''The Races of Mankind'' is a series of 104 sculptures created for the Field Museum of Natural History in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Malvina Hoffman Malvina Cornell Hoffman (June 15, 1885July 10, 1966) was an American sculptor and author, well known for her life-size bronze sculptures of people. She also worked in plaster and marble. Hoffman created portrait busts of working-class people and ...

, representing the various races of

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

kind, and unveiled in 1933. Most of the sculptures are life-sized. The works were initially housed in Hall 3, the Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall ("The Hall of the Races of Mankind"). Hoffman wrote about her travels around the world to draw and model the various different types of people in her 1936 book '' Heads and Tales''. After a period of controversy as to whether or not the exhibit was racist, it was discontinued in 1969. For decades, some of the works could be found in various places in the museum. Others were in storage. In 2015, the Field Museum restored many of the sculptures, and in January 2016 the museum mounted a new exhibition, ''Looking at Ourselves: Rethinking the Sculptures of Malvina Hoffman''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Races of Mankind Art exhibitions in the United States