The National Museum of Natural History, The Hall of Human Origins

One of my strongest memories from this museum back when I first visited it in the late 1960's was the Hall of Man (I think that's what it was called then).  There were lots of diramas of cavemen and women, and others were people in what I remembered as costumes.  Returning to it again in the 1990's upon my moving to DC, I was no longer left feeling nostalgic for the exhibits.  I was horrified!  They were so backward thinking and frankly off the charts racist.  I left feeling embarrassed and ashamed of the institution that would allow such a pathetic exhibit to be viewed by the public.  Apparently, they had come to a similar conclusion. And in the beginning of the new millennium shut the space down and set about completely redesigning it to the tune of a 20.7 million dollar recreation.  To accomplish this, they accepted the generous gift of 15 million from notorious conservative oligarch, David H. Koch.  As you can tell, I'm not a fan; however, the proof is in the pudding. 

The new Hall of Human Origins opened in 2010 and it is stunning.  The shear number of human fossil remains and fragments along with dozens of artifacts mapping out the couple hundred thousand years of human evolution are mind-boggling.  Gone are all the cheesy caveman-ikins (see what I did there?) and in their place are a series of lovely bronze sculptures.  At one point to can walk up to a model of cave covered in carefully reproduced examples of cave art like those found in southern Europe.  And the narrative of how man's physical and intellectual evolution affected our understanding of our sense of meaning and relationship with the world around us is told in a most compelling manner. 

Full disclosure, I am aware that many find fault with the exhibit for not emphasizing our current conundrum of global warming and climate change, and you what?  I say, bullshit.  Honestly, no single exhibit can do everything, and I can't help but believe that the only reason this is an issue here is because of the financial underpinning of a Koch brother.