The moai at Smithsonian's natural history museum.

There was a post here in May 2005 about the moai at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. I took some pictures of that moai today when I was at the museum, and posted them in the following folder. I was too lazy to make a web page with links and thumbnails, especially since I expect to be adding a lot more pictures in that and related folders soon.

http://www.simnia.com/tiki/NMNH/EISF/

There was also a post here in March 2005 about the pacific islands culture exhibit in the Smithsonian. I also have several photos of that exhibit, but it may take me a few days to find them and post them. I also came across a new statue in the Hirshhorn modern art museum recently that looks like a tiki of a frog, even though it wasn't meant to be, so I'll post that too for the heck of it, when I can find it. This forum has gotten me to looking for tikis everywhere I go.

I take frequent trips to the Smithsonian so if anybody has any specific requests for photo subjects, photo angles, different camera settings, or whatever, just let me know and I'll see what I can do. I have a digital camera with lots of memory sticks, so it doesn't cost me anything extra for more pics. For example, I probably should have tried a flash on this moai, since it's a little dark, but I'll try that next time I'm there.

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-01-15 02:49 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-01-15 02:49 ]

Nice pics - thanks for posting them.

I dunno, but that moai looks lonely and forlorn, and maybe a little humiliated, like he's dreaming of being back on the island. Or I could just be projecting. :wink: There's just something sad about him. Having a moai in the Smithsonian is kinda like that scene in Greystoke where they put Tarzan in a tux and all he can do is think about being back in the jungle.

[ Edited by: Tiki-bot 2006-01-15 09:10 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki-bot 2006-01-15 09:11 ]

He's just a baby. I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back ribs, I want my.

A little sad I would say. All Moai look best outdoors. He my want to go back to the island but its not like they need him back. Seeing like how they have like 900+

Thanks for the post. I like to see people getting exposed to such a good moai without stomping all over Easter island.

Yeah, he looks lonely to me, too.

I went back to the museum again today and got some more pics, and looked for the Pacific islands culture display, but it was gone, removed for a sea exhibit that won't open until 2008, I was told. All good things must pass. The only thing left vaguely related is a big Yap stone coin. I'll put some pics of that in a nearby folder soon, in case somebody's interested. I think those things are cool, like Nan Madol, stick charts, and other Micronesian stuff. Thanks for the interest.

I always imagined that they were much larger.

From the photos I've seen, most are much larger, and tower high over a standing person. This must be a small one. The sign says it's from a "rare inland site." If it had been much bigger, the Smithsonian probably would've had to leave it alone. The Smithsonian apparently preys on the small, the helpless, the injured moai... :)

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-01-15 15:01 ]

consider it 'progress' or whatever, but if that is all that is left of the pacific cultures exhibit at natural history, that is kind of sad.

the backstory is that the pacific cultures exhibit at the national museum of natural history in d.c. had been there as long as i could remember, and judging from the vintage of the finishes and exhibition style had probably been installed in the mid 1960's if not earlier.

when i was working at my previous job, one of our clients was the smithsonian institution. as an institution they have scores of buildings and facilities that they must constantly maintain, and within the past decade, add a "shopping opportunity" to at every turn :)

i was excited when i found out that the pacific cultures hall was going to be one of my projects. as i read the scope of work i found that this hall was the remaining space in the natural history building that still had the asbestos-based 'popcorn ceiling' that was a popular midcentury finish. of course, we now know that asbestos is not as minty fresh as we might once have thought.

to that end, any work in the ceiling nowadays required extreme measures to prevent any asbestos from being disturbed and being released into the air, so that a workman won't breathe it and turn into a radioactive slime monster because of the space spores contained within the minerals.

the project required additional updated lighting in the ceilings, so we designed an extensive network of plastic partions and a filtration system, complete with specifications written by an industrial hygiene engineer. we submitted the documents to the smithsonian and never heard anything about it.

sometime in march 2005, i was in the natural history museum and noticed that someone had removed the lava rock from the base of the moai. i felt a disturbance in the mana... as if thousands of slit drums were drumming out and then suddenly silenced. i thought... 'what if they decided that the cost of replacing the light fixtures was too high, and they're going to gut out the entire hall and exhibit?' so a couple days later, since i had my contractor's pass which allowed me in before the public, i went in and tried to document the exhibit as well as i could. sadly in the dimly-lit hall, attempts to document the items in the glass cases were mostly unsuccessful. but i did my best to capture the images for posterity.

about that time i started urging people to go see the exhibit before it was too late. i am glad pablus and others did get to see it. i never returned to find out what had happened, but since talking with tikifish and now reading this post, it seems that the smithsonian did follow through with their more extreme measures.

all of the pictures i took are at the FOM website galleries, but i suspect they might be not totally accessible to the public. a selection of the photos are at 'locating tiki' here. if the ohana wish it, i could post the approximately 40 photos to this thread.

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar 2006-01-16 05:57 ]

On 2006-01-16 05:42, Johnny Dollar wrote:
here. if the ohana wish it, i could post the approximately 40 photos to this thread.

We wish it.

Not just kind of sad: very sad. I would have loved to have seen a display that I knew had been around for so long, especially on that topic. Even that outdoor stone head is gone. At least you got some decent photos of the display before it was removed.

This modern trend of "progress" really gets me down, and this is just one example. You're right: more gift shops everywhere (the most extreme case of this I've seen is Downtown Disney, which stays open even after they've forced everyone out of Disneyland itself!), and the quality of merchandise has clearly fallen everywhere over the decades. Even the Western Cultures exhibit was closed in the museum when I went yesterday. There's a new mammals exhibit that is a little too slick and contrived for my taste, mostly about African animals, and of course some crowd pleasing manatees and dolphins. The Atrium Cafe' used to have delicious mesquite flavored sandwiches, but the last time I ate there they wanted $4 for a tiny bottle of juice, the mesquite sandwiches were gone, my substitute sandwich was lukewarm, and both employees were rude or inconsiderate.

P.S.--I thought I had photos of the Pacific cultures exhibit, but after looking at your photos, which don't look familiar at all, I may not have those photos after all. There's a chance I may never have seen the Pacific exhibit, after all. I'll have to spend some time looking.

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-01-16 06:27 ]

Good photos J$ and mbonga.
I had a chance to see that exhibit. It was very moving to me and I spent a lot of time there.

Thanks especially for the shots of that uke.

[ Edited by: pablus 2006-01-16 14:47 ]

r.i.p., smithsonian institution pacific cultures exhibit…

bonus non-tiki big stone head (also reportedly removed)

No, I saw that Olmec head when I was there, it was outside, on the lawn. Better than a lawn gnome anyday.

thx fish!

compare the differences in context :

i’m a badass! punk.

waitin’ for the wife to get outta the bathroom… dum de dum de dum…

On 2006-01-17 07:34, tikifish wrote:
No, I saw that Olmec head when I was there, it was outside, on the lawn.

Hmm. I'll have to make another trip up there to look for it. I've been in and out of both the north and south exits recently and I didn't see that stone head, but it's possible I missed it somehow.

Nice pics, Johnny Dollar. Seems like I catch everything too late. I'm just too busy, with too many job problems and moving problems. I looked up tiki bars in the DC area recently, too, but the only one mentioned was the Politiki, which is now gone. I just want to move back to California, where "I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A. ..."

Im sorry I don't remember exactly where the head was, but it was defintiely there outside one of the museums, facing the big long parky lawn thingy I think. I saw so much stuff in 4 days that the locations kinda blur together.
*Im sure theres a fancy name for that but danged if I can recall.

On 2006-01-17 14:59, tikifish wrote:
Im sorry I don't remember exactly where the head was, but it was defintiely there outside one of the museums, facing the big long parky lawn thingy I think. I saw so much stuff in 4 days that the locations kinda blur together.
*Im sure theres a fancy name for that but danged if I can recall.

OK, I went to the Smithsonian museum again today, and here's an update.

The green strip of lawn is called the National Mall, according to the following source:
http://cityguide.aol.com/washington/entertainment/venue.adp?page=detailSummary&id=64246&layer=venues
(I previously thought the "National Mall" included the buildings surrounding the lawn, but it doesn't sound like that's the case.)

You were mostly right: that big stone head is still outside the museum, although it's on the north side (not facing the National Mall) and it's to the west of the north entrance. (That's why I didn't see it before--I haven't gone past the northwest part of the building for years.) I took a bunch of pictures of it for the heck of it, since we've been discussing it. I see why it was said to be "bogus" now: it's just a replica, not the real thing. It reminds me of those vine covered ruins on the Jungle Cruise. Anyway, here are some pics of the Olmec stone head, if anybody's interested:

http://www.simnia.com/tiki/NMNH/CH4/

At least I did one thing on time: I got some pics of the rai (Yap money stone) just days before they put a big box around it and started refurbishing it. It was all boxed over today:

http://www.simnia.com/tiki/NMNH/SOS/DC060118_039_NMNH_SOS_%5bWORK_IN_PROGRESS%5d.jpg

And I took a few more pics of the moai and added them to my folder mentioned earlier in this thread. Sorry for all the duplicate photos of signs, but those signs are difficult to photograph, and I was experimenting with different lighting and angles. None came out perfect.

Any possibility the exhibit will reappear elsewhere, or is hidden away forever in the Smithsonian wherehouse?

who knows... i have no contact with the natural history people anymore.

one thing i will say from pure observation is that the museums seem to operate now less as repositories of knowledge and more as entertainment. therefore, trends and political correctness affect what is exhibited. one might posit that the perceived relevance of pacific cultures to the average tourist might be much weaker now than it was in the 1950's-60's. maybe if something happened in the pacific with the same 'newsworthiness' as hawaii's statehood in 1959, the museums would be scrambling to put the tapa cloth and bamboo back up.

but yeah, there are acres of artifacts crammed away both in the museums themselves and a warehouse facility out in maryland. there is a possibility this stuff could get stored away for a loooong time. :(

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar 2006-01-19 08:19 ]

On 2006-01-18 23:02, christiki295 wrote:
Any possibility the exhibit will reappear elsewhere, or is hidden away forever in the Smithsonian wherehouse?

I forgot to mention: I think I heard somewhere that the museum is obligated to extract and show visitors any items they wish, upon demand, because it is a public service, paid for by public taxes. But I don't remember if it was the museum that had that policy, or some other library/archive in DC. Still, it sounds right, and in this case, with so many people lamenting the demise of that exhibit, it would be worth checking on. I'll check on that the next time I'm up there, probably this weekend. I'll let everybody know.

(Like so many other government loopholes, they don't advertise that fact, for practical reasons. Kind of like when banks don't let you know that you could legally write a check on an eggshell, or that courts don't let you know that you're not obligated to vote guilty even if the evidence demands it, if you think the law itself is bad.)

Please do.

I did not see it when I did the collegiate summer on the hill. It was in my pre-tiki days, when I went to Tiki-Ti just because I liked the vibe & the exotic drinks. I would hate to think I missed possibly the only opportunity to see a real moai (in the US). Mahalo.

[ Edited by: christiki295 2006-01-19 23:55 ]

I was at the Museum of Natural History (the Dinasour Museum) in LA last Sunday and I saw a Moai by the fountain. (Off the Jeferson parking lot).

Maybe the Gods are looking out for us, after all.

On 2006-01-23 23:52, christiki295 wrote:
I was at the Museum of Natural History (the Dinasour Museum) in LA last Sunday and I saw a Moai by the fountain. (Off the Jeferson parking lot).

Which fountain? Do you mean the Jefferson Memorial, or a street named Jefferson? I love getting out and taking photos, so I'd be happy to take lots of photographs of anything in the area that interests anybody. (At least until I can find a job.)

Here's an update on what I found out this past weekend when I asked at the Smithsonian museum's information desk... I was given two phone numbers, one for the Registrar, another for the Anthropology Collections Management. (The Pacific cultures exhibit falls under anthropology, right? That's what the employee thought.) The info desk said the Registrar was the best number to call, so I called the Registrar today, but they said that wasn't the best number to call. They gave me another number. That number suggested using the Internet and e-mail, which I did, and I e-mailed the person listed at the following URL:

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/
Department of Anthropology
Smithsonian Institution
P.O. Box 37012
NMNH, MRC 112
Washington, DC 20013-7012

But I haven't received a response yet. I have two more numbers to call, and if they don't get back with me, I'll post all those phone numbers and e-mail addresses so you all can PESTER THEM UNTIL THEY COMPLY. :) Oh yes.

I also passed by a store called Artifactory while on the way to check out the new nearby science museum, but the store was closed. They had a lot of wooden carvings inside and in the windows, so I thought they might have tikis, too, but I called them today and they said they carry only African and Asian art. No luck. But your faithful D.C. Correspondent will keep trying to track down all those D.C. area tikis for you all.

The rai in the museum was not only still boxed over for refurbishment, but they're doing some kind of refurbishment all around it now on the first floor, all kinds of temporary walls and stuff boxed up all over. I added a few more incidental pics to my moai folder mentioned in my first post of this thread, if anybody's interested. And that's about it.

Keep at it, Mbonga!

The Natural History Museum to which I was refering is in Los Angeles, across from USC, on Jefferson Blvd.

On moai disappears on one coast and is sighted on the other.

On 2006-01-24 22:29, mbonga wrote:
That number suggested using the Internet and e-mail, which I did, and I e-mailed the person listed at the following URL:

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/

But I haven't received a response yet. I have two more numbers to call, and if they don't get back with me, I'll post all those phone numbers and e-mail addresses so you all can PESTER THEM UNTIL THEY COMPLY. :) Oh yes.

I sent an email - help grease the wheels.

I forgot to mention: I think I heard somewhere that the museum is obligated to extract and show visitors any items they wish, upon demand, because it is a public service, paid for by public taxes. But I don't remember if it was the museum that had that policy, or some other library/archive in DC.

I doubt the Smithsonian would do this, but I know for a fact the National Archives in DC does. That's what they're there for. I spent a week there gathering WW2 images a few years ago. They have the most ridiculously arcane and non-obvious filing "system" I've ever seen. But if you have the time, it would be interesting to see if they have any good tiki stuff there. I wouldn't even know what categories to look under, but they have millions of documents and photos there, so it'd be interesting to see what you could dig up.

But if you have the time, it would be interesting to see if they have any good tiki stuff there. I wouldn't even know what categories to look under, but they have millions of documents and photos there, so it'd be interesting to see what you could dig up.

You shouldn't have told me. :) I think you just killed several days of my spare time. OK, one more fun thing on my list of things to do up there on my next visit!

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-01-26 10:54 ]

actually, what are the chances that there is not and anthroplogist on tc? speak up anthropologists, we need you to get the inside skinny on pacific stuff in the smithsonian!

Update...

I made a trip to the national Archives building in D.C. about a week ago. The library entrance is on the north side, whereas the tourist entrance is on the south side. The library's information desk told me they have only lists of things like servicemen from World War II, so any photo archives would be in the College Park facility in Maryland. Since that is out of convenient reach for me, I'll abandon that avenue of research.

As for the Smithsonian archives people, after nobody responded to my e-mail after a week, I called one of the archives people and was told to send e-mail again with my request since their e-mail system was down the previous week. (Doesn't anything work anymore?) I did so over a week ago, and I called back Friday (yesterday), and still did not receive any response by either phone or e-mail. Since they aren't responding, it's time to declare war. So here is their contact info. I hope you all call and send e-mail, requesting photos or permission to photograph their removed Pacific Cultures exhibit:

Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/
Department of Anthropology
Smithsonian Institution
P.O. Box 37012
NMNH, MRC 112
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Tel 202.633.1920
Fax 202.357.2208
[email protected]

David Rosenthal
Assistant Collections Manager
Collections and Archives Program
Department of Anthropology
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
Phone: 301-238-1318
Fax: 301-238-3109
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/cm
[email protected]

Update:

I received a response on February 17th from Adrienne Kaeppler of the Smithsonian. The main news was negative. The use of Smithsonian materials on websites is governed by licensing requests and agreements, which means you have to pay hefty fees to even put one of their photos online.

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/cm/index.htm

However, they are systematically photographing the Hawaiian materials in their collections and those will be placed on the Smithsonian website, supposedly soon.

There was supposed to have been a "Hawaiian Treasures" exhibit at the Smithsonian last year, but I didn't hear about it so I missed it. Did anybody else here catch that and get photos of it?

christiki295 wrote:

I was at the Museum of Natural History (the Dinasour Museum) in LA last Sunday and I saw a Moai by the fountain. (Off the Jeferson parking lot).

I photographed that last August 6...too bad about the graffiti.



And for ye ole TC search engine, the plaque reads:
International Fund
for Monuments Inc.
No. 3 of 100 1974
Work Executed by Lippincott
North Haven Conn

http://www.thelope.blogspot.com

[ Edited by: tikijackalope 2006-03-03 11:37 ]

No. 3 of 100 1974

I take it that's a replica, then? And are 99 more moai floating around somewhere, or does that refer to any such monuments, I wonder?

Nice pics, thanks. Being outdoors helps to light a moai much better, compared to the indoor Smithsonian moai, but on the other hand it also allows vandals to get to it, obviously.

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-03-03 12:21 ]

...too bad about the graffiti.

that's no graffiti,
that's actually the rapa nui bird god petroglyph.

On 2006-01-17 07:26, Johnny Dollar wrote:

When I visited the Smithsonian in 1998 or so, this Moai had it's Pukao (topknot or head dress) intact!

I wonder what became of it?

[ Edited by: tikibars 2006-03-03 13:43 ]

On 2006-03-03 12:17, mbonga wrote:

No. 3 of 100 1974

I take it that's a replica, then? And are 99 more moai floating around somewhere, or does that refer to any such monuments, I wonder?

From "Big Stone Head" (manusript finished, BTW, just rying to find a publisher who can do color):

"Just two years later, Lan Chile and Air France attempted to build a transoceanic fueling station on the island. Dozens of moai and ahu would have been destroyed in the process. Samuel Adams Green - a special projects director with The International Fund for Monuments - in conjunction with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), brought an eight foot moai head to New York City, in order to raise awareness for the potential archeological disaster. Actress Yvette Mimieux and many others lent the project their support. The moai noggin was displayed through the autumn of 1968 at Seagram's Plaza (375 Park Avenue), where it generated enough press to stop the desecration of that particular corner of the island. For the moment. It also gave a boost to William Mulloy’s work in restoring various ahu and moai.

As many as one hundred copies of Green’s big stone head were made, ostensibly to be sold off in order to raise funds for International Fund for Monuments (an organization founded by retired U.S. Army colonel James Gray). The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has one of them, donated in 1974 by Charles M. Grace of the IFM."

Mahalo, Tikijackalope & Tikibars for the photos and historical answer.

[i]On 2006-03-03 13:47, tikibars wrote:

From "Big Stone Head" (manusript finished, BTW, just rying to find a publisher who can do color).

Can't wait!

Was in D.C. last week on business and stopped into the Smithsonian Museums. It allows me to post some fresh pics of this treasure:

I wish I had known you were in town! I'd have loved to get together for a drink or whatnot. I was at Natural History a few weeks ago just cause I had nothing better to do and got a pic, too! I'd wanted to see him for years and kept forgetting he was just a short ride away on the metro!