Week four: The power of the exhibit

The stories within Dubins collection Displays of Power, display a very simple idea, that these controversial displays give power to some groups while alienating others. These can include staff, ethnic groups, and much more. Two excellent points of this both come from New York, exhibiting Irish and African Americans within the city.

This first exhibit, Harlem on My Mind, displayed the power that the ideas a museum can bring out within people, especially during more tumultuous times. As Dubin puts it, the exhibit itself developed into a “Bobo Doll”, where everyone at this time used the exhibit to voice dissatisfaction about the socials issues at this time. (Dubin, 49) The issues of discontent during this period did not assist the museums message. As one detractor put it, the museums display did not respond to what the people of Harlem desired, becoming nothing but “A staggering display of honkey chutzpah”. (Dubin, 47) Harlem on My Mind acted as a lightning rod for the frustrations within Harlem, showing the power of what an exhibit can bring to light.

Another exhibit, Gaelic Gotham, created its own set of issues within New York. One of the big ones that displayed early came from the exclusion of certain groups, like the Irish Gay and Lesbian Organization, which continued to have issues with the city aside from in the exhibit. (Dubin, 67) outcries from organizations like the I.G.L.O. as well as internals issues forced the staff into a very poor situation. These threats and criticisms hurt the ability of the exhibit, but once again showed how the power of creating an exhibit can create focus the power of a museum. (Dubin, 92-93)

Through these exhibits, Dubin created an excellent view of how powerful an exhibit can be.

Wee 3: Slavery and the issues coming with it

Within Hortons book, Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory, The two editors created an excellent collection of how the concepts of slavery lead to varying ideas within the world of Public History. An excellent display of this comes from Vlachs article, where he discussed the issues involving his Library of Congress exhibit. His work focused more upon the stories of the formerly enslaved and the properties they worked upon than any other message. Despite this simple message, political issues at the time forced the Library of Congress to remove the exhibit. (Vlach, 64) Despite these problems, the exhibit returned to the public, where visitors grew fascinated with the ideas displayed. This greatly contrasts what employees claimed, where the exhibit nearly sickened some. (Vlach, 66) The conflicting views of the exhibit displayed how individual views of slavery affect the presentation of this touchy subject, as well as how exhibits spur interest and questioning of subject matters.

Another example of varying ideas about slavery in the public eye comes from Levines article “In Search of a Usable Past”. Within his article, Levine discussed the movement to recognize African Americans within the Confederate forces during the Civil War. This movement, started in the Seventies, attempted to display that the Civil War happened not solely upon slavery. These Neo-Confederates hoped that new information and organizations disseminated information that supported their views. This information in turn would reach the public, changing how they interpreted the causes and reasons for the Civil War. (Levin, 190) With this shift in ideas and focus, the Neo-Confederates desired to show a different view of the war, focusing less upon slavery and more upon secession and States Rights. (Levin, 190-91) IN a sense, with the attempt to include the Confederate African Americans, Neo-Confederates attempt to avoid the usual notions of slavery and present one more acceptable to their ideals.

With these different views, Hortons collection of articles created a sampling of views upon slavery and the Public History world, showing how various groups approach the difficult topic of slavery.

Week 2: Local Museums and different interpretation styles

Levins edited works, Defining Memory: Local Museums and the Construction of History in Americas Changing Communities created a unique look into the world of local museums. The concept of identity appears in a series of chapters, displaying how local museums bring light upon techniques and methods not traditionally associated with well-known museums.

For example, Embry and Nelsons article “Such is Our Heritage” created a view into a museum system very different from more recent trends in curation. Embry and Nelson discussed a system that focused less upon creating a view of the whole story, but allowing the public to create the interpretation from the exhibited items. (Levin, 162) This more unorthodox style directly challenges the more modern idea of telling an entire story or creating a more encompassing view of the historical event.

The Daughters of Utah Pioneers style developed in the late 1800s and essentially remained frozen in this technique. (Levin, 167) While many museums adjusted to the new ideas and interpretation techniques, the D.U.P.s approach remained the same. While major museums altered and created a view of various groups involved in events, the D.U.P.s technique created a very unique example of holding onto older techniques. This adherence to the older techniques created a sense of uniqueness, allowing this local museum to stand out even on a national level.

Within these exhibits, the D.U.P. also created almost a sense of overflow with artifacts. (Levin, 168). They realized that their main audience comes from donors and their families, whose ancestors stories displayed there. (Levin 168). This setup and lack of heavily describing labels formed a much less understanding and comprehensive sense of the time period, but also created a more personal sense and targeted their audience much better. With this development, the D.U.P.s exhibits heavily defied the modern views on curation and displayed how local museums differ in story telling and even techniques on disseminating their information to the public.

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Hello, I'm jsut seeing if this workign properly, unfortuantly my books didn't come in. I knwo its a wretched excuse and my apologies to everyone.