Comments on: Interpreting The LDS Church History Museum, Part 1

By: chester lee hawkins

chester lee hawkins — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:23:29 +0000

Thanks for the interesting Post. I was quite fascinated by my reviewing the pictures posted. This makes me to want to spend more time visiting Museums, besides reading books. (Smile) I am continuing to learn more about Fine Arts, and it has been good learning experience so far. Again, my thanks for your interesting Post.

Chester Lee Hawkins

By: chester lee hawkins

chester lee hawkins — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:20:17 +0000

Thanks for the interesting Post. I was quite fascinated by reviews the pictures posted. This make mewant to spend more time visiting Museums, besides reading books. (Smile) I am continuing to learn more about Fine Arts, and it has been good learning experience so far. Again, my thanks for your interesting Post.

Chester Lee Hawkins

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:54:39 +0000

#10: Jared,
Sadly, it has been a long time since I have been in the Church Museum. I can not speak about these exhibits. Some museum mistakes are small (like having a soldier with the wrong kind of gun, or on his right side when it was known he was left handed). Dioramas are some of the worst.
My professor had a glass case in front of his office. It had twenty household items from 1900, with a $300 reward to any student who could ID them all. I guess he still has his money.
I am sure you see good faith mistakes in History as I saw in my study of Anthropology. I started out a History major, But fell in love (like Emily) with the hands on stuff. That why I love museums.

By: Jared T

Jared T — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:23:07 +0000

Bob, Thanks. I’m coming to reread some of this. I’m interested in your perspective on what it means to “blow it” in a museum exhibit and if you perceive that the Museum exhibit I feature here “blew it” on something. This is not an accusatory question, I’m just trying to get a good handle on what you’re expressing. Thanks.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:39:34 +0000

Jared,
I took four upper division classes in Archaeology from the same guy; a man who worked forty years for the Smithsonian Institution as a Field Archaeologist. Even the Smithsonian blows it a lot of the time on their exhibits.

By: Jared T

Jared T — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:46:18 +0000

Thanks Ryan. There’s definitely a lot there. I know there was a Sunstone presentation of some kind on historic sites last summer, but I don’t have any idea about what it was about.

Bob, that’s very true, and that aspect of public history is not very well known in any setting, not just among LDS. Which, of course, makes Emily’s recent posts valuable as an insider’s view on that discussion.

By: Ryan T

Ryan T — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:10:23 +0000

Nice work, Jared. Between you and Emily, I think there’s been some great strides recently toward opening up new lines of inquiry.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:47:11 +0000

I love museums. But I am also cautious of what I see and read inside them. Often the histories or interpretations can be way off for many reasons, even when the curator is acting in good faith. There is a lot of subjective thoughts in putting together an exhibit.

By: Jared T

Jared T — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:54:37 +0000

Thanks Ed and Chris. There are indeed some interesting possibilities. There is a new exhibit that has taken the place of the Relief Society exhibit that was there when I did this little tour, so hopefully that part will be illuminating when I put it up.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:37:36 +0000

Thanks for this, Jared. Seems like there’s some interesting research possibilities here.