Gore Vidals _The Smithsonian Institution_

For anyone interested in this novel, today's New York Times Book Review has a detailed review of it.

On Sun, 1 Mar 1998 Felicia Pickering

Hi Felicia: I especially liked the claim 'Vidal gets away with a good deal of stereotyping, since his Iroquois aren't 'real', but rather as the curators of the 1930s conceived them.'

We all know (1) There never was an Iroquois life group ('diorama' at SI; and (2) all of the life groups which were up in the 1930s (and today) were made by 1915 at the latest, most in the 1890s.

tkavanagh curator of collections mathers museum indiana university

Tom Kavanagh said:

******************************************************* **************** I especially liked the claim 'Vidal gets away with a good deal of stereotyping, since his Iroquois aren't 'real', but rather as the curators of the 1930s conceived them.'

We all know (1) There never was an Iroquois life group ('diorama' at SI; and (2) all of the life groups which were up in the 1930s (and today) were made by 1915 at the latest, most in the 1890s. ******************************************************* ****************

Yes, Tom, I actually checked the records on this . There was a very small model of an Iroquois village (not a life group), and a statue depicting Mary Jemison carrying a baby in a cradleboard. Those were the only Iroquois 'exhibits' at the Smithsonian, and they were put up before the 1930's. Maybe Vidal was thinking of the life group of John Smith trading with the Powhatan Indians???? (which dates to at least 1906). Or (as we all know happens frequently), he was confusing the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History with the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Having 'reorganized' Tom's binders on the North America Hall exhibits myself, I can attest to this as well! Anyone care to wager if there will be a '150th Celebration' of those exhibits because they will still be there....? I remember speaking to a woman who brought her granddaughter to see the exhibits one day. The woman had visited NH when she was a little girl and was horrified to see that nothing had changed.

- Adrienne