-- A wax Jane McCrea surrounded by some fearsome American Indians in an exhibit at Fort Ticonderoga, and a costumed female interpreter attracted many visitors attention. These efforts were used as an opportunity to explain the role of woman at the fort during the 18th and 19th century.
-- The history of the Fort Ticonderga. It was reconstructed in 1908 by Sarah and Stephen Pell, and now run by a private non-profit foundation. The approximate number of visitors each season is 100, 000.
--- Before 1993, the history of the Fort was generally male-centrered military, which was also emphasized by many staff's clothing of the French and American soldiers in 18 century.
--- The new female interpreter depicted at this exhibit a different gender role and time period: a wealthy American traveller of 1830s wearing somber-colored dress, gloves and boots, as well as a group and a guide.
--- The sharp contrast between the Romanticism the interpreter created and the roughness of the military life extends the traditional interpretation of the past history.
--- Visitors usually responded firstly visually and then intellectually. So gender at this exhibit was the primary avenue by which the interpreters challenged the visitors assumptions. More male visitors asked questions about the interpreter's role. As a whole, visitors identified the female interpreter as either a sacrificial virgin or a camp follower, which reflects a traditional male-centric history stereotype.
-- The different reactions of the visitors gave the interpreter a good opportunity to stimulate the visitor questions through tours and conversations, demonstrating a future interpretive position of woman's history.
Knibb, Helen. "Present but not visible": Searching For Women's History in Museum Colletions.
-- This article is to examine the primary issues about museums' acquisition, documentation and interpretation of collections relating to women's history.
-- Based on the "Ordinary Woman- Every Lives" exhibit, the author's purpose to write this article is to explore the community museum collection from a woman's perspective and to begin the development of methodology that could be applied in other similar museums.
--Research must understand the history, context and structures of museums, as well as collection management practice.
-- During the second half of the 19th century, museums were viewed as "engines of progress"
-- For much of the 19th century, museum work was predominantly male profession. Women staff were employed in lower paid positions, often as curatorial assistants. It is not unusual there is a general absence of documentation on the role of women as collectors and museum workers.
-- Museum collections are probably the most neglected resource for the research in the women's history.
--Reason of the absence of museums from research arena in Canada lies in the lack of resource and expertise in community museums.
-- An understanding of collecting practice is key in assessing the value and relevance of museum. Biases are reflected from the collections, which were more on tangible evidence, such as object and docuent, not intangible heritage as customs, traditions, folklore, myths and dance.
-- Factor of motive and impetus that facilitate the transfer of the object to the museum in the section process of acquisition: collections donated by women do not necessarily reveal much about their personal life, but more about social norms, beliefs and values.
--- Systematic collection and documentation usually lack "natural links or relationships" among the artifacts.
--- Omissions in collections and apparent biases can reveal about the community collection. Items provide rich resource on such topics as household utensils, food preparation and costumes, poor on pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing.
--Most North American history museum collections and exhibitions are stereotyped as offering a predominantly white, male, and Anglo Gaolic perspective.
-- Conflicts exist between the exhibition forms and interpretation and understanding women history
--Museum's temporary exhibitions on special themes.
--Curators in small community's reluctance in offering a different perspective on the past history.
--Exploration of women's history challenges traditional approaches to exhibition development and conventual modes of interpretation in history and community museum.
--The collaborative project and its content and intended outcomes.
--Object identification: connection between objects and women in a variety of contexts.
--Donations or gifts are the primary source of acquisition for most museums.
--The museum's patterns of hiring and the interest of various curators.
--Further questions reflected from the exhibit.
--The use of museum collections for women's history is still at formative stage, and past practice in museum management resulted in collection limited in scope and representation.
--Further development: acquisition policies with explicit statement is necessary; a careful plan for collection growth is a priority; project in regional basis; donor questionnaires or interviews must be completed; a classification system and inventory; storage.
No comments:
Post a Comment