas studied the Native peoples on the northwest coast of North America, he sent Russian revolutionaries Waldemar Jochelson and Waldemar Bogoras and German-American philologist Berthold Laufer to study Siberia. Together, these teams compiled thousands of photographs and recordings of people, objects, languages, and customs in an effort to compare the cultures on either side of the Strait.
Collaboration between AMNH and Siberian scholars
In 1998, Alexia Bloch (now Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of British Columbia; then an AMNH post-doc) and I embarked on a six-week version of the Jesup Expedition, just in time for its centenary. In the intervening years, the Soviet Union had profoundly reshaped life in Siberia, and Native Siberian cultures had barely survived. Attempted revivals of native culture had been taking place since late Soviet times, but new opportunities to rethink heritage and the legacies of a complex history were also challenged by the precariousness of post-Soviet life in the late 1990s. On our 1998 journey across Siberia, Bloch and I reconnected Native Siberian scholars, artisans, and ordinary people with the history of the Jesup Expedition and the resource base it established in New York. Wielding CDs of the collections at the American Museum of Natural History and exhibition catalogs of expedition photographs, Bloch and I made our way to several cities in the region.
Shamans of Siberia - Visual Cue Transcript—Visual Cue Transcript
[WIND BLOWS]
American Museum of Natural History logo appears over black.
[OLD RECORDING OF A SHAMAN SONG]
Fade in to a snowy landscape. The Aurora Borealis plays in the sky. In the foreground are shamans with drums, cut out from old archival photographs.
LAUREL KENDALL: A shaman is a master of the spirits.
People, reindeer, and tents appear behind the shamans.
KENDALL: The word comes to us from the language of the Even, reindeer herders living in Siberia.
[SHAMAN SONG, DRUMMING]
Interior of shaman's hut. Shamans from archival photographs sit on the floor. An eerie green flame flickers below. Masks representing spirits encircle the room.
KENDALL: A shaman is someone able to travel into spirit realms and come back with knowledge, to go down into the underworld.
Close up of shaman's coat made of hide and covered in hundreds of pieces of metal.
[METAL CLANKS AND CLINKS WITH ECHO]
KENDALL: If you look at the shaman costume of the Sakha people you will see that it's bedecked with a great deal of metal.
Three shamans superimposed on colored circles. Below the horizon line is the hide and metal of the shaman coat. Above the horizon, black storks fly through the sky.
KENDALL: The metal is a conductor of magic. Some say the bits of metal represent the bones of birds,
[STORKS CALL, WINGS FLAP]
KENDALL: so that the shaman when he flaps the arms of the costume is able to fly through the sky.
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Drawers in the Anthropology Collection open to reveal objects.
KENDALL: Here in the Asian Ethnographic Collection we have an amazing trove of materials from Siberia related to shamanic practice.
Kendall sits in Objects Conservation Laboratory, surrounded by objects from the Siberian collection, including a fish skin robe, and a shaman coat and drum.
KENDALL: I'm Laurel Kendall. I'm an anthropologist. And here we are in the Conservation Lab of the Division of Anthropology where our conservators have been working on material collected by the Jesup North Pacific Expedition more than 100 years ago.
Hand-drawn map of the north Pacific Ocean, Alaska, and Siberia. A portrait of anthropologist Franz Boas, and an archival image of the Museum are superimposed near the East Coast of the United States.
KENDALL: The Jesup North Pacific Expedition was probably the most ambitious anthropology expedition of all time. It was the brainchild of Dr. Franz Boas, the founder of American anthropology, and for many years a curator in this museum.
[OCEAN WAVES]
Shimmering waves appear in the Pacific Ocean area of the map. Portraits of Jesup Expedition members appear over North America and Siberia.
KENDALL: His idea was to send teams of scholars to do research on both sides of the Bering Strait—one on the American side one on the Russian side—
Lines connect the Siberian and Alaskan coasts. A question mark in a circle appears.
KENDALL: and have them explore the question of who came over the strait when. They would do this by looking at the cultures of then-living peoples.
Various objects from the Siberian collection appear, including a highly decorated coat, a wooden cup, a birch bark box, and a pair of gloves.
KENDALL: On the Siberian side, their mandate was studying people's life ways, collecting objects.
"Yukaghir-English Vocabulary" list appears, along with images of wax cylinders.
KENDALL: They were taking lists of vocabulary, and recording songs.
[SCRATCHING RECORDING OF SONG PLAYS]
Archival photographs, dissolving between front and profile views of various people.
KENDALL: They took a lot of photographs. They took hundreds and hundreds of front view and side view. This was a method in the day when people thought that they were studying different biological types.
The frames around people's faces disappear. Faces of different people fade in and out.
KENDALL: But you know, when you look at the faces of some of these photographs, you don't see what you see in- in many other places – very stiff, very clinical. We get some sense of the- the person, the- you know, the- the living human being with an imagination, with a sense of humor, perhaps, behind the photograph.
[LOW DRONE, WIND BLOWING]
Snowy landscape peopled by reindeer, man carrying canoe, girl ice fishing, and people doing other everyday tasks.
KENDALL: The Soviet era was a hard time for Siberian peoples. The shamans were persecuted and there was a fear that native culture might be lost.
People and landscape disappear, leaving only blank whiteness.
KENDALL: But once there was an opening,
Images appear of consultation between Siberian people and scholars and Museum anthropologists and conservation staff.
KENDALL: we began to be contacted by native scholars from the Russian Far East. And we have had many visits, and some truly wonderful things have happened.
Kendall sits in Objects Conservation Laboratory.
KENDALL: The Jesup Collection is important not only to us, as part of world heritage, but it's important— critically important—to the descendants of the people who worked with the Jesup Expedition.
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Production credits scroll.
Today, AMNH researchers continue to work with Native scholars and communities from Siberia on a variety of projects to carry on the legacy of the Jesup Expedition. In the AMNH Object Conservation Lab, objects collected at the turn of the 20th century are being restored and protected using 21st century technology.
Shelf Life #15 - The Guts and Glory of Object Conservation - Visual Cue Transcript
[WIND BLOWS, DOGS PANT AND BARK]
An animated sequence combining black and white archival photographs—sled dogs race through the snow.
LAUREL KENDALL: When you go to the northeast of Siberia, that part of the world, it's very stark. But in its starkness, it's beautiful.
A gust of wind blows aside snow to reveal people riding on reindeer. Mountains rise on the far horizon.
KENDALL: The far north is tundra, and forest, and a long, empty coast.
Animated sequence continues as mountains give way to taiga forest and then to a coastline.
[WAVES CRASH]
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Camera zooms out on a hand-drawn map to reveal Siberia, Alaska, and the lands surrounding the North Pacific Ocean.
KENDALL: The Jesup North Pacific Expedition was probably the most ambitious anthropology expedition of all time.
Archival images of anthropologists are superimposed on the map of the Northwestern coast of North America.
KENDALL: The idea was to take two teams of experts—one on the American side,
Camera pans left to images of anthropologists on the Siberian side of the Bering Strait.
KENDALL: one on the Siberian side of the Bering Strait,
Dotted lines animate from one side of the Bering Strait to the other. A question mark appears between the coasts.
KENDALL: and have them explore the question of who came over the Strait, when.
Curator Laurel Kendall stands, looking at camera.
KENDALL: I'm Laurel Kendall. I curate the Asian Ethnographic Collection at the American Museum of Natural History.
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Shelf Life title sequence. Specimens and artifacts from the Museum's collections fade in and out.
Objects from the Siberian collection appear in quick succession.
KENDALL: The scope of the Jesup collections is enormous. Their brief was to collect every aspect of how people live.
Curator Laurel Kendall interviewed at desk.
KENDALL: Well, that's impossible. But they came as close as they possibly could.
Compactor opens to reveal shelves of objects from the Siberian collection.
JUDITH LEVINSON: The Siberian collection numbered more than 5,000 pieces.
Three conservators work at long tables in the Museum's Objects Conservation Laboratory.
LEVINSON: We chose a hundred of those to focus on for full conservation treatment.
Judith Levinson looks holds top of birch bark box and looks up at camera.
LEVINSON: My name is Judith Levinson. I'm Director of Conservation in the Division of Anthropology.
Levinson sits at table in Objects Conservation Laboratory.
LEVINSON: We're able to have very well developed consultation and collaboration with Native groups
Montage of consultations between conservators and Native peoples.
Levinson interviewed at table in Objects Conservation Laboratory.
LEVINSON: and part of why we were able to do this was that we have a very important project participant,
Still images of Vera Solovyeva talking with conservators, and with colleagues in Siberia.
LEVINSON: who is a scholar, who is a native Siberian.
Vera Solovyeva stands in Anthropology collections, looks at camera.
VERA SOLOVYEVA: My name is Vera Alexseyevna Solovyeva, and I am a PhD candidate at George Mason University.
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Hands pull out drawers in the collection, showing different objects on the shelves.
Solovyeva interviewed in collection space.
SOLOVYEVA: This collection is very important because it has probably the most elaborate collection in the whole world about our people's pre-Soviet period.
Archival photos showing different Siberian individuals.
Montage of objects from the Siberian collection.
SOLOVYEVA: And it has, like, the full range of the material and spiritual culture.
Archival photos of everyday life in early 20th century Siberia.
SOLOVYEVA: And then, second, it has pictures of our ancestors' everyday life.
Black and white animation of boy on sled, being pulled by reindeer. Text reads "Soviet Film, 1928."
SOLOVYEVA: When the Soviets came to the power, they tried to erase the memory of people.
Animation continues. A Siberian boy sits at a desk, dreaming of being pulled on sled. Dream fades away and picture of Lenin appears.
SOLOVYEVA: So, you know, they destroyed all items that belong to the shamans, the rituals.
Animation continues. Siberians in fur coats walk away from tents in the snow, leaving an empty landscape.
Solovyeva interviewed in collection space.
SOLOVYEVA: When the Soviet Union collapsed,
Montage of 1990s photos depicting Siberians engaging in traditional crafts and practices.
SOLOVYEVA: Indigenous People started to have interest to revitalizing their culture and their spirituality.
Solovyeva interviewed in collection space.
SOLOVYEVA: In my view, the Museum's collection have a very important role to showing what was truly ancestral way of living.
Archival image of female shaman drumming.
In the present day, conservator Amy Tjiong turns over a shaman's drum in the Anthropology collection.
LEVINSON: Each of these pieces holds valuable information to people from around the world,
Levinson interviewed at table in the Objects Conservation Laboratory.
LEVINSON: and we want to preserve them for many years to come.
A conservator cleans a birch bark map with a small brush.
LEVINSON: Here in the Objects Conservation Lab, we work to stabilize the physical condition of the objects.
Levinson interviewed at table in the Objects Conservation Laboratory.
LEVINSON: What I love about conservation is it's a fabulous blend of science, art, and history, and cultural studies.
Conservator Amy Tjiong works on the edge of a colorful Siberian robe made from fish skin.
AMY TJIONG: I get to work on a variety of material, including robes that were made from fish skin,
Hands turn over an elaborately decorated birch bark container.
TJIONG: containers that were made from birch bark,
Tjiong and a collections staff member carefully place a fur coat on a table.
TJIONG: coats that were made from reindeer hide.
Tjiong, standing in a row of the Anthropology collection, holds a birch bark container.
TJIONG: My name is Amy Tjiong. I'm a conservator within the Objects Conservation Lab at the American Museum of Natural History.
A conservator wearing blue latex gloves enters information onto an iPad.
Close up of the iPad, showing a diagram of a gut skin coat.
TJIONG: The first thing that we'll do is documentation of the object before treatment.
Close up of a camera snapping a picture. A white flash.
LEVINSON: We'll take pictures.
Photos of different angles of a Siberian fur coat appear in quick succession, punctuated by camera flashes.
A photo of a fish skin robe is overlaid with animation showing areas where conservation treatment will be necessary. Labels reading, "Major crease," "Loss from insect damage," "Staining," and "Failed stitches" appear with corresponding indications on the robe.
LEVINSON: We will write a condition report, documenting everything that we see.
Levinson interviewed at table in Objects Conservation Laboratory.
LEVINSON: And we're able to take teeny-weeny samples,
Tjiong consults with a forensic anthropologist. They hold up slides with small tissue samples and indicate microscopic images on a computer screen.
LEVINSON: and have particular kinds of scientific analysis done that help us identify the materials of manufacture
Levinson interviewed at table in Objects Conservation Laboratory.
LEVINSON: in ways that couldn't be done by the anthropologists who formed the collection.
Black and white archival portraits of anthropologists.
Mammalogist holding a wolverine specimen consults with Tjiong in the Mammalogy Department.
LEVINSON: So, for instance, because we work in a natural history museum,
In animated sequence, the camera zooms into a Siberian fur coat, to reveal a microscopic image of a single hair.
LEVINSON: we could pull individual hairs from a fur
Comparison microscope images of mammal hairs—labeled beaver, seal, reindeer, etc.—pop up around the sample hair.
LEVINSON: and compare it to our vouchered specimens in the Mammalogy collection
All hair images disappear, except reindeer. Image flips to reveal an illustration of a reindeer. Image grows in size, flips to reveal a photo of a reindeer superimposed on a map of Siberia.
LEVINSON: to identify the exact animals that came from Siberia.
A conservator holds a paint palette and leans over to dab a gut skin coat with a small brush.
LEVINSON: Once we've gathered all this information, we develop the treatment plan, and actually start treating.
Montage of conservation treatments – paper laid over a birch bark map, a metal tool is gently rubbed onto a coat, a brush mixes paint on a palette, scissors cut a piece of material.
LEVINSON: We may work to replace missing parts or correct surface finishes. But we use materials that are easily reversible.
Wide shot of conservators working on various pieces from the Siberian collection.
TJIONG: Among the objects that were chosen for treatment are 14 gut skin parkas.
Close up on seam of gut skin parka.
Tjiong interviewed in Anthropology collection space.
TJIONG: They're constructed from bands of intestine
Series of still images showing various gut skin parkas from the Siberian collection.
TJIONG: that have been cut open and flattened.
Hands in latex gloves wash intestines in industrial sink.
TJIONG: To better understand this material, I attended a gut skin processing workshop up in Seattle.
Still image of a large, long, inflated intestine laid out on a blue tarp.
Tjiong interviewed in Anthropology collection space.
TJIONG: You know, with gut lovers. I mean, there was- People who have a real fondness for studying gut skin.
Woman inflates intestine by blowing into it. Another woman and a man stretch out inflated intestine.
TJIONG: I was able to learn from a Native artist from Kodiak, and also a curator at the Burke Museum who is Aleutic.
Tjiong interviewed in Anthropology collection space.
TJIONG: And both of them have experience processing intestines.
[PEOPLE SHOUTING, OARS SPLASHING]
Several boats full of rowers move through water. Mountains tower in background.
TJIONG: And then, we went to Siberia
Montage of Solovyeva and Tjiong speaking with members of the Siberian community.
TJIONG: to reach out to members of the community, to try to see if there was any remaining knowledge.
Tjiong interviewed in Anthropology collection space.
TJIONG: And one of the most important goals for us was to share information about the collection
Still images of Tjiong and Solovyeva making presentations to Siberian audience.
TJIONG: to the members of the community there.
Still images of Solovyeva and Siberian people examining objects from the Jesup North Pacific collection.
SOLOVYEVA: The Museum's collection—it's really important to value again our culture.
Solovyeva interviewed in Anthropology collection space.
SOLOVYEVA: Actually, when I came I just- I- I want first, when I saw that, I almost cry. Yeah. Because, you know, like, it's- I never saw this kind of clothing before, for example. I didn't even realize that they exist. And to see them, it was, like, oh wow.
Tjiong works on elaborately decorated fish skin robe.
TJIONG: I do love what I do. I find it meaningful to preserve these cultural artifacts. They all come with such an amazing history I would love to see that they're here for as long as possible.
More information about the Conservation of Siberian Collections project
Many Siberian Native scholars and artisans have now visited AMNH. In May 2012, a delegation of master craftsmen and Native experts from the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation came to the American Museum of Natural History to see a selection of objects from the Jesup collections. Two members of the delegation, Fedor Chiarin and Anna Nikiforovna, were descendants of the Orosin family and believe that their ancestors made several of the Sakha pieces in the AMNH collection. Much of the Orosin legacy in Siberia was publicly burned after the Soviet Revolution. The visiting delegation presented the Museum with a hand-carved choron goblet in the traditional Sakha style, made by Sofron Egorovich Orosin, a cousin Fedor Chiarin.
More information about the visit from Sakha Republic
"The end of a world is thus the beginning of a new one" (xvi).
Part travel book, part ethnography, The Museum at the End of the World chronicles my six-week journey with Alexia Bloch through Siberia to connect Native Siberians and Siberian institutions to archival material collected during the Jesup Expedition.
The "end" of the world imagined in the book refers less to geography than to the temporality of the post-Soviet moment as experienced in 1998. As we traveled from place to place, the people we spoke to told stories about the legacy of the past on the present and future of a culture. In a series of conversations with Native and non-Native residents of Northeast Siberia, The Museum at the End of the World sheds light on cultural preservation, persistence, and enormous challenges, both in daily life and in the museum.