Getting to the Stuff: Digital Cultural Heritage Collections, Absence, and Memory

Sheila A. BrennanAssociate Director of Public Projects

@sherah1918 lotfortynine.orgsbrennan @ gmu.edu

http://invisibleaustralians.org/

Where are the collections?http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/collections/toy-collection.html

“Collections are useless unless they are used.”

History Museums are not Art Museums

http://bit.ly/historymuseumsmcn

Google Art Projecthttp://www.googleartproject.com/

Walter’s, Browsinghttp://art.thewalters.org/browse/?type=medium#medium

• The History Museum Web Examined, 2004 (PDF): http://www.lotfortynine.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/HistoryMuseumsOnline2004_brennan.pdf

• 2004 Survey Summary: http://bit.ly/historymuseumweb2004

• 2011 Survey: http://bit.ly/stateofhistorymuseumweb

Lewis and Clark Bicentennial

http://www.lewisandclarkexhibit.org/

Raid on Deerfield, Many Stories of 1704http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/

2011 survey of history museum websites

Viewed 115 websites out of the 1179 self-identified history museums

• Visitors can now expect almost every history museum to contain basic visitation information, which sites did not always offer in 2004.

• History museums in 2004 offered more narratives and stories related to exhibitions than in 2011.

• Nearly 70 percent of history museums provide only a summary or list of exhibitions.

• Only 2 museums offered a means for closely examining an object.• Searchable collections databases were available in 17 percent of museums,

up from 9 percent in 2004, while 37 percent offer no collections information. • Nearly 70% of history museum sites offer no online teaching & learning

materials. Most list programs offered on-site with contact information, only.• Facebook is the most popular social network where museums have a

presence at 56 percent and weren’t doing much there other than publicizing programs.

http://bit.ly/stateofhistorymuseumweb

http://tabermuseum.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/james-bressler-american-indian-gallery

http://online.ushmm.org/lodzchildren/

Freedom Center Apphttp://www.freedomcenter.org/visit-the-center/app/

Building Detroithttp://detroithistorical.org/buildingdetroit/index.php

Collecting = Forgetting?

Almost discarded album

Miss Frank E. Butolph’s Menushttp://menus.nypl.org/

Arago: People, Postage, and the Post

http://arago.si.edu/

NPM created a separate flat HTML exhibit that is discoverable, but not the record in Arago.

The Henry Ford Museum Collections

http://collections.thehenryford.org/index.aspx

http://collections.thehenryford.org/Collection.aspx?objectKey=20486

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehenryford/6767187475/

http://www.freshandnew.org/2012/08/museum-datasets-un-comprehensive-ness-data-mining/

http://viewshare.org/views/GalleryArchives/samuel-h-kress-collection-paintings-with-purchase/

What Can a History Museum Do?

• Open your collections data, publish with all of its warts

• Use digital spaces to contextualize objects & share multiple interpretations

• Invite others to contribute scholarship using your collections (with other sources)

Possible funding for that context

http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2012-11-14

Would you use online museum collections?

• Do you use or have you used museum objects in your research?

• How do you identify appropriate or possible collections to use in your research?

• Do you use or have you used auction sites like eBay to find sources?

• Would you be more likely to use museum collections as sources if you could find them easily online?

• Are you interested in accessing museum collection data for your own analysis, text or data mining, creating visualizations?

• Would you share your research back with a museum whose objects you incorporated into your research project?