Ancestors: Four Million Years of Humanity (Exhibition)

Exist Dates

1984 April 13 - 1984 September 9

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract

Exhibition. Opened in April 13, 1984 and closed September 9, 1984. Located in Section 4, Floor 1 in Gallery 1 at the American Museum of Natural History. "Ancestors: Four Million Years of Humanity" was an exhibition featuring more than 50 of the most historically and scientifically significant fossils of mankind's evolution.

Summary

"Ancestors: Four Million Years of Humanity" was an exhibition featuring more than 50 of the most historically and scientifically significant fossils of mankind's evolution. Among the fossils on display were the "Taung child" of South Africa; Mary and Louis Leakey's two million-year-old Zinjanthropus and Homo habilis from Olduvai Gorge; the original Pithecanthropus or "ape-man" of Java; the earliest and the latest Neanderthals, and the Heidelberg jaw. Among the prehuman fossils were Aegyptopithecus, Dryopithecus, and Silvapithecus. The exhibition included the 3.6 million-year-old mandible of the oldest known hominid, Australopithecus afarensis. Stone tools were exhibited with the fossils to document cultural development in the human line. Ian Tattersall, the then-Curator of physical anthropology at the Museum, was the curator of the exhibit. 25 institutions provided contributions. Dr. Fidel Masao, director of the National Museum of Tanzania, was one of the participants. The exhibition was supported by the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the National Science Foundation and the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation. The exhibit was on view on Gallery 1 of the American Museum of Natural History from April 13 through September 9, 1984.

Individuals and institutions involved in the creation of the exhibition: Ian Tattersall; AMNH Department of Anthropology.

Sources

American Museum of Natural History Press Releases, June 22, 1983, January 30, 1984, February 23, 1984, February 24, 1984 and February 27, 1984. Departmental Records, 101; American Museum of Natural History Library Archives.

American Museum of Natural History Press Release, Fact Sheets, June 23, 1983 and January 30, 1984. Departmental Records, 101; American Museum of Natural History Library Archives.

American Museum of Natural History Press Release, Museum Programs and Exhibitions Calendar, April, 1984. Departmental Records, 101; American Museum of Natural History Library Archives.

AMNH Annual Report 1983-84.

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Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

American Museum of Natural History. Gallery 1.
Location of exhibition.

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