LGBTQ+ History Month

Guatemalan Marketplace

Across from the elevators on the Third Floor, visitors can explore a life-size diorama of a recreation of the Merced Market in Antigua, Guatemala during the mid-20th century. The Spanish erected a church there in the 18th century which suffered damage from repeated earthquakes through the centuries. You can see the fallen and broken architectural features in the background and foreground of the diorama.

The K'iche' Maya of the southern highlands visited the market for staple items such as beans, corn, chili peppers, rice, and bananas. While the market has moved to another location in Antigua, many of the items depicted here are still sold nearby.

Zingg-Bennett Tarahumara Collection

Robert Zingg and Wendell Bennett were graduate students at the University of Chicago when they led an anthropological expedition to study the Tarahumara in Chihuahua, Mexico for nine months in 1930-31. The expedition was one of the first modern studies of remote indigenous groups in Mexico, and the work published from their studies is one of the few on a culture of northern Mexico. The collection has about 400 items, ranging from basic clothing and housewares to objects used for dances and ceremonies. It is one of the earliest, most comprehensive, and largest Tarahumara collections in the United States. Some of these items can be seen in the Mexican Courtyard on the Third Floor.