I too was going to resist but the memories were too powerful.  My first
memory of a museum as a child was being pulled through the natural history
museum at the University of Michigan by my older brother -- he was
probably 12 and suffering the usual fascination with dinasaurs.  On one of
our forays, we found a curator working on one of the exhibits.  When Dick
engaged him in conversation, he was invited back into the nether regions
to see some new finds that had just been brought in.  Little sister got
left behind and wandered happily around.  The guards who later reunited us
were not so happy with the situation nor was our grandmother when we were
late for dinner, but it was a wonderful introduction to museums for me.

As an adult, my most powerful experience in an exhibit came at the
military museum at Cantigny in Wheaton, IL.  I came to the entrance of the
exhibit (a dark recreation of a bombed out village in World War I France)
and I could not go into it by myself!  I waited until three other women
came in to tour and I walked through with them.   I went in as a pacifist
and was a more confirmed one when I emerged.  All the more surprising
because I expected to feel defensive.  My husband, who does not share my
views, went through the exhibit later and was equally moved by it.  I
still haven't figured out how the two of us, with such disparate attitudes
on war, could both respond so strongly to the exhibit.


--
Mary Turner, Coordinator
Illinois Association of Museums
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
1 Old State Capitol Plaza
Springfield, IL 62701
217/524-7080
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