I worked at the Field Musuem for many years and some of the best memories from my life are from my days when I worked on the exhibit Traveling the Pacific. When I was in my late 20’s the Field Museum trusted me to go on this casting trip to the Marshall Islands. I had all this exposure to people of the islands: Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia. In the last days of putting that exhibit together I was pregnant.

I was ready to have this baby in March and just at that time she [my boss, Phyllis] organized a dedication for the exhibit here in Chicago and invited all these people from all of these island cultures.

I had already left the museum waiting for the baby to arrive, but I went into the museum on that day for drumming, and dancing, and these wonderful ceremonies to dedicate the exhibit. The dancers from Hawaii put a lei around my neck. That night I had Geneva. In the hospital, I have a couple pictures here… there’s me with a lei around my neck holding my baby Geneva.

Museum: “Museum of Childbirth”

Exhibited by Tamara Biggs

Transcript edited by Sarah Crawford