How objects tell stories

Juggling balls used in "Tex" Glanville's rope spinning and variety act during his career c.1928-1965. Performing Arts Collection

The other day I mentioned in a meeting about the vibe we've been getting from the Dept. of Education about not wanting anymore 'boring Phar Lap-type' collection images. Similarly when Trish attended an all-day FUSE session with teachers they seemed to be more drawn to photographs and documentary images such as posters and lyrics. They too seemed to be a bit non-plussed by images of things like a Melba costume and the Camelot horse.

All this has led me to thinking about the special nature of what we do in interpreting history using objects. If you think about it traditional teaching methods are very much based on the written word. While teachers may also be able to 'read' other media such as photographs, paintings and moving image it is quite another step to being able to 'read' objects without lots of written context.

In my web travels I have come across a couple of sites that acknowledge this boundary and make an attempt to step through the process of using objects to tell history. The best one I have found is the Smithsonian's Object of History: Behind the Scenes with the Curators of the National Museum of American History. The site is aimed squarely at an educational audience and allows students to learn about using objects for history by encouraging them to follow the path of one object. Once you have chosen your object you have access to a contextual video, primary resources and curator interviews about that object. You also have access to web links for further information and get the chance to make your own virtual exhibit.

I think we sometimes forget that not everyone 'gets' what we do. Maybe somewhere down the track we could do our own web project addressing this issue or maybe we should keep it at the back of our minds when developing the 'Treasures' shows? I'd love to know what you all think about this so don't be shy about using the comments box at the bottom of this post!

More soon

Caz