Looking through my vast collection of style guides (mostly hard copy, I'm
afraid):

In the late 1990s, the Shedd Aquarium developed a style guide for exhibits
with the help of Judy Rand ([log in to unmask]).  It was separate from the
manual used by other departments.  It also focused on general approach and
hints for lively writing, moreso than specific issues of formatting,
punctuation, etc.  For those, we relied on Chicago.

Judy has helped produce style guides for many institutions: Moneterey Bay
Aquarium (1993), Tech Museum of Innovation (1997), California Science Center
(1998), and no doubt many others.  THese are all wonderful and well worth
reading -- but, again, not strictly "style manuals" in the Chicago sense.

The San Diego Wild Animal Park (1989) has Content Guidelines for Graphics,
which does indeed get into specifics on what information is included, how,
and where, on animal IDs and labels.  So, too, the Standards Manual for the
Philadelphia Zoo (1993).

At The Science Museum of Minnesota, we have no official style manual in the
exhibits department.  I have my own unofficial style guide, an accumulation
of issues I've run into over the years.  This I distribute at the beginning
of every project I happen to be assigned to; with a couple minor tweaks, it
is generally accepted.  (We do a lot of collaborative work with other
institutions, and often have to use their style manuals, or negotiate a
hybrid.)  For technical issues, we use Chicago.  For grammar, I have found
Garner's Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style to be indispensible.
 (I understand Garner wrote a preface to the latest edition of Chicago, thus
combining these two references into one uber-tome.)

Eugene Dillenburg
Exhibit Developer and unwilling label-guy
Science Museum of Minnesota

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