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<\/a><\/p>\nIn January 1935, the Vernay-Hopwood Chindwin Expedition set out from Rangoon to explore the upper reaches of the \u201cmighty Chindwin River\u201d on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The three-month expedition gathered the museum\u2019s founding biological and anthropological collections from an under researched area to the east of Burma\u2019s border with Assam and to the south of Tibet. Confluences explores the complex social life of this extraordinary enterprise through an assortment of objects that were both carried to the field and collected en route.<\/p>\n
Expeditions have long been the subject of natural history and anthropology exhibitions. Most have emphasized the biographies and activities of organizers, sponsors, and field scientists, but Confluences is unusual because it focuses on the working methods of the expedition rather than on the biographies of the explorers. At the heart of Confluences is the idea that expeditions were cosmopolitan adventures that relied on the adroitness and cooperation of numerous local indigenous agents, as well as professionals, in order to make scientific discoveries.<\/p>\n