MAKING AND USING THE DIORAMAS
The Kansas Museum Extension Project’s dioramas were produced in a WPA workshop located in downtown Lawrence, Kansas on Massachusetts Ave. Diorama construction was managed by William Campbell, a graduate student in Fine Arts at the University of Kansas. Sculptor Bernard
“Poco” Frazier designed the diorama figures and also oversaw their production. Between twenty to twenty-five individuals were employed by this project during the years 1938-1943. Many of these workers were drawn from the ranks of recent KU art graduates. A Nov. 2nd, 1939, article from the Lawrence Journal-World notes the objects’ popularity, as “schools and museums are placing orders for the dioramas, which are all works of art.”
Construction of the dioramas in the Lawrence WPA workshop, ca. 1939-1940 (Source: Kansas State Historical Society)
Painting diorama figures, Lawrence WPA workshop, ca. 1939-1940 (Source: Kansas State Historical Society)
The dioramas themselves were approximately 22’ long x 35’ tall x 20’ deep. Each diorama was encased in a rounded plaster dome that, according to the 1939 booklet “Early Indian Life in Kansas” that accompanied the dioramas, “gives the illusion of depth and fidelity of skyscape.” Landscapes were modeled out of water clay with layers of plaster and burlap for reinforcement. Figures were modeled in wax or clay, depending on their size and detail, then covered in a rubber mold, from which plaster casts were then made. After drying, the figures were shellacked and painted. Foliage features were made with goose feathers and colored with beeswax. A pane of glass covered the front of each diorama, held in place by engineered wood, with lighting at the top to illuminate the scene.
The “Indian Life” dioramas booklet described the physical process of making each diorama in detail, but how each scene and accompanying text was developed was less clear. The booklet mentions that each vignette was based on “intensive research” and that “every detail … has been thoroughly checked for authenticity.” The booklet also contains a discussion of “Indian Excavations in Kansas” with a bibliography of fifteen sources. However, it is unclear how this research was carried out, how the sources were utilized, and if any members of the Native peoples represented were consulted. (It should be noted that one of the sources listed was by an Indigenous author – Chief Standing Bear’s “My People, the Sioux” published in 1928.)
The dioramas were exhibited by the Museum Extension Project in schools, local museums, and even at the Kansas State Fair. The purpose of these exhibitions was to generate interest in purchasing the dioramas and other MEP objects to educate students and the general public about the subjects represented. The “Indian Life” booklet describes this motivation in more detail: “… this series has been found valuable for the social science unit dealing with Indian life taught in the primary grades or in the beginnings of Kansas history as studies in the secondary grades. For older students, too, this realistic presentation makes the subject which is now remote more vital to both knowledge and appreciation.”
The Indian Leader, Vol. 41, No. 36, Commencement 1938 (Source: Haskell Cultural Center and Museum, Haskell Indian Nations University)
Bibliography page from the “Early Indian Life in Kansas” booklet (Source: Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library)
Remarkably, the six dioramas depicting Native American peoples were also exhibited at the Haskell Institute in 1940. At that time, the Haskell Institute was a federal-run boarding school in Lawrence for Indigenous students, originally opened in 1884 to assimilate Native American students into white culture. (The institution is now Haskell Indian Nations University and celebrates Indigenous cultures.) The Haskell student newspaper,
The Indian Leader, mentioned in its May 24th, 1940 issue that a previous version of one of these WPA dioramas was even featured on the cover of a previous issue in 1938.
While the objective of educating non-Indigenous people about Native American nations as well as the specific cultural details in the diorama text is relatively progressive for this era, this connects back to the concept of “salvage anthropology” and the idea that Native history is “remote and static,” and Native peoples are disappearing.
Today, these dioramas can be seen as a product of their time, created by well-intentioned but misguided non-Native individuals.
Kansas Museum Extension Project exhibit, Kansas State Fair, Hutchinson, ca. 1939 (Source: Kansas Historical Society Archives)
