Museums: Reinvented, Revisited and Revisioned

The focus of this week's blog focuses on several reading related to the reinvention of the museum. The four readings were by Tony Bennett, Tammy Gordon, Andrea Witcomb, and the last by Handler and Gable. All four of the reading focused on the modern vision and organization of the museum. The first book, Civic Seeing: Museums and the Organization of Vision, Tony Bennett examines the "visual grammars" associated with art museums displays as from the early modern period. He mentions how John Cotton Dana, the founder of the Newark Museum, had envisioned a new museum that would escape the model of the European, and American museums, his museum would not be a warehouse nor storage for temples of dead gods. Dana argued that they should be Institutes of Visual Instruction. Bennett research shows that earlier museums were divisions of class and that the modern museum would be visual. He does a good job in contrasting his argument.                                                                                                                                                    In Private History in Public, Tammy Gordon investigates the various types of historical display in exhibits, commerce and the community. She explains the different types of exhibits such as; community, entrepreneurial, vernacular and academic exhibit. Tammy looks at the funding, staff and other statistics that enlighten the reader. The book is loaded with pictures and charts analyzing the history and function of these various types of historic exhibitions. She mentions how this exhibits and museums that display them have become smaller in size. She ties all of them together and explains how they impact the global economy. This was a very informative look into public history and modern issues of exhibition display.
After reading Andrea Witcomb, Re-Imagining the Museum: Beyond the Mausoleum, looks at how the museum has changed its approach from earlier museums. She looks at the cultural criticism of past museums and the radical break from the past practices. She uses Carol Duncan analysis of art museums to support her belief that most of the earlier offerings were conveyed through the medium of ideology, which evokes the change from monarchical gallery to the "public museum." Witcomb applies Foucaldian approaches and analysis to her argument. this densely packed essay takes the reader to the modern technological advancement museums had moved toward. Demonstrating how these changes impacted museums displays such as touch screens, which help displacement of objects in the museum setting.
The last article The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg, Richard Handler and Eric Gable investigate the "historical truth" at Colonial Williamsburg. They look at the role that public historians played and how more in more recent decades criticism by a new generation of social historians have dismissed previous assertions of Colonial Williamsburg. They studied how the information influenced the viewer by what they see and hear within this old museum. This book looks in-depth at revisionism, entertainment and education. Handler and Gable do a good job in bringing out the main issues.

Suppression, War and America's History

This week the focus of our readings covered issues concerning the problems surrounding the presentation of historical controversies, research and analysis conducted. The first book, "The Presence of the Past" by Rosenzweig and Thelen attempted to show through narratives, surveys and analysis that Whites, Blacks, Native American also Mexican Americans that past events play a significant role in their everyday lifes. They discovered that blacks were more likely to narrate the past and those issues that have impacted them historically, also they relied on individual experiences. The information showed that over 91% of the respondents answered the ten activities surveyed. Native Americans when interviewed spoke of betrayal by white Americans and concern with the preservation of their culture. Overall, the majority of respondents documented historical information through oral tradition and documenting the past.This survey revealed differences between whites, blacks  and other indigenous people. Yet, what I found impressive from their narratives, analysis and conclusions were Americans are concerned about the past.
In the essay, "Anatomy of a Controversy," by Edward T. Linenthal examines the core issues surrounding the Enola Gay exhibition. Linenthal does a good job of presenting the story. The central issue seems to revolve around the National Air and Space Museum sensitivity to Japanese and American relationsips. It appears from the reading that pictures, photographs, and footage displaying the results of the atomic bomb being dropped on Japanese and the horrific aftermath. It appears that nationl solidarity was at the heart of the decsion.
The last article, "Fred Wilson, PSTD, and Me: Reflections an the History Wars" by Ken Yellis, examines the fight over history and how its presented. His examples and analysis shows that if an exhibition can engage the public, controversies are minimized. If an historical event is repackaged and presented in a new way they can enlighten the masses.

Managing History: Introduction and Book Summary

My name is Curtis Adams, I am Temple University Graduate Student in my first semester in the history program. I enjoy researching collecting and investigating art and historical documents etc. Over the last ten years I have passionately been investigating a rare plate dated 1513 by Albrecht Durer. From this research I hope to make some important contribute to history. With the help of Professor Bruggeman and working closely with my classmates (team), I hope to learn a lot from this class.
The book "Fundraising The Dead," by Sheila Connolly was published in the year 2010 by The Berkley Publishing Group. This was a very well written book, that involved a mystery at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The central character was named Eleanor (Nell) Pratt, who became an amateur detective and solved two crimes. The first was the theft of historical artifacts worth thousands of dollars and the second the murder of her colleague Alfred Findley. Findley was the Director of Cataloging, he was murdered during the night of the Historical Society's fund raiser. She was alerted by board member Marty Terwilliger, after she noticed some rare historical documents missing (Terwilliger Collection). This began Nell's search for answers. Her first contact Findley, informed her that he noticed documents missing, but was fearful to tell what occurred believing he would be accused of the thefts.
The next day after the fund raiser she found him dead in a pool of blood. This lead her down a road for the truth, which exposed her secret lover Charles Elliot Worthington, the Society's president as the culprit. He was assisted by Doris, who was obsessed by Worthington. With clever thinking Nell was able to trick Doris into admitting guilt. after Doris snaps at her and Marty. After all the loose ends were tied up, she went to the Society's meeting and was placed as interim president. This was a well written book, that was based around the management of artifacts, the importance of cataloging etc.
The following week's reading talk about Nell Pratt's new position at "The Henry Ford, America's Greatest History Attraction, fulfilling the position of its Director of Development-Major & Planning Giving. The second reading. The first article deals with Historical Society's probe into possible thefts from a frequent visitor. Barry H. Landau and an accomplice Jason Savedoff. These arrest launched the Historical Society of Pennsylvania into a massive investigation of its collection. The last article was put out by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in an effort to fill a vacancy by the death of Alfred Findly on June 8, 2011.