Caspar Mayer and Dioramas: Constructing Race and Memory

Caspar Mayer and Franz Boas

Caspar Mayer (c. 1860-1925) was a German immigrant sculptor who worked at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York and the New York State Museum in Albany.
He collaborated with anthropologist Franz Boas at the AMNH from 1896 to 1905, and with Arthur Parker at the New York State Museum around 1910.
Mayer created figures for dioramas, contributing to the visual culture of North America in the early 20th century.
It is estimated Mayer contributed to around 20 dioramas across the two institutions, with about five figures each. Despite this, he remains understudied.

Dioramas as Epistemological Images

Dioramas and their figures are epistemological images, which played a role in developing scientific understanding and served as a key source of information about Native American populations around 1900.
They are comparable to prints, photographs, sculptures, books and installations.
The epistemological and memorial dimension of the figures is determined by cultural encounters and physical contact between the model and artistic materials.
Mary Louise Pratt's concept of "contact zones" highlights encounters, collisions, and power relationships in the creation of dioramas, referencing reservations, schools, and fairs/exhibitions.
The focus is on the production of figures and casts, shedding light on the construction of racial models in the United States, which was a material, visual, and intellectual undertaking.

Donna Haraway's Analysis of AMNH Dioramas

Donna Haraway's analysis in "Teddy Bear Patriarchy" examines animal dioramas in the AMNH, created by Carl Akeley, as instruments of evolutionary discourse shaped by paternalism, racism, and sexism.
Haraway likens Akeley's quest for perfect specimens to eugenics research, viewing taxidermy and photography as technologies serving conservative ideals.
While influential, Haraway's analysis has led to oversimplified interpretations of dioramas, which are not simply ideological tools.
Dioramas result from encounters between artists, anthropologists, and models, combining various materials and cultural products into heterogeneous installations.
Dioramas have a rightful place in art history akin to theater, nativity scenes, Renaissance sculpture, and contemporary installations like Marcel Duchamp’s Étant donnés (1946–66), Edward Kienholz’s Roxys (1962), and Ai Weiwei’s S.A.C.R.E.D. (2013).

Franz Boas and Cultural Relativity

Franz Boas aimed to affirm the relativity of cultures through dioramas, opposing evolutionary models that ranked cultures based on material culture.
Boas sought to present each culture according to its own logic, rather than a comparative perspective, presenting objects in replicated natural contexts.
Dioramas also intended to preserve the memory of cultures perceived to be disappearing around 1900, aligning with initiatives like Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian.
Plaster figures in Boas’s dioramas contextualized the museum's collection of artifacts, with Morris K. Jesup likening the figures to exhibition signage.

Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World's Fair, 1904)

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904 was divided into: anthropological section (human villages), "the Pike" (entertainment fair), an Indian School, and an Anthropology Building.
The fair celebrated the expansion of North American territory and showcased indigenous peoples under U.S. colonial control, including those from the Philippines, revealing the imperialistic context.
Caspar Mayer worked in the Anthropology Building's basement alongside Boas, Aleš Hrdlička, and James McKeen, taking casts of islanders, with Boas praising the results.
Mayer’s studio was a success and attracted a stream of inquisitive visitors.
The subjects included Native Americans, Filipino tribes, and Caucasian visitors; data such as name, gender, age, weight, and eye/skin color was recorded.

Mayer's Collaboration with Boas

Boas encouraged artists to gather reliable data, though untrained individuals often did the work.
Mayer had considerable freedom in his collaborations with Boas, influencing representations at the AMNH.
Mayer proposed bringing Matthew Anklé, a Sioux, to New York City, seeking an ideal specimen to preserve racial purity, mirroring Haraway's analysis of natural history dioramas.

Expertise and Recognition

The ownership of knowledge and technical expertise became an issue between artists and anthropologists.
Hrdlička published Mayer's casting technique without credit, leading Boas to defend Mayer's contribution and Mayer subsequently patenting his method.
Mayer emphasized the scientific dimension of his work, citing fieldwork, the number of busts crafted (150), and endorsements from prominent figures.
Mayer also highlighted his artistic background, including studies at the Cooper Institute, the Metropolitan Art School, and apprenticeship with John Quincy Adams Ward.
Ward is known for bronze sculptures of Native Americans, such as The Indian Hunter.
Mayer combined roles as artist and researcher, contributing to scientific imaging and visualizations.

Transformation of Casts

Casts were replicated, transformed, and transported to different places, with examples showing modifications to reflect racialized versions of the body such as the "Negrito" casts.
Alterations included opening closed eyes, changing the hair to resemble a racial caricature, and accentuating features to conform to expected stereotypes.

Boas and the Construction of Race

Boas is often credited with replacing the notion of race with culture, but the construction of his dioramas reveals a coexistence of both categories in his museological practice.
Casts were reworked to construct racial types, even if the original life casts did not meet expectations.
Facial features were caricatured to allow clear identification of the intended physical types.
Boas and Mayer intended to multiply and sell these sculptures, establishing a shared anthropological vocabulary across institutions.

Hall of the Races of Mankind

Mayer's casts had an afterlife in projects like the Hall of the Races of Mankind at the Field Museum in Chicago.
Malvina Hoffman created bronze statues for the Field Museum, claiming to capture the "essence" of a race rather than a documentary reproduction.
Hoffman was directly inspired by Mayer's casts, specifically a Sioux figure likely taken at the Lower Brulé reservation.
Hoffman's sculpture is a direct reprise of Mayer's work, with only the pedestal altered, showcasing redeployment of AMNH casts.

Legacy and Memory

Mayer's casts and mannequins circulated in both space and time, with some figures still displayed at the AMNH today.
The circulation of impressions reveals the continuity of institutions and inherited representations.

Casts as Relics

According to Hans Belting, contact is at the origin of representations, making the image a relic of physical contact.
Casts made around 1900 derive value from the original contact with the body, multiplied and reproduced.
Physical contact gives the quality of relic to the casts and figures used in the diorama.

Shako:wi Cultural Center

The Shako:wi Cultural Center exhibits figures from a diorama made by Arthur Parker around 1910, using Mayer's casts; the labels have been rewritten.
Parker and Boas knew each other and shared an interest in dioramas and mannequin making in order to create and promote a racialized view of Native American bodies.
The texts now provide information about the identity and history of the represented individuals, not the types they were initially used to exemplify.
The mannequins are regarded as portraits, cherished for their ability to preserve the memory of departed individuals.
The figures and dioramas are epistemological images, forming part of a larger corpus along with photographs, books, sculptures, and installations.
The co-presence and contact between artist, model, and artistic material gave life-cast mannequins a scientific and mnemonic dimension to the museum display.