The nation’s history museums interpret the past for millions of visitors every year. Although well-known institutions such as the National Museum of American History and Colonial Williamsburg draw the majority of these visitors, smaller museums also play an important role in the dissemination of historical knowledge. Such museums as the California Afro-American Museum and the Oneida Historical Society rely on a mixture of exhibitions, programs and collections to educate local residents and visitors from far-flung places about the richness of their history and culture.
Unlike scholarly monographs or public lectures, exhibits are a medium for the communication of historical ideas that are shaped by the research and the interpretive skills of individual curators, but are also affected and informed by the institutional context and the needs of the intended audience. The result is a complex and ever-changing body of work.
Exhibits are nonlinear cultural arguments, three-dimensional physical and visual representations of historical research that are meant to connect with the people who visit them and encourage discussion of their content and meaning. They are inclusive visual stories – metaphors, in other words – of how the past has affected the lives of our fellow citizens. The most effective exhibitions are rooted in historical scholarship, but do not shy away from critical judgments about cause and effect, perspective, and significance.
This column focuses on examining the way that historians and museum professionals tell these inclusive visual stories of the past. It will explore the intellectual underpinnings of exhibitions – is the research sound? – and how they reflect the prevailing scholarly currents. While the column will consider a range of exhibition formats, it will most frequently focus on exhibitions that provide a deeper dive into historic topics by examining them through the lens of a particular community or period of history. This may include themes related to rites of passage such as birth, death, marriage/joining and coming of age; issues of race, religion, and gender; and core values such as home, freedom, faith, democracy and social justice.
The purpose of this column is to provide an arena for discussion of these exhibitions with the goal of expanding the collaboration between scholars in the academy and those in museums. As such, the columns will often be written jointly by an academic and a museum professional.