David Haberstich: You said, ".  Many
museum exhibits confuse the viewer about what's a "real" historical artifact
and what's simulated by intermixing them without clear differentiation.  I
think this is an ethical issue which is seldom appreciated.  Of course,
museums started generating this confusion many years ago with dioramas
composed entirely of constructed realities, then period rooms and settings
containing mixtures of collection artifacts and fabrications.  In our zeal to
"educate" we sometimes fail to explain the differences, and I think that
short-changes the viewer--especially if "real" artifacts can be mistaken for
replicas, or vice-versa."

This is a little off the subject, but when I read this paragraph and the
comment that you were responding too about the visitors thinking that we do a
good job with our mock ups, I was  reminded of when I was working as an
intern at a historical museum where I had to do research on a mosaic. The
mosaic turned out to be a Renaissance Revival piece, probably 19th century
and it portrayed God (the father) because of the triangle -representing the
trinity- behind his head. I had been to various art history professors and
museum curators to gain proof of my findings. Before then, the museum
teachers called the mosaic an actual byzantine piece portraying Moses. As I
looked at some of the museum's records, I saw that the information that I had
given was already documented by the confirmation of Sotheby's and other art
professionals;however, even after a newspaper displayed my picture and talked
about my research of this piece and confirming my findings in an article it
did, the museum teachers, some, were still calling it Moses and Byzantine, or
they just stopped talking about it to the visitors altogether saying that,
"It is a very nice piece". I felt a little insulted, because I really
believed in what I was doing and felt that I was really helping the museum to
only be ignored by, not only some of the museum teacher -there were one or
two, mostly new teachers, who would take into consideration the research-but
the recent website which still calls the piece the Moses Mosaic. The piece is
too obvious for someone to call it a Byzantine piece. I just believe in being
as accurate as possible when I conduct tours or deliver information to the
public. Am I taking this too personally?

Sincerely,

M25


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