Two of the leaders were museum Curator Karl P. Schmidt, herpetologist and his tocayo, F.J.W. Schmidt, mammologist, job titles which had me worried for a moment or two, but in fact point to specialisms in amphibian and mammalian life respectively.
In the silent, four-reel version, the full contingent gathers on deck before steaming out of an American port, and viewers can clearly see that one of them is brandishing what looks like a pair of skis. Unless these were ultra-thin depression-era surfboards, they are not the sort of items one would immediately think of packing for a trip to Guatemala, but then perhaps one of the adventurous academics thought it might be a lark to water ski up the Rio Dulce. I know I would...
The elegaic mood has been masterfully emphasised by the music of Estonia's greatest living composer, Arvo Pärt. Swap out this score for Wagner and you have a documentary which deploys sections of the Chicago museum footage to more ill-informed and ultimately xenophobic effect: Menace of Guatemala (1934).
4 comments:
Nice clip. The physical topo map, does it still exist?
Thank you very much for the clip. I had forgotten what certain streets looked like in la capital. My grandmother told me that back in the early 30's she went to the zoo to see a group of lacandones that had been brought in from the Peten. They were different times.
Sure does: http://www.tripomatic.com/Guatemala/Guatemala-City/Raised-Relief-Map-of-the-Republic-of-Guatemala/
As for the poor Lacandones. A la gran!
Sure does: http://www.tripomatic.com/Guatemala/Guatemala-City/Raised-Relief-Map-of-the-Republic-of-Guatemala/
As for the poor Lacandones. A la gran!
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