Technology Museums: From Machines to History

Steven LubarBrown University

November 2010

Past, present and futureSOME MOMENTS IN A NEW HISTORY

RECENT CHALLENGES AND NEW APPROACHES

A brief history: the roots of today’s technology

museum

History Many ancestors to the technical

museum: anthropology, art, commercial, cultural, design, educational, historical, natural history, patriotic, scientific, technical...

We have simplified our history and need to look to the past for a broader perspective

Received History

A new history

“Charles Wilson Peale in his museum,” self-

portrait, 1822A representation of the nation as orderly,

progressive, part of natural order of things.

National Popular

The Franklin Institute for the Promotion of the

Mechanic Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1824

Organized mechanics exhibitions so that inventors and manufacturers could show

off their products and learn from each other. These were both technical and

commercial events

CommercialScientific

Patent Office Museum, Washington, D.C., 1830s

Patent models on display; a democracy of learning. Science and invention in the

service of entrepreneurship and business.

Centennial ExhibitionPhiladelphia, PA 1876

National PopularCommercial

Barnum’s MuseumNew York City, 1850sThe popular museum, hoaxes and

humbug as well as nature and technology. Interactive in a very modern

way; Visitors engage with curators to decide what’s real, what’s true

Popular

Smithsonian National Museum, 1880s

EducationalHistoricalCulturalPopular

“The museum of the past must be set aside, reconstructed, transformed from a cemetery of bric-a-brac into a nursery of living thoughts.”—George Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889

Smithsonian National Museum, 1880s

Maritime exhibit, Smithsonian National Museum, 1880s

Maritime exhibit, from most primitive to most advanced

Native American pottery, Smithsonian National Museum

Building, 1880s

United State National Museum: Synoptic series: Textile technology

Textile technology from throughout the world, across time, organized by degree

of sophistication

EducationalCommercialCommunity

Newark MuseumNewark, NJ, 1910s

The first task of every museum is “adding to the happiness, wisdom, and comfort of

members of the community.”—John Cotton Dana, 1917

Museum of Safety, New York City, 1912

Industrial museums in service to industry; informing employers of new

safety apparatus.

EducationalCommercial

The Henry Ford Museum Dearborn, MI, 1929

To collect and display machinery, and as a school for apprentices. “Life had been better

in the old days and it had been getting better ever since” - - a corporate employer's vision

of history; “a static utopia,”

HistoricalNational

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL,

1934Inspired by Deutsches Museum. A

teaching museum, popular, providing a large audience with notions of progress.

EducationalPopular

American Iron and Steel Museum, Worcester, MA

EducationalCommercial

National Museum of Technology and Engineering, proposed 1924

To show the wonders of modern industry and the value of engineers. One of

several similar schemes of the 1920s, including Museum of the Peaceful Arts,

New York

Educational

FuturamaNew York World’s Fair,

1939

PopularCommercial

Corporate Museums of the 1950s

“A fetishized history, focusing on technological developments and ignoring

social relations of production, to say nothing of class struggle.”

--Michael Wallace, 1981 Boeing: Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, 1952

The American Iron and Steel Institute: Restored 17th-century ironworks in Saugus, MA, 1954

.R.J. Reynolds, Inc.: helped restore Miksch Tobacco Shop (1957) in Old Salem, 1950s

Textile industry: Merrimack Valley Textile Museum, 1950s-’60s

Commercial

Exhibit Modernization Program, Smithsonian,

1950sTextile Machinery and Fiber Exhibit,

Smithsonian Institution, 1960

Educational

Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian

Institution, Washington DC, 1964

Exhibits of machinery, machine relics, models of machineries, with a good bit of

“how it works” text.

Educational

The last twenty years: Some challenges and

aproaches

Challenges 1: Context

Putting people back in the story; articulating the relationship of people and technology (technology as part of cultural and social history)

Putting technology back in culture; beyond autonomous technology

Overcoming notions of “progress”: How to make technology part of history, but not simply tell a progress story?

Challenges 2: Objects Using objects, but not making the

show about objects

Telling stories without obvious artifacts

Moving beyond “how it works”

Challenges 3: Audience

Increasingly, a public that doesn’t have a personal connection to the subject

More interest in very recent technology

How to involve the audience and the subjects in the museum in appropriate ways?

Challenges 4: New Missions

Museums should foster “the ability to live productively in a pluralist society and … contribute to the resolution of the challenges we face as global citizens…... [include] a broader spectrum of our diverse society... [have] respect for the many cultural and intellectual viewpoints that museum collections stand for and stimulate.” —Excellence and Equity, 1992

Museums as tourist hubs and economic engines

Museums as schools or replacement for schools

Some recent exhibits

Adding words to explain context

Old Sturbridge Village, 2009

Words to add context

Adding images to provide context

Images, words, video, objects to add context

Adding politics, people, products...

Putting machines back into factory settings:

period rooms

Using objects to address another topic

Tool chests as symbols of pride and indicators of skill

Putting people back in the exhibits: manequins

Putting people back in the exhibits: manequins

An Example: Transportation Exhibits

Moving from a parking lot of old cars...

“America on the Move,” National Museum of American History,

2004

...to an exhibit that addresses infrastructure, immigration and

migration, travel, trade and commerce. Mass transit mixed with the individual

cars.

“Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Sweatshops

in America,” 2003

“The Future of Work,” Millennium Dome, London, 2000

Some new models

New Roles, New Models Museum as site for hobbyists

Museum as economic engine

Museum as educational institution / supplement to schools/job training site

Museum as tourist attraction

Technology and industry as a small part of a larger story

Charles River Museum of Industry, Waltham, MA

Volunteer, Do-it-yourself, collections and workshops

Hobbyist

Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop, New Haven,

CTAfter-school arts and engineering

programs; teach students to make things.

HobbyistEducation

Franklin Institute Science Museum

Philadelphia, PA

“The Institute has become a dynamic agent of change through its rich array of

internationally recognized exhibitions and programs, lectures and discussions

themed to illuminate issues in contemporary science, community

outreach initiatives particularly targeted to girls and to urban youth, and its series

of innovative partnerships in public education. “

Tourist AttractionEducation

The Henry Ford, Dearborn MI

“Encounter ideas that change the world, travel through America’s past, embark on

America’s greatest factory tour and more. It all comes together at The Henry

Ford, America’s greatest history attraction”

Tourist attractionEducationCommercial

Henry Ford Academy Dearborn MI, opened

1997“...providing learning experiences that support students and teachers making

meaningful and tangible connections between what they learn in school with

what they value in the world beyond classroom walls through Design

Challenges.

School

Brooklyn Navy YardBrooklyn, NY, opening

2012Under development now by the BNYDC,

an organization whose goal is to promote local economic development, this exhibit

will share space with a Job Training Center whose participants will take

inspiration from the stories of hard work and invention told in the exhibition half of

the building.

Job TrainingDevelopment

American Precision Museum, Windsor, VT,

opening 2013Complete renovation; moving from rows

of historic machine tools to an interpretive center. “The guiding principle for the next five years is to blend old and

new to tell how the history preserved in the museum and its collections is

connected with precision manufacturing and the world of today. “

EducationJob TrainingDevelopment

Rochester Museum of Science and HistoryRochester, NY, opening 2013

Increase science literacy in the general public

Encourage young people to develop and maintain their natural interest in science and

innovation while learning to apply these skills to real life problems

Help people understand scientific and business principles and the associated career

opportunities.

Job trainingEconomic development

“American Enterprise” exhibit in planning at the National Museum of American History,

Smithsonian, opening 2014

History of industry and technology subsumed under the history of business and innovation.

EducationNational Identity

Exciting times?

New technology, new techniques New stories to tell New audiences New goals New challenges!