Ok with the gift shop quote - I go there first sometimes.  why not?
sometimes I go to the bathroom or the snack bar - same thing. I rarely walk
in a place after a drive, getting everyone out of the car, etc., in a mood
ready for looking at an exhibit.  I need to "detox" first. For you
anthropologists out there...its my ritual tee hee hee.

ditto David on the donor recognition - I find it fascinating what a donor
will buy

not too upset about the probable husband (yeah, I'm sexist) waiting in the
lobby - mine does because he's through after ten minutes and I am on the
second label.  more of an issue of what works in the relationship and
mutual respect for a partner's interests.  Not everybody LIKES museums or
has the same level of interest.  (It has taken me over 20 years to come to
grips with that one) On a trip to Yellowstone many years ago, my in-laws
complained about getting out of the car to see "another waterfall" and
bypassed the historic markers to stop at ALL the nick knack shops .  Don't
care...they paid for the trip and entertained themselves junk shopping
while I got to be amazed.  Glad the partner was willing to sit in the
lobby.


Lori Allen
Graduate Student, History and Museum Studies
University of Missouri - St. Louis

"Well behaved women rarely make history."
                                  - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Historian

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of David E. Haberstich
Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 12:39 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Reactions: AAM Poster session thread


In this message I'm going to indulge several of my favorite themes: fair
warning to those who've seen them before!

Maybe I'm temporarily humor-impaired or just tired, but I have to admit I
don't find some of Judith Henry's supposedly hilarious one-liners
particularly funny.  "Let's go to the gift shop first", e.g., strikes me as
just sad--to quote from the campaign speeches of former presidential
candidate Perot (remember him?).  It's certainly a sad commentary on the
state of museum values.  One of the first concerns of modern exhibit design
seems to be the strategic placement of gift shops.  When visitors express a
preference for shops over exhibits, perhaps we're just getting what we
deserve.  After all, we have to make those sales to support our programs
and
exhibits--whether the visitors are really interested in them or not, right?
Pardon my cynicism; as I said, I'm tired.

I assume that "look who donated this one" was prompted by a donor credit to
a
famous person (or corporation).  Seems like a perfectly legitimate and
predictable response to name recognition.  And I've always advocated that
all
donors should be credited in exhibits, even if they're rich and famous.
But
seriously, someone will have to explain to me why that's funny.  You can't
expect all visitor responses to be profound.

And "You can look at the show; I'll wait in the lobby"?  Again, sad but
typical, and not especially funny.  Many museum visitors are just tagging
along with someone else and would really rather be any place other than in
a
museum--a fact of life which many museum folks don't seem to want to admit.

Reactions to other thoughts in this thread:

<<1. visitors believe that nothing that's in a museum is real

2. visitors think we do a good jobs with our mock-ups>>

I think no. 1 goes a little too far.  Let's say "some" visitors are hard
pressed to determine what's "real" and what's a replica or facsimile.  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.

End of sermon.  However, I can also personally relate to the circumstance
of
having real people mistaken for mannequins (which is perhaps the result of
the wax-museum mentality infiltrating "real" museums).   I do find such
confusion funny (to prove that I may have a sense of humor after all), but
the joke may be on the museums, not the visitors.  My office, research
room,
and archival collection is plunked smack in the middle of an exhibit area,
and I've encountered many visitors who were baffled by the juxtaposition.
They can't figure out whether they're expected to enter and look around or
not.  Some try to come in to gander because they assume the space is an
exhibit and are stunned to hear that they need a research appointment.  The
reception area looks almost like it might be some sort of period room, so
confusion is understandable.  In a previous configuration it was even more
ambiguous.  It contained a desk with a receptionist, who reported
(sometimes
amused, sometimes annoyed) that if she sat immobile for too long, she could
hear visitors debating whether or not she was real or a mannequin.

Some museums are hard to decode.  Visitors often have difficulty
interpreting
what they're looking at--or what they're supposed to be seeing.

David Haberstich

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