Gordon D. Gibson, Ethnologist

Summary

• As he prepares several of his photographs for exhibition, Ethnologist Gordon Gibson of the Department of Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History, standing to the left, compares a beaded headdress with one in his photo of Himba women of Namibia, which is located on the south Atlantic coast of Africa and previously known as South West Africa.
• In 1958, Gibson joined the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Anthropology as its first curator of African ethnology. During the 1960s, he undertook a major renovation of the National Museum of Natural History's African exhibits, which had been on display since the 1920s. He helped establish the National Anthropological Film Center, now the Human Studies Film Archives, at the Smithsonian. During his tenure at the Natural History Museum, he served as acting chair of the Anthropology department. He also served as the first chair of the museum's Senate of Scientists (1963-64), chair of the museum's photographic facilities committee, and member of the Center for the Study of Man. In addition, he chaired a committee studying the feasibility of establishing a Museum of Man at the Smithsonian. Gibson conducted field work among the Herero and Himba in Botswana.

Subject

• Gibson, Gordon D
• Museum of Natural History (U.S.)
• Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Office of Anthropology
• National Museum of Natural History (U.S.)
• National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Dept. of Anthropology

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

• Kjell Bloch Sandved of the Office of Exhibits, National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), at the commission of Porter Kier, then Director, NMNH, prepared these photographic materials to document personnel and activities of NMNH in 1975.
• Featured in the Smithsonian "Torch," November 1976
• For other images of Gordon Gibson, see negative numbers SIA2013-03940 and SIA2013-03942. There are both color and black and white versions of this particular image.

Contained within

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95-013, Box 1, Folder: 1: A-Kier; Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371, Box 2, Folder: November 1976

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

1975

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

• Women
• Clothing and dress
• Anthropology
• Ethnology
• Headdresses
• Employees
• Museums
• Headgear
• Artifacts
• Costume
• Personnel management
• Smithsonian Institution
• Exhibitions
• Ethnologists
• African Dress
• Anthropologists
• Museum--employees
• Photographs
• Smithsonian Institution--Employees

Place

• South-West Africa
• Namibia
• Africa

Form/Genre

• Photographic print
• Person, candid
• Slide

ID Number

SIA2013-03941 and 92-1784

Physical description

Color: Color; Black and White; Size: 1w X 1 3.7h; 10w x 8h; Type of Image: Person, candid; Medium: Slide; Photographic print;

Full Record

View Full Record