Hundreds of history exhibitions are mounted each year in museums and other institutions, each a unique interpretation of historical information. Many are influenced by the best scholarship and are powerful contributions to historical knowledge and understanding. They expand the parameters of what we know through an imaginative marriage of ideas and objects. Yet most are short-lived. In contrast, scholarly monographs and public lectures can continue to contribute long after an exhibition has closed. Therefore, it is particularly important for historians to publish exhibition reviews so that the record of a museum exhibition is available to the wider community of scholars, and so that critical assessments can outlast the exhibition.
Museum exhibitions are a special kind of cultural artifact: three-dimensional, physical, and visual. They communicate research results, socio-political messages, and more. They can celebrate common events, memorialize tragedies or injustices, and promote a point of view about the past. They can communicate the stories of individuals and communities or highlight larger themes that are shared by diverse groups of people, such as freedom, democracy, mobility, and identity.
While the exhibition is a unique medium in the museum world, the process of creating an exhibit reflects many of the same skills, challenges, and responsibilities as any other academic discipline. Exhibits are designed to communicate complex histories, and they must do so at a level accessible to a general audience. They require a deep knowledge of both the subject matter and museum theory and practice. Exhibits also require management and interpersonal skills as well as a sense of visual culture and an ability to work with museum educators, designers, and production staff.
Each exhibition is a window into the dense research that defines a history; it is a window that must be simple enough to avoid being a book on a wall, but complex enough to engage the viewer. The best exhibits are inclusive visual stories that connect the viewer to the bigger idea in a way that is both understandable and memorable.
While we do not aim to review every major museum exhibition, we seek innovative work that stretches the boundaries of interpretation, presentation, and collecting. Whether it is a historic costume show that examines how fashion and material culture reflect social values, or an exhibition that explores how activists used posters and other visual materials to amplify their messages for change, our goal is to help museum professionals create and sustain new ways to share historical information with their audiences. The more that museum curators, educators, and staff can use these tools to engage diverse audiences, the better our chances of preserving the past for future generations.