{"title":"Proximity, wholeness, and animality: The case of Little Sorrel's repatriation","authors":"Jessica Landau PhD","doi":"10.1111/cura.12557","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Frederic Webster, chief preparator at the Carnegie Museum (CM) from 1897 to 1907, is credited by some for “rescuing” Lion Attacking a Dromedary (LAD) from destruction by the American Museum of Natural History. Webster's work on LAD was not his only involvement with the preparation and display of controversial bones, however. Webster mounted the hide and bones of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson's war horse, Little Sorrel and displayed the skeleton at CM. In 1949, Little Sorrel's skeleton were returned to Virginia, where it was eventually cremated and interred under a statue of Jackson in a public ceremony in 1997. This article compares the return and reburial of the bones of a Confederate horse to the continued display of the remains of a person of unknown origin in LAD to highlight the very differing treatment of these human and equine individuals. By considering the return of Little Sorrel's remains to be a repatriation, I argue that the horse was transformed from a museum specimen into a monument, leveling him as a symbol of the Lost Cause and further cementing the status of the individual contained within LAD as a specimen. Through a displayed proximity to animals, Jackson (and his horse) become more human, while the person whose remains remain on display in LAD is treated as less than human.</p>","PeriodicalId":10791,"journal":{"name":"Curator: The Museum Journal","volume":"66 3","pages":"467-481"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/cura.12557","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Curator: The Museum Journal","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cura.12557","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Frederic Webster, chief preparator at the Carnegie Museum (CM) from 1897 to 1907, is credited by some for “rescuing” Lion Attacking a Dromedary (LAD) from destruction by the American Museum of Natural History. Webster's work on LAD was not his only involvement with the preparation and display of controversial bones, however. Webster mounted the hide and bones of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson's war horse, Little Sorrel and displayed the skeleton at CM. In 1949, Little Sorrel's skeleton were returned to Virginia, where it was eventually cremated and interred under a statue of Jackson in a public ceremony in 1997. This article compares the return and reburial of the bones of a Confederate horse to the continued display of the remains of a person of unknown origin in LAD to highlight the very differing treatment of these human and equine individuals. By considering the return of Little Sorrel's remains to be a repatriation, I argue that the horse was transformed from a museum specimen into a monument, leveling him as a symbol of the Lost Cause and further cementing the status of the individual contained within LAD as a specimen. Through a displayed proximity to animals, Jackson (and his horse) become more human, while the person whose remains remain on display in LAD is treated as less than human.
弗雷德里克·韦伯斯特(Frederic Webster)是1897年至1907年卡内基博物馆(CM)的首席筹备人,一些人认为他从美国自然历史博物馆(American Museum of Natural History)的毁灭中“拯救”了“狮子攻击单峰骆驼”(LAD)。然而,韦伯斯特对LAD的研究并不是他唯一参与准备和展示有争议的骨头的工作。韦伯斯特把邦联将军托马斯·“石墙”·杰克逊的战马“小Sorrel”的兽皮和骨头装上,并在CM展示了它的骨架。1949年,小Sorrel的骨架被运回弗吉尼亚州,最终在那里被火化,并于1997年在一个公开仪式上被埋葬在杰克逊的雕像下。这篇文章比较了归还和重新埋葬一匹邦联马的骨头和在LAD继续展示一个来历不明的人的遗骸,以突出这些人类和马的不同待遇。考虑到小Sorrel遗骸的归还是一种遣返,我认为这匹马从博物馆标本变成了一座纪念碑,使他成为失败事业的象征,并进一步巩固了LAD作为标本所包含的个体地位。通过与动物的亲密接触,杰克逊(和他的马)变得更像人类,而在LAD中展出的人的遗体则被视为不像人类。