Hello--

I'm new to this list, and am intrigued by the discussion on whether or not
people are interested in the behind-the-scenes scene.  Incidentally, I'm not
what you could call a "museum professional" although I work at San Francisco
Maritime National Historical Park, a recently accredited maritime museum.
We just opened a new exhibit called "New Arrivals," a display of
acquisitions to the collection since 1988, when the museum became a national
park.  The exhibit itself is unusual in that it replicates a section of our
collections department, complete with steel shelving, pullout drawers full
of artifacts, and floor-to-ceiling photographs of the actual storage areas.
The interpretive theme is on the notion of collection, both personal and
public, and how it reflects our history.  Me, I like it.  But since the
installation only went up on November 21, it's a bit early to tell how the
public feels about it.  My guess is that folks are fascinated to see the
objects, which range from the bizarre (the world's fastest sailboat, a big
blue plastic thing) to the touching
(a scrapbook) to the intriguing (an azimuth instrument of some sort which
the staff didn't manage to identify until just before the exhibit opened) to
the somewhat silly (a painting of a ship mounted in a lifering).  I think
their fascination with the objects, and the view this pile of stuff gives
them into history, opens a window to the value of collection in general, and
gives them a chance to think about their own personal collections: what do
you keep?  and why?  What story do your possessions tell about the times you
live in?  And what are you doing to preserve those objects and their
stories?  I'm not a curator, nor a collections specialist, nor a historian.
I'm just a park ranger, and I think the exhibit is pretty darn cool.

--Laura Arnow
Interpretive Specialist
National Park Service