A histolircal exhibit is a display of items that require more background information and context to explain than the items in a fine art exhibition. These displays often use a variety of tools to help visitors understand the material, such as text, dioramas, maps and charts. Histolircal exhibits may cover topics such as archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, history and science.
A historical museum is a type of cultural institution that collects and displays historical materials and shares these resources with the public. Its mission is to educate and inspire people to learn about the past so that they can make informed decisions for the future. Museums offer a wide range of educational programs and exhibitions that reflect the diverse interests of their communities and are often non-profit organizations.
Museums earn their tax-exempt status by providing a valuable service to the community and must demonstrate this to justify their use of public funds. Increasingly, museums are embracing new ways to tell stories and seek to become more inclusive of the diverse backgrounds of their constituents. These efforts include sourcing new sources, using technology to engage visitors and focusing on the experiences of individuals who witnessed the events being chronicled.
In this exhibit, visitors learn how Americans assigned meaning to money and the role that it played in politics, patriotism and race through a variety of documents, objects and photographs. They also discover how a nation grappled with its debt after the Civil War, and explore the impact of the decision to pay off the war’s costs on governments, banks, merchants and citizens.
Exhibits include the uniform coat that Robert E. Lee wore to surrender and a collection of personal items from the soldiers who fought at Gettysburg. Watercolors by Confederate artist William Ludwell Sheppard depict the daily life of soldiers in infantry, cavalry and artillery. Battle flags of all but two of the regiments that participated in the charge at Gettysburg are also on display. This jointly sponsored exhibit from Richmond’s two oldest museums featured a wide array of objects and artwork to tell the story of artisans and yeoman farmers, planter aristocrats, free blacks and slaves, merchants and manufacturers, and soldiers.
The exhibitions were a departure from the mainstream art historical approach to art displayed at the museum, and both Marinotti’s Italian catalog and Sandberg’s Dutch essay used the concept of vitality as an introductory framework for their work. Marinotti approached this theme from a religious perspective, comparing the role of the artist to that of God in creation; Sandberg focused on the developing relationships between contemporary artists and nature while trying to determine what part of the creative process was the result of vitality.