Exhibition text and object labels

Initial reflection

• Who are you?• Who is your museum?

Cabinets of curiosities

• MFA: table cabinet, ca. 1580-1600 (German)

Wunderkammer: wonder rooms

• Neapolitan pharmacist Ferrante Imperato exhibits his natural history collection to visitors (1599)

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scholarly contexts

• Ole Worm’s museum, Copenhagen (in 1655)

Ashmolean Museum

Enlightenment Collecting

• Idealized collection cabinet illustrated in Elementary Entomology, 1766

Beyond the Enlightenment

American painter, collector, naturalist Charles Wilson Peale: The Artist in his Museum (self-portrait, 1822)

•Museums had to add to the general conscience, collect empirical knowledge and represent the prestige of the national state. •Organized, in large museum halls are collections more opened for educative, nationalistic and economical functions.

Museum Era of Archaeology: 19th century to 1930s

• Museums as places of knowledge collection and dissemination

• As archaeology becomes a field of study in the late 19th century, museum needed to provide this information to the public at large

• Smithsonian established by Congress in 1846

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

1893

1975

1988

1995

Today

Museum research and writing• Exhibits are the tip of the iceberg!

– Primary sources– Related publications/sources– Related collections– Researcher work– Research/write-ups– Memos– Exhibit proposals– Consultation– Meetings– Visitor study– New presentations– New publications

Big Idea!

• Big Idea ≠ topic!– Big idea clearly states the exhibition or paper’s scope and focus

• Topic = other kinds of value

• Big Idea = what ABOUT other kinds of value? So what?

• Same with any scholarly writing:

– Ulrich topic = The homespun in colonial period

– Big Idea = How women’s work in the colonial period was romanticized. How we can learn more of colonial history through the gaze of object.

• Tell particular story, not all stories

Label content

• Interpretive vs. descriptive

• Active vs. passive engagement

• New Museum Age:– dispersed authority– accountability

• Big Idea• Consider audience• Interpretation• Understanding audience

Writing a panel

• Topic• Theme• Message (‘When people have read this they

will know…’)

FACTORS AFFECTING TEXT

• Ferguson, et al (1995) identify a number of factors that shape texts:• what is being discussed: the subject matter• who is taking part: the audience• the way the communication is taking place: the nature of language that translates to

the style of the text• the structures and form of language used: the choice of words and the interactions

between the authors of the texts and the end user• They also describe other factors specific to museums:• museum visits are free form: visitors choose what they attend to• museum texts complement other forms of interpretation, acting as labels for

interactive, signposts and orientation devices and instructions• museums have visitors: all kinds of people with a wide variety of learning styles and

interests are motivated to visit museums for a range of reasons

– Ferguson, L., MacLulich, C. & Ravelli, L. (1995). Meanings and messages: language guidelines for museum exhibitions. Sydney: Australian Museum

WRITING TEXT AND LABELS THAT WORK

• Serrell (1996, p.84-91) identified a number of steps in writing visitor friendly labels:• start with information directly related to what visitors can see, feel, do, smell, or experience from

where they are standing• vary the length of the sentences• use short paragraphs and small chunks, not large blocks of information• metaphors are better for other forms of narrative, not labels• alliteration is an easy device to overuse• exclamation marks in labels shout at readers and force emphasis on them• humor should be used sparingly• use quotations when they advance the narrative and are necessary• expect visitors to want to read• use informative paragraph titles and subtitles• have a snappy ending• newspaper journalism is not a good model as articles are written with the assumption that readers

will not read everything• stay flexible within the label system - labels that all look the same become boring to read• interrelate labels and their settings• include visitors in the conversation: encourage their participation

V & A guide

• Write for your audience• Stick to the text hierarchy and word count• Organize your information• Engage with the object• Admit uncertainty• Bring in the human element• Sketch in the background• Write as you would speak• Construct your text with care• Remember Orwell’s Six Rules

Packing and unpacking

• Containing the length of labels is like packing for a trip…consider packing in three separate piles:– The things we would like to take– The things we think we need– The things we absolutely cannot get along without

And then take only the third group

Part of this is editing• 1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which

you• are used to seeing in print• 2. Never use a long word where a short word will do• 3. If it is possible to cut a word, always cut it out• 4. Never use the passive when you can use the active• 5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if• you can think of an everyday equivalent• 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright• barbarous

– George Orwell, Politics and the English Language, 1946

The label as short story

• Active• Subject• Context• Significance/message

Reproduced photograph, man wearing headdress (2004.29.24259.1)

1898, Marquesas Islands

William McM. Woodworth produced this studio photograph as a way for Western audiences to experience an "exotic" culture. This man’s tattoos fascinated Western audiences but were also a way to convey adulthood and served as visual armor to ward off malevolent spirits and human enemies in his Polynesian culture.

Thinking about interpretations, labels, and archives

• Museum 2.0– http://www.museumtwo.blogspot.com/

• AAM curators committee– http://www.curcom.org/curcom_comp_2012.php

• On display– http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/71706.html?mulR=13509|2

• Social tagging– http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/socialTagging.html

• Archives and labels:– http

://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectId=3106302&partId=1&searchText=London&fromDate=1990&fromADBC=ad&toDate=2012&toADBC=ad&productionInfo=on&orig=/research/search_the_collection_database.aspx&images=on&numpages=10&currentPage=6?bioId=159228

• Back to the British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/americas/kayak_clothing_from_greenland/kayak_clothing_from_greenland.aspx

• What is this?– http://

pmem.unix.fas.harvard.edu:8080/peabody/view/objects/asitem/search$0040swg$002799-12-40$002f52899$0027/0?t:state:flow=33d16d3f-e3e0-4c24-869c-41cb4add0b19