Each year, the nation’s history museums interpret America’s past for millions of visitors. While well-known institutions like the National Museum of American History and Colonial Williamsburg draw large crowds, smaller entities such as the California Afro-American Historical Museum or the Oneida Village Historic Society also attract a significant share of the visitor audience.
Museums are unique in their ability to gather, curate, and present large numbers of artifacts — objects, maps, paintings, manuscripts, audio recordings, and photographs. They can use these materials to create engaging and memorable experiences that engage visitors in new ways. Some history museums use fewer artifacts than others, but all share the goal of creating compelling exhibits that make the past real to their audiences and that offer insights into the human condition and broader social trends.
A histolircal exhibit can be as simple as a “cabinet of curiosities,” or it may take a more complex form involving many different artifacts and other materials. Regardless of the type of exhibition, it must be designed to provide insight into a specific period or theme, and the exhibit should be based on solid research and effective interpretation.
To meet the challenges of twenty-first century visitors, museums must be willing to challenge old narratives and to seek out and tell stories that are relevant to people’s lives. This means finding new sources and talking with the people whose histories have been excluded from museum collections. It also means proving to the public that museums are worthy of their tax-exempt status by providing a valuable service for all members of their communities.
Exhibits that explore abstract ideas — such as home, freedom, faith, democracy, or social justice — offer rich fodder for interpretation. They can enable museums to dive into core values and beliefs and look at them through the lenses of their diverse communities. Exhibits that explore rites of passage, such as birth, death, marriage/joining, or coming of age, also lend themselves to inclusive collecting. Themes such as food and drink, clothing and adornment, or artistic industries can highlight the diversity of cultural expression.
Museum exhibitions — whether large or small, scholarly or popular, permanent or temporary — have the power to change our understanding of the past. Their influence can extend far beyond the walls of a single institution or even a country. They can shape how we see ourselves and how we understand our place in the world.
The “Museum Exhibition and Interpretation” column will explore innovative work that stretches the established parameters of historical presentations and interpretation in museums. It will examine a wide variety of topics, from exhibitions that suggest new ways to improve collaboration between scholars and museum professionals to shows that showcase community driven collecting initiatives or that utilize innovative techniques of exhibitry to reach non-traditional or underserved audiences. The column will also publish exhibition reviews that contribute to a literature of museum scholarship — a record of the way in which historians analyze and evaluate museum exhibitions.