Last summer I visited the First Division Museum at Cantigny in Wheaton, IL
and I was really impressed. Here are some of my observations:

Immersive exhibit. The Vietnam War Gallery is my favorite. Visitors enter
the gallery by walking through a section of "jungle." When they first walk
in though they can't see what's ahead because the path takes a hard turn to
the right. The designers did a terrific job of creating a sense of
foreboding. Near the end of the path is an artifact case with field
telephones mounted on either side. Visitors can listen to recordings of
radio communications between ground soldiers and medivac helicopter pilots.
Pretty remarkable stuff. At the far end of the gallery is a clearing where
visitors can sit on ammo crates and watch a 10-minute video about the 1st
Division in Vietnam. During my visit, I went through the main exhibit hall
twice. The first time was to get a feel for the spaces and see what my
initial impressions were and the second walk through was to take detailed
notes. I kept to that plan until I got to the theater space in the Vietnam
exhibit. The video presentation was so engaging that I felt compelled to
stop and watch even though I'd missed the first 3-4 minutes.

Interactive. The museum's North Africa and Sicily Gallery has a computer
interactive that I like very much. The touch-screen display offers visitors
three choices:

1. Listen to veterans answer questions about their combat experiences. For
instance, two questions dealt with what the vets thought were the best
American and German weapons. The answers were the M-1 rifle and the "88,"
respectively.

2. Look up information on weapons and units in a field manual. I picked Air
Support and Mortars. Each "entry" in the field manual had a short video
(30-45 seconds) with clips of actual combat footage and an informative
narration. Interestingly, the air support entry focused on the B-17 heavy
bomber, not fighter-bombers like I expected.

3. Make decisions faced by small-unit commanders in combat. As best as I can
tell from my scribbled notes, visitors can choose from five options: Attack,
Defense, Night Patrol, Advance, and Road Block. Once they select an option,
visitors are presented a scenario based, I'm presuming, on an actual
situation in the 1st Division's history. Visitors then have to decide the
best course of action. Under Advance, for example, I was told my unit had
just taken an objective. Should I report casualties, count ammunition, or
have my troops dig in? For each answer, a short video of actual combat
footage would play and the narrator would explain why my answer was or was
not the best choice.

Mike Rowland
Museum of Aviation
Robins AFB, Warner Robins, GA
www.museumofaviation.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf
Of Dan Bartlett
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 9:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Interactive History Exhibits
...
So lets reframe the parameters of the discussion.  What immersive
exhibits do you all think work best and why, AND what interactive
exhibit elements, simple or complex, computerized or not, have you seen
lately that you think worked really well (and why)?  Examples should
still be accessible to visitors without the presence of an interpreter.
And I would still like to limit the discussion to history (and
anthropology) museums because I believe that those of us who work in
these types of museums might not be thinking creatively enough when we
develop new exhibits.
...
Dan
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