Find Black and Women's History Elements Conjoined in Love on the Mall
Sleeping Africa from the Herbert Ward collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
What did the sculptor intend with this image?
How do you interpret it?
Highlighted early in our heroine’s story is her work on the once famous Herbert Ward collection from the Congo along with his own sculptures. Estela helps set up the Exhibit which lasted forty years in the National Museum and gave millions of visitors a look at African artifacts and moving sculptures of Congolese people. Reflect on how an exhibit like this shaped millions of visitors’ minds about Africa.
The Exhibit, required by Ward to be shown only in its entirety, now rests in the Smithsonian Archives warehouse with access online and by special request – which thanks to a kind anthropologist resulted in a special tour! She even had two statues partially uncrated for me to view in person.
More from the Ward Collection
See more in the Ward Catalogue
A Barongo Girl
Bronze bust by Herbert Ward
Distress or The Tragedy of the Congo
Partially uncrated for my visit to the Smithsonian Archives
Luba Memory Board
Lukasa (memory board), Luba people, carved wood. In Luba culture the carved memory boards encode royal histories
Smithsonian Warehouse
The collection can only be viewed online now, absent special request.
Estela, a fledgling anthropologist, studies under Franz Boas and crosses paths with Margaret Mead. In the riveting history, Gods of the Upper Air, author Charles King introduces us to the “circle of renegade anthropologists (who) reinvented race, sex and gender in the twentieth century.” A great read for those wanting more history on race as a social construct. Or listen to the Throughline podcast with the author.
When it comes to women’s history, Estela is part of that reinvention of what females can do. Building on the spirit of women’s suffrage, and maturing during the roaring twenties, Estela struggles to define herself in her relationships and her work, giving us insights into the environment feminists faced one hundred years ago.