Each year museum exhibitions introduce historical subjects to millions of visitors. Though famous institutions such as the National Museum of American History and Colonial Williamsburg draw large crowds, many smaller entities such as the Oneida Indian Museum, California Afro-American Museum, and Valentine Museum do a fine job as well. They engage audiences because they connect, in a way that monographs, popular books, and public lectures cannot, with the underlying concepts of history that shape their own lives.
A museum exhibition is a unique medium that offers historians a creative outlet for their research, scholarly arguments, and interpretations of the past. An exhibit is a three-dimensional physical and visual representation of its research, a nonlinear cultural argument with a physical form and structure. It also is a metaphor–an elegant combination of art and storytelling that expands the limits of knowledge by an imaginative marriage of ideas and objects. Successful exhibitions build upon recent scholarship while embracing and engaging a broad audience.
In a time when museums are challenged to justify their tax-exempt status, they must show that their exhibitions provide a service that is relevant and valuable to the community. They must demonstrate that they are more than historic preservation; they must be active in redefining the meaning of heritage for twenty-first century visitors.
Museums need to offer a wide range of interpretive content to satisfy diverse audience needs, from celebrating common events to memorializing tragedies and injustices. These interpretive judgments inevitably involve questions of cause and effect, perspective, and significance. They also may include a commitment to open debate and discussion. The review process provides an ideal vehicle to address these issues and encourage collaboration between scholars and museum professionals. As a result, the reviews published in this column will examine the intellectual underpinnings of the exhibit as well as its impact on visitors. They will explore what a museum exhibition is about, how it communicates, and how its pedagogical goals are achieved.