Famed conservationist and primatologist Jane Goodall is coming to the Field Museum next month, albeit in hologram form. “Becoming Jane: The Evolution of Dr. Jane Goodall” will open on Chicago’s Museum Campus on May 21, arriving in touring form from the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C.
Goodall, of course, is the British scientist who studied chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania beginning in 1960, and in the process of doing so pretty much overturned what we know about animals and how we study them.
She’s still at it, even after having turned 87 this last weekend.
Along with a hologram of Goodall talking about her experiences in Tanzania, the exhibit will include at recording of Goodall reading from “The Story of Doctor Dolittle” (a favorite and formative book as a child), a virtual journey with her through the Gombe Stream National Park and a replica of her research tent in Tanzania in which she spent hours writing her research notes in lamplight.
“Becoming Jane” will be the biggest opening at the Field in more than a year, said Field Museum project manager Emily Parr, and should be a big draw, mostly because there’s so much interest in the famous scientist herself.
“Jane Goodall really captures peoples’ imaginations,” Parr said. “Her curiosity and determination to study chimpanzees.”
That curiosity began as a child “and she learned along the way,” Parr said. In this exhibit, “you get to learn along with her.”
Goodall was groundbreaking in the way she studied chimpanzees by living with a community in the wild and spending so much time just observing. She gave her subjects names, rather than just numbering them as specimens, and discovered in them many behaviors previously only thought of as human. Such as toolmaking, said Parr, and having different personalities and emotions and being capable of affection.
“She got to know them as individuals,” Parr said.
Goodall has since established an institution in her name with conservation efforts around the world, as well as the Roots & Shoots nonprofit for young environmentalists. She continues to stay active and give lectures.
“She’s sort of tireless in her support of the natural world,” Parr said.
“Becoming Jane” was created by the National Geographic Museum in partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute. In honor of her recent birthday, National Geographic launched a virtual tour of the exhibition now up in D.C., which Parr hopes will help drum up interest in its upcoming visit to the Field.
“It’s really exciting for us to bring this one,” she said.
“Becoming Jane: The Evolution of Dr. Jane Goodall” runs May 21 to Sept. 6 at the Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive (special exhibition ticket); more at www.fieldmuseum.org. Take a virtual tour now at vr.nationalgeographic.org.
dgeorge@chicagotribune.com
