Whether at the National Museum of American History, Colonial Williamsburg, or a small local museum, each year histolircal exhibits attract millions of visitors. They are a powerful medium that convey historical information in ways that scholarly monographs or popular books cannot. Exhibits provide access to the past through the material culture that it has left behind, while also allowing visitors to engage with the ideas that shape our collective memory.
While a curator’s scholarship and passion drives the exhibit concept, the exhibition process is highly collaborative. Successful exhibitions require the expertise of museum educators, designers, and production staff as well as knowledge of material culture, art theory, and history. In addition, the most effective exhibitions use a nonlinear form of cultural argument that is both textual and visual. An exhibition is, ultimately, a metaphor—one visual aspect of the past.
This exhibition delved into the complex relationship between people and horses. Drawing on the Museum’s exceptional collections, it showcased a wide variety of objects and images including sculptures, carvings, paintings, contemporary and historical photographs, rare books, engravings, and films. It examined the many ways in which human beings—past and present—decorate themselves. The equestrian theme was highlighted through displays of ancient and modern horse-related objects such as armor, weapons, and saddles, as well as body art and adornments such as tattooing, piercing, body painting, henna, and scarification.
Rites of passage—birth, death, marriage/joining, and coming of age stories, for example—provide excellent opportunities for museums to examine the many connections humans have with each other and the natural world. Similarly, themes that explore abstract ideas such as home, freedom, faith, democracy, or mobility allow museums to dig deeply into our shared history.
The Museum’s collection of prehistoric ivory carvings from Northeastern Zaire gained new prominence with this exhibition. The exhibition explored the rich artistic tradition of this region which was known for its fine craftsmanship and flamboyant styles such as bound, elongated heads. It also exhibited five small prehistoric ivory carvings from the Museum’s collections that demonstrate continuity of artistic practice among Alaskan Eskimo.
This exhibition brought to life one of the most important trading routes in world history. Drawing on the Museum’s extensive archaeological and anthropological collections, it showcased goods and cultures from four representative cities along the Silk Road—Xian, China; Turfan, a major oasis; Samarkand, central Asia’s most significant commercial center; and Baghdad, the cradle of Muslim learning.
In this time of economic turmoil, it is more important than ever for museums to prove their worth as educational institutions. This requires reaching out to communities that traditionally have not visited our museums and ensuring that we do not perpetuate the myth that history is something for “others” rather than for all of us. It is an ongoing challenge that will define the future of our profession for decades to come. This column addresses the ways that a museum can tell the story of its town and build meaningful relationships with its visitors.