Category Archives: Museums

The United States Holocaust Museum: an example of Exhibition and Memory

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Exhibition and memory have had an unbreakable connection since the beginning of the recording of history. The medieval age saw the creation of formal archives by aristocrats and royals and the early modern age saw the beginnings of public libraries and archives. The display and exhibition of an historical event can affect the interest of the future public and the preservation of the event.

In October, the “Historian’s Workshop Seminar” ventured to Washington D.C. to visit the United States Holocaust Museum located on the National Mall. The museum (and the event it captures) is dedicated an ultimately foreign tragedy, yet its influence and the education it provides can be deemed more than useful for the modern day American public. The museum not only gives insight on the horrors of humanity but provides a fascinating example for the relationship between exhibition and memory. Continue reading →

What makes a bowl more than just a bowl?

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One of the objects on display at the United States Holocaust Museum is a copper bowl used in the Treblinka concentration camp.  There is nothing aesthetically special about this bowl unless you consider its imperfections–the dents in the bowl or its rust orange color–to be unique.  There are many bowls that were used in the Treblinka concentration camp.  The question becomes what makes this bowl special, and why was it this bowl taken away from the camp?  One bowl can lead us to the bigger questions about what makes any object significant for display in a museum? Why is one object chosen over similar objects to represent history? Continue reading →

Reimagining of the VHS

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The Virginia Historical Society (VHS) is in the process of spending $38 million on reimagining its museum.  The purpose of this extensive redesign is to better educate people on Virginia’s history and to increase visitors to the museum.  Having the opportunity to visit the exhibit in progress showed the limitation that space places on an exhibit.  Issues dealing with exhibit design, artifact selection, and the ways that Virginian history will be told must be addressed within the given space of the museum.  The ways that the museum space will be utilized will be influenced by the decisions of historians, exhibit designers, and even those on the board of the museum. Continue reading →

Story of Virginia: A Historic Rebirth in the Making

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Over the past few decades, attendance at many historic sites and house museums has declined steadily.  It is arguable that cultural institutions and practices undergo lifecycles and eventually die out, and that history museums may be about to do the same.  The Virginia Historical Society (VHS) faces the same challenging environment.  Cary Carson discusses the culprits for this trend and attempts to offer solutions in his article “The End of History Museums: What’s Plan B?”  Carson, the vice president for research at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, has much first-hand knowledge of the effectiveness of marketing and immersion with respects to generating revenue for historic sites.  The VHS has compiled a list of strategic objectives, its plan B, in order to escape the attendance troubles that have plagued the field.  Can history museums, like the VHS, survive, develop their educational missions, and remain financially viable? Continue reading →

The Story of Virginia 2.0

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In his article, “The End of History Museums: What’s Plan B?,” Cary Carson, former Vice President of the Research Division for the Colonial Willamsburg Foundation, calls into question the challenge faced by many institutions today: Can museums keep up, or are they trapped in the cycle of decline that so many before have fallen prey to? With the internet providing faster and easy access to historical content, it is not enough to simply show the facts, museums must go above and beyond. Continue reading →

Native Americans and Museums: The Effects of NAGPRA on Methods of Presentation and Preservation in Museums

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Of all the influences on the evolution of museums in recent history, one of the most significant, yet underappreciated, is that of Native American peoples. In 1990, this activism helped drive passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Over the last two decades, NAGPRA has had notable effects on the way museums present and preserve their artifacts. In her essay “What is the Object of This Exercise? A Meandering Exploration of the Many Meanings of Objects in Museums,” historian Elaine Heumman Gurian argues that this activism has changed our understanding of what counts as a museum “artifact,” something that had previously been taken for granted as unproblematic. I was struck by the effort that indigenous communities have put forward in the last four decades to reclaim their own history and the manner in which they are represented in museums. What effects have Native American groups had on the development of museums, specifically in areas such as presentation and preservation in museums? Continue reading →

A New Decade for the Virginia Historical Society

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To tell the story of Virginia, one must know the history of Virginia. To know the history and its legacy, you must understand what happened and what influence it has had on the current endeavors. It may be something simple as a confirmation of what took place on a date in the Virginia State capital or even deeper when trying to see how politicians voted during a particular session. Through the usage of artifacts, archived papers, and paintings, the story is told. Continue reading →

Using photography to shape historical interpretation

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I recently undertook a class trip to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC to examine how the museum tells the story of the Holocaust. What struck me most was the way the museum used photographs to convey the horrors of the Holocaust to visitors. Walking through the exhibition, I was confronted continuously with close-up, small portrait photographs of the faces of holocaust victims, generally placed at eye-level so as to force a realization of the human face of the Holocaust. This pictorial narration of the human face of the holocaust is punctured throughout by large, striking photographs which illustrate the ‘other side’ of the Holocaust : the Nazi  state machinery, soldiers, rallies and propaganda. These large photographs dominate their allocated exhibition space, and their very size represents a psychical metaphor for the sheer dominance and power of the Nazi regime. Continue reading →

The Holocaust Memorial Museum

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The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presents visitors with a carefully designed, poignantly illustrated narrative of the most fatal genocide in human history. Its prominent location, alongside the Mall in Washington D.C, reflects its position as the official national recognition of and tribute to those who died in the Holocaust. Furthermore, its proximity to the nations leading commemorative monuments and political institutions conveys an implicit message that Holocaust has become enshrined as a part of the national memory forever, lending both a permanence and a prominence to memory of the Holocaust that would seek to defy any historical reinterpretation over the passage of time.

New UR Seminar on Archives, Museums, & Digital History

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Are you interested in museums, archives, or digital history? If so, take a look at the UR history department’s new 300-level seminar, “The Historian’s Workshop.”  History 395 takes you into the “historian’s workshop,” the spaces and forums where each day history is being preserved, crafted, discussed, exhibited, and debated. Continue reading →