Matthew L Kocsis wrote: > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 11:14:58 -0500 (EST) > From: Matthew L Kocsis <[log in to unmask]> > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Outside the Museum > > As part of a research project for a graduate seminar, I have been looking > at how non-professional, non-historical institutions display and interpret mat erial culture > and American history. (snip) The Burger King at Kayenta, AZ (in the middle of the Navajo Nation) has a pretty extensive exhibit on the Navajo Code Talkers. It consists of three or four case panels of objects and text. It's been a while since I saw it, but I recall newspapers, ph otographs, and swords, maybe other small, flat objects. (I gather it startles Japanese tourist s stopping through on their way to or from Grand Canyon!) Why Burger King? My guess is that the owner of the franchise was, or is related to, a Code Talker in WWII and wants the world to know what this little group of people did for their country in that war. I would also guess the objects on exhibit are all privatel y owned and that none of them received review and/or treatment by conservators before instal lation. As an exhibit, I think it's a little busy, but I've seen worse exhibits in many a c ounty museum and a few state museums. I thought it might be interesting to apply your questions to this exhibit. >1)What can museum professionals do to influence the care and exhibition of such >collections, and is it reasonable to expect professional involvement? I don't know anything about the origins of the exhibit, but I think museum profe ssionals would have to "sell" their involvement at this time (after the fact) by convinci ng the owner that his cherished objects are suffering serious deterioration and will be no mo re if something isn't done. As far as I know, it's his place, his exhibit, his stuff, and his story; he can do as he pleases with it, subject to a convincing argument persuading him th at what he is doing is contrary to his own purposes. "Should-ing" him on professional prin ciples will, I suspect, fall on deaf ears. After all, his "visitation" figures for that exhibi t probably exceed the number who view most other exhibits in this country, and people like it!" >2) Can private individuals and institutions consistently be appropriate steward s for >material culture and its interpretation? "Appropriate" is the key word here, isn't it, and doesn't "consistently" equate with "always?" If the question is asked within the context of the museum profession, the answer will "consistently" be "No." There are too many exceptions to point to and say "Look how this person destroyed/misrepresented such-and-such material!" But if you ask the guy in Kayenta, or the average collector (and I live in an area rife with private colle ctions of prehistoric Pueblo pottery and other artifacts, many of them quite legally obtai ned), the same question, it's elitist implications would instantly cause resentment and de fensiveness and the answer would be something like "It's mine, to do with as I wish." And w ithin THAT frame of reference, he's right. If the discussion stops there, as it so often has in the past, we will again go nowhere and depart each other's company with freshly renewed resentment and hostility toward each other. I would hope our professional commitment to "appropriate stewardship for material culture and its interpretation" would lead us to offer nonjudgemental ways in wh ich members of the public could be acquainted with the agents of deterioration and l earn simple and effective ways to mitigate them. The Anasazi Heritage Center mounted an extensive exhibit a few years ago, "Our Fragile Legacy," which not only showcase d some interesting items from the BLM archeology museum's collection, but showed how th e same forces that destroy prehistoric artifacts are sending our personal keepsakes to oblivion. It included numerous, free, practical handouts on object care and there were severa l practically oriented talks and workshops conducted with the exhibit. I think the exhibit di d more to protect objects in our area in its one year run than all the railing done by all the "experts" in the last half-century! >3) What are the effects of such collections and displays on museums and their c ollections >and relations with the public? Good question! I think there IS an effect, a negative one, and that is the key to our needing to be proactive, positive, and unfailingly generous in our efforts to reach out to private collectors in the ways noted above. In our area, the fact that collectors have LEGAL means to acquire, display, and sell prehistoric pottery is generally thought to contribute to the ILLEGAL acquisitio n of pottery through looting public resources. Those of us who care about the inform ation value of objects in their original contexts will always mourn the loss associated with every object ripped out of the ground solely for the sake of possessing and showing the artif act. In that sense, even the legal acquisition is a loss to the community of scholars. In the case of the Kayenta Burger King exhibit, however, the effect may be much more positive. I think that exhibit went up on private initiative before the recent traveling exhibit and spate of publications on the Code Talkers came out. In any case, the owner has clearly been a leader in honoring and letting people know about an element of modern Nav ajo history that is an object of intense pride for the Navajo people. The exhibit p resents a little-known aspect of community pride to the traveling public. To my mind, tha t ain't all bad! I hope this example is useful in exploring the implications of your questions, a nd perhaps in stimulating discussion among others on the list that will enlighten all of us. My personal hope has long been and will always be for more partnerships between the museum profession and members of the public who have material culture we'd all like to see last a little longer. (PS: Museum-L friends have posted me about formatting problems in my offerings. I test-posted this reply to myself before sending it to the list and it returned t o me looking fine. IF the formatting of this reply to the list comes through to you screwed up (looking like the margin settings are awry), and if you put up with it long enough to get this far, please let me know off-list and I will try something else. I downloaded another program that appears to be interacting with Netscape 2.0, and the problem may lie there. Thanks for your patience!) -- Tom Vaughan \_ Cultural The Waggin' Tongue \_ Resource <[log in to unmask]> \_ Management, 11795 Road 39.2 \_ Interpretation, Mancos, CO 81328 USA \_ Planning, & (970) 533-1215 \_ Training