The Making Of An Exhibit Hall

The curator of a major museum tells about the creation of an exhibition, from beginning to end. Never before has the design and installation of anthropology exhibit been described in such detail. Not only are technical matters discussed, such as how to simulate a tropical rainforest in miniature and how the noxious fumes of urea formaldehyde are blocked from harming the specimens on exhibit, but there is also an endless recounting of stories about the various exhibits: Thus we read of a mother who is engaged in funerary endocannibalism, sifting through the shed of her cremated infant daughter, looking for every bit of bone and tooth which she will grind up, mix with banna drink, and ingest... we see shaman blowing tobacco onto a straw doll to bring it to life and help him in drawing a missing soul away from the evil spirit who stole it...the curator tells how he came to have in his office enough curare to kill ten thousand monkeys...then there too is Ogomigi, the dreaded double-headed vulture who devours the souls of dead Kuikuru Indians. And there is a lot more...

Library exhibits are more than entertainment for patrons. They can inspire and educate, stimulate an interest that can be explored in a book, or attract visitors who otherwise wouldn't stop by. Displays are also an opportunity for a library to put its creative foot forward or help patrons navigate the facility itself. This comprehensive “how-to” includes a everything a librarian or staff member needs to know to put on an exhibit, from hatching ideas to evaluating the end result. Illustrations and photographs show practical methods of planning, labeling and displaying. An introduction discusses the history and rationale of exhibits, and what librarians need to know to be responsible for them. Most of the book’s pages, however, are dedicated to the hands-on process of creating an exhibit. The first part is a ten-step process for beginners. The second part includes everything a librarian or staff member might want to consider when creating an exhibit: the beginning idea (theme, goals, location); the development and design (layout, labeling and related concerns); the fabrication (materials and installation); and the exhibit from installation to removal (maintenance, care of volunteers, evaluation). Related issues include safety, administration, funding, contracts, public relations and other practical topics. Another section looks at special projects such as traveling displays and hands-on exhibits. Finally, the authors provide syllabi for continued study in a workshop or college course, along with a self-study guide.

Extinct Monsters to Deep Time is an ethnography that documents the growing friction between the research and outreach functions of the museum in the 21st century. Marsh describes participant observation and historical research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History as it prepared for its largest-ever exhibit renovation, Deep Time. As a museum ethnography, the book provides a grounded perspective on the inner-workings of the world’s largest natural history museum and the social processes of communicating science to the public.

How simulated experiences—from living history to emergency preparedness drills—create meaning in performance

By the end of the nineteenth century, Pittsburgh emerged as a major manufacturing center in the United States. Its rise as a leading producer of steel, glass, and coal was fueled by machine technology and mass immigration, developments that fundamentally changed the industrial workplace. Because Pittsburgh’s major industries were almost exclusively male and renowned for their physical demands, the male working body came to symbolize multiple often contradictory narratives about strength and vulnerability, mastery and exploitation. In Bodies of Work, Edward Slavishak explores how Pittsburgh and the working body were symbolically linked in civic celebrations, the research of social scientists, the criticisms of labor reformers, advertisements, and workers’ self-representations. Combining labor and cultural history with visual culture studies, he chronicles a heated contest to define Pittsburgh’s essential character at the turn of the twentieth century, and he describes how that contest was conducted largely through the production of competing images. Slavishak focuses on the workers whose bodies came to epitomize Pittsburgh, the men engaged in the arduous physical labor demanded by the city’s metals, glass, and coal industries. At the same time, he emphasizes how conceptions of Pittsburgh as quintessentially male limited representations of women in the industrial workplace. The threat of injury or violence loomed large for industrial workers at the turn of the twentieth century, and it recurs throughout Bodies of Work: in the marketing of artificial limbs, statistical assessments of the physical toll of industrial capitalism, clashes between labor and management, the introduction of workplace safety procedures, and the development of a statewide workmen’s compensation system.

An illustrated 30,000-mile tour of the continent.

World's Fairs and Expositions have been part of our American Culture for more than 150 years. The fairs started out in a large exhibit hall, and as the years passed and the number of exhibits grew as did the number of buildings needed for the displays. Eventually many states, nations, and individuals would start building their own buildings. How many of these buildings are still standing? That was a major focus of the research of this book. Some fairs left several buildings while others have nothing to remind us of the glory of the fair. The book also focuses on the statistics and interesting facts about the fairs and expos.