CONSERVATION OF LANDING OF SLAVES AT JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA, 1619 DIORAMA; THE LEGACY OF AN AFRICAN AMERICAN EMANCIPATION EXPOSITION
Date
2018-05
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Readers of this analysis likely associate dioramas with middle school book
reports and taxidermy-filled natural history museums; therefore, the diorama medium
may seem to be an odd choice with which to uplift the perception of Africans
Americans. However, the subject of this study, The Landing of Slaves at Jamestown,
Virginia, 1619, one of a series of twenty dioramas made for the American Negro
Exposition of 1940 in Chicago, followed in a long tradition of esteemed diorama
production and contributed to two parallel trends that swept the western hemisphere:
World Fair Mania and Diorama Fever. This surviving diorama also serves as a
testament to a pivotal moment in the history of African American civil rights, when
the race leaders Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were vying for influence,
before the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. The purpose of my
thesis research is two-fold: to preserve the psychological and the physical legacy of
the American Negro Exposition dioramas. I endeavor to accomplish this task by
investigating the sociopolitical climate leading up the to the creation of the dioramas,
providing evidence of the positive outcomes generated by the dioramas immediately
following the Exposition, and explaining the diversity initiative presently surrounding
the diorama series that aims to carry forward the aspirations of Washington and
DuBois to benefit future generations of African Americans. Lastly, I will present my
own contribution to the legacy of the American Negro Exposition dioramas: the
conservation of diorama Number 11. The Landing of Slaves at Jamestown, Virginia,
1619.
This thesis is comprised of eight chapters that attempt to integrate into a
singular narrative the historical research, chemical analysis, and art conservation
treatment that I performed surrounding the Landing of Slaves at Jamestown, Virginia,
1619 diorama. The first chapter expounds the competing ideologies of Booker T.
Washington and W.E.B. DuBois that dually defined and muddled early attempts by
African Americans to obtain equal rights. The second chapter focuses on the
organization of the American Negro Exposition and its immediate outcomes, with
particular attention paid to the twenty-diorama series. Chapter 3 highlights the
decisive moment when twenty of the American Negro Exposition dioramas were
gifted to Tuskegee Institute and restored rather than being discarded. Chapter 4
describes the condition of the Landing of Slaves at Jamestown, Virginia, 1619 diorama
before treatment. Chapter 5 examines the aesthetic choices and possible symbolism
underlying the depiction of the historical subject. Chapter 6 reports the results of
chemical analysis performed on the diorama’s construction materials and paints.
Chapter 7 describes the art conservation techniques that I performed to return the
diorama to a presentable state in preparation for its exhibition at the Tuskegee Legacy
Museum in the Fall of 2018, and Chapter 8 presents closing remarks.
The aforementioned topics evidence the psychological and physical legacy of
the American Negro Exposition dioramas in the past, present, and future. This thesis
can be considered in two halves; the first, consisting of Chapters 1–3, focuses on the
psychological legacy of the dioramas in the past, while the second half, consisting of
Chapters 4–7, documents the physical legacy in the present and moving forward.
Description
Keywords
Art Conservation, diorama,conservation