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Objects of Wonder: The Face of Battle without the Rules of War

Date:
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Time:
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Location:
Q?rius Theater, Ground Floor, National Museum of Natural History
10th St. and Constitution Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20013
United States
   

 Red Horse_Battle of Little Bighorn 1881_National Anthropolog
 Red Horse (Minneconjou Lakota Sioux, 1822-1907) Untitled from the Red Horse
 Pictographic Account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1881. Courtesy of the
 National Anthropological Archives/Smithsonian Institution.





 


 

What was warfare like without the laws of armed conflict to constrain violence? In a series of over 40 extraordinary drawings now housed in the National Anthropological Archives at the National Museum of Natural History, Red Horse, a Minneconjou Sioux warrior who fought at the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn—also known as Custer’s Last Standvividly and candidly portrayed the unrestrained brutality of the battle and its aftermath.

Scott Sagan, professor of political science at Stanford University and chair of the New Dilemmas in Ethics, Technology, and War project at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, will discuss how this artwork can not only help us gain insight into the past, but also better understand contemporary warfare in the age of fast paced technology.

At the start of the program, hear from cultural anthropologist and director of the National Anthropological Archives Jake Homiak, on the importance of collecting these drawings by Red Horse and other notable Plains Indians such as the Kiowa artist Silver Horn. A remarkable hide painting by Silver Horn that depicts a sham battle is on display in the Objects of Wonder exhibit at NMNH. The stories behind the creation of both the Red Horse drawings and the painting by Silver Horn reflect the unanticipated ways in which these cultural artifacts came into being and were later understood and valued by scholars across various disciplines.

The program will be followed by an opportunity to engage with the speakers and see a selection of rarely-displayed drawings by Red Horse. 

This program is presented with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as part of the Beyond the Exhibition: Objects of Wonder series, which offers opportunities to look more closely at some of the objects in the acclaimed Objects of Wonder exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History. 

 Visit the Objects of Wonder exhibition on the second floor of the National Museum of Natural History. Open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily.

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