Museum warns its Darwin exhibits ‘may be offensive’
Natural History Museum examines colonialist legacy of naturalist in wake of Black Lives Matter protests
THE Natural History Museum will become the latest institution to review its collections after an audit warned its Charles Darwin exhibitions could be seen as “offensive”.
An internal review, sanctioned in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, has led to an audit into some rooms, statues and collected items that could potentially cause offence.
It warns that collections, which some may find “problematic” could include specimens gathered by Darwin, whose voyage to the Galapagos Island on HMS Beagle was cited by a curator as one of Britain’s many “colonialist scientific expeditions”.
Museum bosses are now desperately seeking to address what some staff believe are “legacies of colonies, slavery and empire” by potentially renaming, relabeling, or removing these traces in the institution.
The executive board told staff in documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph that “in light of Black Lives Matter and the recent anti-racist demonstrations around the world” the museum would undertake a review of existing room names and “whether any statues (or collections) could potentially cause offence”.
One of the institution’s directors said in internal documents that new action taken to address these issues would alter “the use and display of our collections and public spaces”.
An example of the new thinking to address perceived imperial connections to science was a paper penned by a curator and shared with staff, which claimed “science, racism, and colonial power were inherently entwined”. he work further argues that “museums were put in place to legitimise a racist ideology”, that “covert racism exists in the gaps between the displays”, and as a result collections need to be decolonised. The executive board of the museum is understood to be “very engaged with the many issues and questions it highlights”.
Legacies that may fall foul of the shift in opinion might be the exotic birds of Darwin and Captain Robert FitzRoy, as their shared journey to South America was to “enable greater British control” of the region, according to the paper shared with staff. Darwin also has a statue in the museum’s main hall, and a large wing named after him. There could also be calls for specimens gathered by Sir Joseph Banks to be addressed, as the botanist sailed with Captain James Cook on the Endeavour voyage in the service of the British Empire.
The ceiling of the grand Hintze Hall, where Hope the blue whale’s skeleton hangs, could also be problematic for staff. The painted ceiling contains visual depictions of plants “like cotton, tea and tobacco” which were “the plants that fuelled the British Empire’s economy”, according to the paper
The flora specimens of British Museum founding father Sir Hans Sloane, who benefited from slavery in Jamaica, also form a large part of the collection.
Historical assemblages of items like Sir Hans’ Jamaican collection could be reviewed by the institution.
Michael Dixon, the director of the Natural History Museum, explained to staff: “The Black Lives Matter movement has demonstrated that we need to do more and act faster, so as a first step we have commenced an institution-wide review on naming and recognition. We want to learn and educate ourselves, recognising that greater understanding and awareness on diversity and inclusion are essential.”