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Historic Preservation Home > Syllabi > 200 Level Courses > HISP 200-01 The History Museum

 

University of Mary Washington
Department of Historic Preservation

Dr. Elisabeth Sommer
129 Combs Hall
654-1310 (office)
Office Hours MWF 11-12 & MW 3-4

HISP 200 The History Museum

Welcome to the wonderful and often whacky world of museums.  In this class we will explore the intellectual issues museums face, and the practical (and sometimes tedious) considerations of daily administration.  The big challenge, of course, is to try to reconcile these two things.  Therefore we will keep both in mind as we read and discuss a wide array of museum literature.  This is an introductory class and so we will touch on a number of aspects of museum work in order to give students a general understanding of what goes into making and running a museum, and the roles they can play in society.

Notice my use of the term “we.”  This class is most definitively not the Dr. Sommer show.  While I will certainly steer the discussion and occasionally regale you with tales from the field, the true success of the class will depend on your ability to keep up with the reading assignments and be prepared to discuss them on the date for which they are listed.  In addition to discussion, you will have the opportunity to practice doing various things that are part of professional museum work.  We will also be taking some field trips (yeah!) to local museums.

Reading Assignments

  • Edward P. Alexander and Mary Alexander Museums in Motion: an Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums (in the bookstore)
  • Amy Henderson and Adrienne L. Kaeppler eds. Exhibiting Dilemmas: Issues of Representation at the Smithsonian (in the bookstore)
  • George E. Hein and Mary Alexander Museums, Places of Learning (available at the AAM website, www.aam-us.org/Purchase/SearchCatalog.aspx click on the “interpretation and education” link)
  • Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums (also on the AAM website, see above)
  • Museums in the Life of a City: Strategies for Community Partnerships (AAM website)

In addition to these books/booklets, there are various articles and book chapters that will be available on the internet and on reserve.

Writing Assignments
This is a writing intensive course, so you can expect that writing will play a significant role (as, in fact, it often does in museum work).  Required written work consists of both analytical papers and practical exercises.  You will be responsible for two exhibit reviews, the first of which must be rewritten (but that means your grade will improve, or at least it should).  You will also have to submit either a grant proposal outline, or a catalog entry and condition report for an object.  There will be a midterm and a final paper in which you use an actual museum case to reflect on the role of various facets of museum practice in the success or failure of institutional visions.

All papers and exercises must be clearly written and follow the basic rules of grammar and spelling.  In addition, papers must present a defined argument and support it with specific examples.  All outside sources should be cited in proper form (standard to be given later).  Sloppy writing, including excessive typos, will affect your grade.  Assignments are due on the date given on the syllabus unless prior permission is given for an alternative due date.

Grades

Discussion/Participation 10%
Exhibit Reviews 20% (10% each)
Field Trip Report 10%
Practical Exercise 10%
Midterm 15%
Final Paper  35%

And now for the important stuff…

Aug. 26: Introduction to the course: what makes a museum?

Aug. 28: Defining Museums: Video Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America (Alexander, Museums in Motion, Chapter 1)

Sept. 2: Varieties of Museums (Alexander, Chapters 2-4—don’t panic, you’ll be divided into groups and thus only responsible for one of the chapters)

Sept. 4: Modern Challenges (Excellence and Equity; purchase this at the AAM website, go to www.aam-us.org/Purchase/SearchCatalog.aspx and click on “Interpretation and Education)

Sept. 9: The History of a History Museum (Patricia West, Domesticating History: the Political Origins of America’s House Museums, Chapter 1)

Sept. 11: Public History and the Museum (Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past, introduction and Chapter 1; available on the web from the library portal, go to www.netlibrary.com/Details.aspx)

Sept. 16: Presentations from team field trips (details to come) Field Trip Report due

Sept. 18: Museums and Audiences, or, Whose History is it? (Steven Dubin Displays of Power “Introduction: Museums as Contested Sites” and Eric Gable and Richard Handler “Public History, Private Memory” in Amy K. Levin ed. Defining Memory: Local Museums and the Construction of History in America’s Changing Communities)

Sept. 23: Museums and Audiences: Case Studies (Dubin, Displays “A Matter of Perspective: Revisionist History and The West as America”)

Sept. 25: Museums and Audiences: Case Studies (Dubin, Displays “Battle Royal: The Final Mission of the Enola Gay)

Oct. 2: Midterm

Oct. 7: Field Trip!! (finally!) Place TBD

Oct. 9: The Nitty Gritty: How Museums Function, or Don’t (Barry Lord and Gail Dexter Lord The Manual of Museum Management pp.1-34) First Exhibit Review Due

Oct. 14: Fall Break! Fall Break!! Fall Break!!!

Oct. 16: Museum Administration: Management (Jane Glaser and Artemis Zenetou, Museums: A Place to Work, pp.65-70 and 82-86; Manual pp.48-62)

Oct. 18: Museum Administration: Finances and Fund Raising (Museums: A Place to Work pp.84-85 and 100-101; Manual pp.158-190)

Oct. 23: On the Ground at the James Monroe Museum (schedule subject to change) Revision of Exhibit Review Due

Oct. 25: Collections Management: Identification, Accessioning and Deaccessioning (Museums: A Place to Work pp.74-82; Alexander, pp.187-215)

Oct. 30: Collections Management: Cataloguing and Other Paperwork (we’ll go through this together)

Nov. 1: Collections Management: to Protect and Conserve (Alexander, pp. 217-234; Manual pp.80-86)

Nov. 6: Education and Interpretation: Theory and Practice (Museums: A Place to Work pp.88-98; George Hein and Mary Alexander, Museums, Places of Learning order from the AAM website)

Nov. 8: Education and Interpretation: Museums as Community Resources (Alexander, Chapter 12; Museums in the Life of  City: Strategies for Community Partnerships order from AAM website) Cataloguing and Condition Report or Grant Proposal Exercise Due

Nov. 11: Display, Identity, and Ownership (reading from Exhibiting Dilemmas: Issues of Representation at the Smithsonian)

Nov. 13: The Impact of Exhibit Design (Alexander, pp.239-248; Lizabeth Cohen, “Fit for America: How Fit for Visitors?” in Ideas and Images: Developing Interpretive History Exhibits)

Nov. 18: Can Museums be Virtual? (reading TBD) Second Exhibit Review Due

Nov. 20: History Museums and the Quest for Authenticity (Jay Price, “The Small Town we Never Were: Old Cowtown Museum Faces an Urban Past” in Defining Memory; Richard Handler and Eric Gable The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg, Chapter 4)

Nov. 25: Contested History (William Yengst and Lonnie Bunch “Curating the Recent Past: the Woolworth Lunch Counter, Greensboro, N.C.” and Ellen Roney Hughes “The Unstifled Muse: the ‘All in the Family’ Exhibit and Popular Culture at the National Museum of History” in Exhibiting Dilemmas)

Nov. 27: Happy Turkey, Tofu, Whatever Day!

Dec. 2: Fueled by Passion: the Struggle over the Vision for the Valentine Museum (Lonnie Bunch “Fueled by Passion: the Valentine Museum and its Richmond History Project” in Ideas and Images)

Dec. 4: Discussion of the Valentine Museum continued (additional readings from handouts)

Dec. 9: Final Exam/Paper due to me by 6:00!