CARNES, November 21, 1996 The Great Blacks in Wax Museum A place to learn more about your own history, or someone else's right in Baltimore Renee B. Jackson Contributor The Great Hacks in Wax Museum, today, receives national and international praise as the important cultural and education al site it has become, but it did not begin this way. The museum was founded by Drs.. Elmer and Joanne Martin, who were profes sors at Morgan State and Coppin State University, respectively. They started out by making small papier-mache figures in their home, years ago. But, now, the museum's growth and popularity has initiated a $lO million fundraising project for expansion M you enter the build ing, a large, renovated firehouse that is an East Baltimore historical site, you quickly understand you've stepped into a one-of-a kind place. A legend, written on the lobby floor in large black let ters reads: "America's First sack History Wax Museum: Taking You Through The Pages Of lime." To the left, a sculptured Hannibal rides a huge elephant maybe aver the Alps. And visitors will probably run into Liz Byrd, the public relations director, who is likely to be right there, eager to talk with them and tell them all about Great Blacks in Wax. "We opened these doors so that people could come and see what African Americans have to offer," Byrd explained. Behind the double-doors, painted with a multi-colored African mural, you find the first exhibit - the slave ship. Visitors react to this one as among their favorites, Byrd said. At first, the wooden slave ship replica appears to be some thing to just observe in passing through the exhibits. But a closer look reveals a sign that invites you to enter the ship. As you walk onboard, you hear a crew member conversing with the cap tain about slave cargo. The impact of this ship strikes the visitor in the slave hold. As you enter, you hear the moaning, crying, and coughing of the men, women and children imprisoned in the cramped space. The anguished sounds just go on and on, non-stop, as you look at the sculptures of men, women and children, packed tightly together, bound in chains, many of them at both the neck and the wrists "Black history is not just for February --- it's for the other 11 months." Elizabeth F. Byrd, Public Relations Coordinator The Great Blacks in Wax Museum The men are jammed so closely together that there is no room to move, barely space enough to allow breathing. The inescapable question is how so many human beings could be confined to such a tiny space and remain alive. But, the wall labels explain that many of them did not survive but died of disease and other effects of the condi- tions. One label from the ship surgeon, Alexander Falconridge, of 1788 states: "They had not so much room as a man in a coffin." Near the back of the dimly lit dungeon, a different atmosphere offers relief from the grim, mournful scene in the.— upper hdd. There is a libation area, where visitors can partici pate in the African custom to honcr their dead- relatives, some one admired, a leader, or, as the museum suggests, the slaves who were victims of the Middle Passage. In this case, the libation ritual consists of pouring provid ed water from the Atlantic Ocean into a large bowl, and stating the name of the honored person at the same time. Once outside the ship, no other exhibit evokes the same intense emotional response found inside the wooden structure. The atmosphere shifts immediately from the worst of human suffer ing and bondage to the power and endurance of human hope and progress To the left, the African American and the ancient African experiences connect. There stands a nine-foot-tall sculpture of Hatshepsut, 'The Ablest Queen of Far Antiquity." Dressed in a long, royal blue skirt, gold waist sash, and a gdd and black striped headdress, the Egyptian is known as the first woman in recorded history to have ruled a nation Then, you begin seeing a succession of historical African Americans, starting with promi nent 19th-century religious fig ures. Next, Harriet Tubman, the renowned Underground Railroad operator, is struggling to pull a man through a potbellied stove and out of a hidden hole the kitchen wall to the freedom he might gain outside. The figures used to be made of a combination of beeswax and vinyl, but now, the museum's images are made of pure beeswax. While the pure FEATURE beeswax figures look much more life-like than the ones they replaced, they are much less durable, Byrd said. "They must be handled with kid gloves," she explained The figures are created by teams of sculptures and hair weavers around the country. The teeth are made of the same mate rial used to make dentures and the eyes are the same medical glass used to make prosthetic eyes. The cost of making one fig ure is $4,000 to $6,000, not including the cost of period cloth ing and background displays. As you move on, the wax figures and displays continue to reveal a silent yet clear story of the progression of African American history. The displays depict periods and movements, such as slave revolts, including the famous one led by Nat Turner, and black politicians in the Reconstruction South. And as the historical clock ticks on, the figures take on the themes of the roles of blacks in the Civil War, legal struggles fa rights, the work and accom plishments of educators, scien tists, inventors, and many others. The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II are represented, as well as the South African freedom fight ers, among them, President Nelson Mandela. Rounding a corner near the end of the first-floor exhibit, an enormous white pdar bear appears- but, he's confined inside SENATE OFFICER AND UNIVERSITY PLANNING COUNCIL MEMBER, SCOTT KRETCHMAR, WILL ALSO GIVE A PRESENTATION ON UNIVERSITY LONG-RANGE PLANNING AT 2:30-4:30 AUDITORIUM. a glass display. A closer inspection of the exhibit label con firms that he is real, naw a product of taxidermy. But what is he doing there? It turns out to be a tribute to Matthew Henson, who is rec ognized naw as the man who actually discovered the North Pole. The last dis- play brings the visi ts' right up to the Dr - lle9mds ed ae l• Se*. c l fi ter l am l Reurc•uN present as they walk t eril i Z Great Mids t in was lesena l." is Baltimore. - into a spacecraft are c ants. "" bateraitialud illeeleeguege° ll, led the Ine a lea l team that separated the "Bender" liana= twins in where they find 1987. Hie earnestly penes as the director tithe ifral astronauts Guion "lc° arParnisic nslinsurgesT Is Johns thchins University and Hospital. Buford, the first offering, charged with emotion black man to walk in space, Mae and stimulus for human reflec- Jemison, the first black female astronaut, and Ron McNair, who was killed in the space shuttle Challenger explosion. McNair and Jemison, in fact, are seated at the control panels in a simulated spacecraft. Upstairs, the museum provides a whole room of displays for youth, entitled: "And A Little Child Shall Lead Them: Black Youth In The Struggle." Exhibits here include a variety of black leaders, and Marge Carter Smith, known as Maryland's Official Griot, sx African traditional story teller. A major feature on this floor is a shrine dedicated to the memory of Emmet Till, the African-American 14-year-old boy who visited Mississippi in 1955 and was brutally murdered for allegedly speaking to or whistling at a white woman. Like the slave ship downstairs, the Till exhibit is the second floor's high-impact IN THE illf Just before going back dawn the stairs, several African American celebrated achievers are clustered in a large group. It is easily possible to make a remark to the older woman who relaxes in a leather easychair before it becomes evident that she, too, is made of wax. She is Verda M. F. Welcome, the first black woman state senator, who served in Maryland. She is wearing a smart grey suit with a black purse on her arm as if she's just about ready to get up and dash off to an appointment. She wears silver, wire-framed glasses of the 50s and 60s that are making a come back now. Her eyes are bright and her smile reveals authentic looking teeth and gums. With all of these figures, the detailing in the sculpturing of : TWO ES I EZ:ZI •••• • •
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