Start Date
April 2025
Location
3rd floor - Library
Abstract
This research project delves into the conversation of texts and explanations within history museums. The 21st century has afforded an environment that allows for pushback on false or unequal representation in public institutions. History has generally been in Caucasian, English-fluent male hands, despite the vast demographics of people that form our global history. Museums, when confronted with the choice between education and entertainment, often water down explanations, include ‘partial truths’, or exclude diverse perspectives. This project attempts to combat such exhibit choices through experiential data from a distributed survey in conversation with previous scholarship on interpretation and representation within museums. The survey asks if participants have attended a history-based museum in the last fifteen years, if they had known more about a subject than the exhibit presented, whether there were gaps, inaccuracies, or intentionally omitted information for the sake of ‘generalization’ or entertainment. This is a crucial developing subject matter as systemic issues with representation and truthful, holistic history are topical concerns.
The Role of the History Museum: Discussing 'Missing' History Using Experiential Data
3rd floor - Library
This research project delves into the conversation of texts and explanations within history museums. The 21st century has afforded an environment that allows for pushback on false or unequal representation in public institutions. History has generally been in Caucasian, English-fluent male hands, despite the vast demographics of people that form our global history. Museums, when confronted with the choice between education and entertainment, often water down explanations, include ‘partial truths’, or exclude diverse perspectives. This project attempts to combat such exhibit choices through experiential data from a distributed survey in conversation with previous scholarship on interpretation and representation within museums. The survey asks if participants have attended a history-based museum in the last fifteen years, if they had known more about a subject than the exhibit presented, whether there were gaps, inaccuracies, or intentionally omitted information for the sake of ‘generalization’ or entertainment. This is a crucial developing subject matter as systemic issues with representation and truthful, holistic history are topical concerns.
