Every year, history museums interpret the nation’s past for millions of visitors. While institutions such as the National Museum of American History, Colonial Williamsburg and the Chicago Historical Society attract the lion’s share of this audience, smaller museums also play important roles in fostering a love of history by engaging diverse groups of visitors. Many of these exhibitions are inclusive visual stories, combining dense research with artful interpretation. They help us understand how people in the past interacted with one another, interacting with and impacting each other’s lives–in short, their social histories.
In addition to examining the intellectual underpinnings of these exhibitions, we also consider how they present their subject to visitors. Do they use the most accessible format for communicating complex ideas? Are their visual narratives rich, imaginative, and evocative? What about the inclusion of re-created spaces, a mix of objects and photographs, a range of interpretive graphics, interactive devices, and a variety of media? In other words, do these exhibitions work as well as possible for the widest range of visitors?
These exhibition reviews explore the creative ways in which museums convey their history to a broad audience. Aside from looking at an exhibit’s academic rigor and its scholarly underpinnings, these reviews also examine what happens when a museum tries to be more imaginative and inclusive with its historiography. The exhibition reviews in this series are written jointly by an academic historian and a museum professional.
The Historians’ Eye
This column seeks to engender dialogue between academic historians and museum professionals about the challenges of historical exhibition design, interpretation and presentation. In its pages, we will emphasize innovative works that stray from established parameters. For example, exhibitions that suggest new methods for improving collaboration between the academy and museums; programs that redefine a small museum’s relationship with its local community; collections initiatives that bring together academic and museum staffs in a meaningful and productive way. While we will occasionally review notable accomplishments, this column focuses on exhibition reviews.