American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska (Exhibition)
birth: 1989 December 15
death: 1990 March 25
Exhibition. Opened December 15, 1989 and closed March 25, 1990. Located in Gallery 3 at the American Museum of Natural History. "Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska" was an exhibition of art and history of the native peoples in the region was presented jointly by Soviet and American museums.
Summary
"Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska" was an exhibition of art and history of the native peoples in the region was presented jointly by Soviet and American museums. The exhibition focused on eight cultures: the Koryak, Chukchi, Even, and Amur River peoples of Siberia, and the Aleut, Eskimo, Athapaskan and Tlingit in North America. The exhibiton's 500 artifacts included kayaks, ivory carvings, beadwork, masks, drums, clothing and weapons of war, as well as journals and photographs. The Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in Leningrad contributed a third of the artifacts, and the balance came from the collections of the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution, and other museums in the United States and Canada. The exhibition was developed by teams of scholars from those institutions and the Soviet Academy of Sciences with the aid of the International Research and Exchanges Board. Laurel Kendall and Stanley Freed, both in the Department of Anthropology, were the American Museum's curators for the exhibition. William W, Fitzhugh, then a curator in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, was the chief curator for the exhibition. Serghei Arutiunov of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography in Moscow was the chief Soviet curator. Major funding for the exhibit was from the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution, the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the International Research and Exchanges Board. The exhibition was on view in Gallery 3 of the American Museum of National History from December 15, 1989 through March 25, 1990. The exhibition then travelled to Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Anchorage and Ottawa before moving to the Soviet Union where it was presented in Moscow, Leningrad, Yerevan, and Novosibirsk.
Individuals and institutions involved in the creation of the exhibition: Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in Leningrad; Smithsonian Institution; Soviet Academy of Sciences; International Research and Exchanges Board; Laurel Kendall; Stanley Freed; Willaim W. Fitzhugh; Serghei Arutiunov; AMNH Department of Anthropology.