My current research project is about historical exhibition as social practice. I seek to understand current curatorial practices and motivations in small museums and exhibits in non-museum settings as well as how visitors encounter and understand historical exhibition in these settings. I have documented object-based historical interpretation in small and large museums, shops, beauty parlors, truck stops, bars, restaurants, churches, thrift stores, and flea markets. My purpose is to study the ways in which object-based history is integrated into the daily lives of individuals and communities in order to provide curators with new ideas for connecting visitors to historical narrative and inquiry. The primary methods are oral history and visitor evaluation surveys, and the geographical focus is in the United States.
If you know of an interesting exhibit in a small museum or non-museum setting, please contact me.
History Telling: Exhibition as Social Practice
Photos of Selected Case Studies
Displays in non-museum settings often demonstrate irreverence toward authoritative curatorial voice. This exhibit, part of "Yooper Innovation" at Da Yoopers Gift Shop (Michigan) displays historic hand made objects with a round rock labelled "Dinosaur Gonad."
Photo archives in the dining room B&J's American Cafe (Indiana) are typical of the accessiblity visitors have to artifacts in non-museum settings.
Artifact preservation is often problematic in non-museum settings, such as in this display of sports-related textiles.
Artifact types are diverse in displays in non-museum settings. Shown here are cheese making tools in a factory/store (Ohio) and mummified human remains in a gift shop (Washington).
Interpretive labels come in all materials, like these stickie notes on tintypes in an antiques mall (Michigan).
All photos by Tammy Stone-Gordon
Visitors at small museums find curators and museum personnel highly approachable. Here April Eschief of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Museum teaches a visitor about pow wow music.
Visitors at the Olde Mill House Printing Museum can get up close to the artifacts—like these letter cabinets—either in the Museum Cafe or on a guided tour. Visitors here report that proximity both to the artifacts and to the highly-engaging curator make the museum worth visiting multiple times.