Museum Studies Commons^™

The Wonders Of The Augsburg Cabinet: Three Ways Of Experiencing A Document, Kiersten F. Latham

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Since even before Frohmann (2009) proposed his document analysis on the meaning of cabinets of curiosity, I have been fascinated with them. Their emergence in the 15th century (MacGregor, 2007) is also the tantalizing beginnings of the birth of the modern museum. In museum studies, we often ask what the meaning of the museum is today (Latham & Simmons, 2014); I believe that part of the answer to this question is in these curious compartmentalized pieces of furniture that held the wonders of the world and helped users make meaning a very long time ago.

One can see examples of …

Employing Natural History Collections In The Aid Of Conservation: Streamlining An Approach To Model Species Distributions En Masse For The Preservation Of Biodiversity, Alice Fornari

Master's Projects and Capstones

Using species distribution models (SDMs) in Natural History Collections (NHCs) can influence how humans implement conservation changes in flora and fauna communities and ecosystems. Through the use of legacy data (old NHCs and their associated locality/collection information), data correction (background data or pseudo absences added to presence-only data), and the SDM software, Maxent (and its associated geographic information systems or GIS projected models), it has been shown that it is feasible to create a low budget protocol/setup to project the past, present and future of species population changes. This has been done in the past few decades as more collections …

Portraits With A Posthumous Voice: Reinforcing And Contesting Social Norms In The Heterotopic Museum And Cemetery, Matthew J. Crissey

Museum Studies Theses

Abstract

The following paper qualitatively analyzes and documents over 500 memorial-photographs/etched portraits on tombstones in ten Western New York cemeteries. This paper covers fourteen topics, ranging from religion to gang-violence. A juxtaposition of portraits exhibited within the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery with memorial-portraits on tombstones revealed heterotopic environments creating a public forum enabling the reinforcing or contestation of social ideologies. In other words, the author observed the similarities of identities and social norms publicly expressed on tombstones and gallery portraits.

A Social Constructionist approach enabled the study to examine how one social phenomenon contributes to the shaping of a culture. …

Curating A Nation: The Role Of Asia’S Twenty-First Century Museums In Constructing National Narratives, Lee Nelson

Pac Rim Posters

Museums of the modern world act to preserve and promote cultural heritage, science, and art. Within the continent of Asia, museums have been crucial foci for various nations’ cultural ministries. By analyzing the missions of specific museums with a critical lens, the objective of national identity and narrative building becomes exposed in the decisions of museums’ exhibits and curations. With having used ethnographic methods and scholarly research concerning national museums in the countries of Mongolia, Japan, China, Thailand, and India, I argue that museums serve as mediums of communication for higher political and cultural institutions to foster, construct, and manipulate …

Object Handling With Contemporary Craft Objects: An Observational Study Of An Embodied, Social And Cognitive Process, Bruce Davenport, Neill James Thompson

The Qualitative Report

This study focuses on the ways that people interact around contemporary craft objects. The ambiguous quality of these objects holds people’s attention and inhibits autobiographical narratives. The study focused on the relationship between the perceptual language used by participants and the ways in which they interacted with the objects. The analytical approach taken here begins with close observation and careful description of single cases and working towards valid generalisations rather than imposing an interpretation from the outset by explicitly positing a hypothesis. Six pairs of women were invited to participate in object handling conversations in an art museum setting. The …

A Tribal Special Library And Archives Project: Establishing The Malki Museum Special Library And Archives, Andrea Geyer

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Malki Museum Tribal Special Library and Archives project is an on-site repository created in order to provide access to information regarding tribal culture and heritage to local tribal members and researchers. The project filled the need for a space dedicated to material related to the history of local Southern California Native American tribes and information regarding the topics of Archaeology, Anthropology and History. The collection includes: books, manuscripts, documents, audio/visual media, and photographs. Bringing together multimedia sources, the Special Tribal Library allows for the preservation and accessibility of these items through cataloging and digitizing the collection. This method allows …

Melcom 2018: Oriental Manuscripts At The University Of Michigan, Roberta L. Dougherty

Roberta L. Dougherty

“After-Ozymandias”: The Colonization Of Symbols And The American Monument, H. R. Membreno-Canales

Theses and Dissertations

After-Ozymandias examines the visual rhetoric of American patriotism through its many symbols, including flags and monuments. My thesis project consists of photographs of empty plinths, objects, products and archival materials. Countless relics remain today memorializing leaders and empires that inevitably declined, from antiquity to modern times. Looking back at distant history feels like a luxury, though: the question for our time in America is whether we have the strength of mind as a society to scrutinize our history, warts and all.

Using Digital Mapping Techniques To Rapidly Document Vulnerable Historical Landscapes In Coastal Louisiana: Holt Cemetery Case Study, Alahna Moore

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis outlines a technique for rapid documentation of historic sites in volatile cultural landscapes. Using Holt Cemetery as an exemplary case study, a workflow was developed incorporating RTK terrain survey, UAS aerial imagery, photogrammetry, GIS, and smartphone data collection in order to create a multifaceted database of the material and spatial conditions, as well as the patterns of use, that exist at the cemetery.

The purpose of this research is to create a framework for improving the speed of data creation and increasing the accessibility of information regarding threatened cultural resources. It is intended that these processes can be …

The Myth Of Southern Atonement: Constructed Forgiveness In Public Spaces, Elizabeth Ashley Clayborn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a rhetorical analysis of public space in Arkansas and examines the ways in which the myth of Southern Atonement is constructed within those spaces. Three formal elements characterize Southern Atonement: absolution from the past, distinctiveness in constructed authenticity, and hope for a post-racial future. The analysis develops over three case studies which I argue contribute to the construction, engagement, and actualization of this cultural myth. The first chapter looks at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and The Unexpected art project as a source of identity construction and place attachment. Then I examine The Billgrimage, or the monuments and museums …

Buying Time: Consuming Urban Pasts In Nineteenth-Century Britain, Dory Agazarian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is about how historical narratives developed in the context of a modern marketplace in nineteenth-century Britain. In particular, it explores British historicism through urban space with a focus on Rome and London. Both cities were invested with complex political, religious and cultural meanings central to the British imagination. These were favorite tourist destinations and the subjects of popular and professional history writing. Both cities operated as palimpsests, offering a variety of histories to be “tried on” across the span of time. In Rome, British consumers struggled when traditional histories were problematized by emerging scholarship and archaeology. In London, …

Lumumba’S Iconography As Interstice Between Art And History, Matthias De Groof

Artl@s Bulletin

How does Congolese art and artistic representations of Lumumba “mediate past, present and future”? How do they relate to historical narratives and to the dialogues within the Global South? This contribution proposes Lumumba’s iconography as a case in point of the interstice between art and history. It positions the image of Lumumba as mediating between past, present and future for both the Congo and the Global South more broadly.

Who You Gonna Call?: Creating A Call List For Your Facility's Disaster Plan, Nicole Elzenga, Adam Stephen Guy Smith

Library Services Publications

Preservation can involve responding to active and pressing matters. But not all buildings are lost to the bulldozer. Many are lost to natural and human disasters like storms and water. A Disaster Plan is a common document used by museums and history organizations. Learn how to develop a contact list for a Disaster Response Plan so you know whom to call when disaster strikes!

Making Do With What You've Got: Improving Your Collections Storage Now, Adam Stephen Guy Smith, Heather Hoagland

Library Services Publications

Don’t wait until that inventory grant money comes through, get started improving your collection storage today using things you have right now or can get without breaking the bank or begging the board! Come ready to share your ideas as well as learn from your presenters and colleagues in this informal discussion-style session. Attendees will leave the session with easily implemented and inexpensive ideas for storing, displaying, and rehousing objects of all shapes, sizes and materials.

Minnesota Historical And Cultural Heritage (Legacy) Grant Program: Lsa Survey Results And Recommendations, Carolyn Veeser-Egbide, Melinda Hutchinson, Michael Lansing, Sherry Stirling, Sheila Brommel, Daardi Sizemore

Library Services Publications

In August 2017, the Legacy Strategic Agenda (LSA) Collaborative Priority Action Team (PAT) for Grants conducted a survey of Minnesota cultural heritage organizations about the Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage (Legacy) grant program managed by the Minnesota Historical Society. The presenters will provide a background about the survey and share the results and recommendations that came out of the survey.

Sitios De Memoria: Una Comparación Analítica Entre Los Espacios De Memoria Y Derechos Humanos En Buenos Aires Y En Santiago / Sites Of Memory: An Analytical Comparison Between Memory And Human Rights Spaces In Buenos Aires And Santiago, Henry Shuldiner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Los museos y monumentos conmemorativos son vehículos centrales a través de los cuales la sociedad puede conmemorar y compartir los hechos del pasado en la actualidad. Tienen la capacidad de contar la historia a través de objetos, medios, artefactos; objetos tangibles, no palabras solamente.

Ésta es una investigación comparativa en que parto observando los lugares de memoria en Santiago y Buenos Aires que rememoran a las víctimas de la dictadura en cada país. Me centraré en cómo funcionan los espacios de memoria para enseñar esta historia, la forma en lo que cada espacio conmemora a las víctimas y cómo estos …

Cherchant Toujours La Paix: Le Systeme Endogene De La Resolution Des Conflits À Batoufam, Becky Sigman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This dissertation will explore two subjects: an internship done with the chiefdom of Batoufam and a research project about the endogenous system of conflict resolution in Batoufam. The first part will illustrate the internship done at the museum of the chiefdom. Here will be described the institution, the work accomplished, and an analysis of the experience. In the second part will be asked the research question “what is the endogenous system of conflict resolution of Batoufam and how has it adapted in the context of the imposition of westernization?” After doing a literature review and explaining the methodology of the …

Death And Taxidermy: How The Process Of Taxidermy Ties In To Modern Society’S Discomfort With Death, Caitlin Monroe

History Undergraduate Theses

“Death and Taxidermy: How the Process of Taxidermy ties in to Modern Society’s Discomfort with Death” examines the relationship between current western discomfort with taxidermy and the strengthening relationship of companion animals with humans. This strengthening of the relationship is facilitating the rising level of grief that comes with losing a pet thus allowing that loss to equate to the loss of a family member. By dispelling the mystery surrounding the process by which a taxidermy specimen is made, where it comes from and why these specimens are vital to educational advancement in the museum, we can discuss why society …

A Cardiology Exhibit At A Science Museum, Viewed As Speech Acts In Sequence, David H. Lee

Publications and Research

An exhibit about cardiology at a science museum is an elaborate form of health communication, with messaging happening across text, pictures, models, and videos. This qualitative case study uses concepts of speech act sequencing and interpellation to explain a series of multimodal exhibits about cardiovascular health. Health exhibits are described as verbal and audiovisual arguments combining assertions of information; directives to change behavior, and designations of risk candidacy—or sequences of assertive, directive, and declarative speech acts. Visitors are targeted as heart disease candidates according to their risk factors, such as hypertension, overweight, and inactivity. Communication research focused on health exhibits …

Morphological Variation In Three-Dimensional Printed Replicas, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Bernard Means, Edward G. Iglesias, Kreg Mosier

CRHR Research Reports

Employed primarily for outreach and education, the three-dimensional (3D) printer used in this analysis provides a means of producing tangible models of fragile and restricted-use specimens for students from a wide variety of disciplines, and is used here to produce prints associated with historic and prehistoric cultural objects. Recognizing that inconsistencies occur in 3D prints due to environmental variables, this exploratory effort was aimed at identifying the geometry that deviates most from the original scan data. A total of five replicas were printed then compared by calculating the gap distance between the nominal (original scan data) and measured data (scan …

A Preliminary Study Of Smithport Plain Bottle Morphology In The Southern Caddo Area, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

This study expands upon a previous analysis of the Clarence H. Webb collection, which resulted in the identification of two discrete shapes used in the manufacture of the base and body of Smithport Plain bottles. The sample includes the Smithport Plain bottles from the Webb collection, and four new bottles: two previously repatriated specimens in the Pohler Collection, and two from the Mitchell site (41BW4) to test whether those specimens align morphologically with the Belcher Mound or Smithport Landing specimens. Results indicate significant allometry and a significant difference in Smithport Plain body and base shapes for bottles produced at the …

Museum Of Modern-Day Slavery: A Photo Essay, Micah Gamboa

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

A photo essay from the Museum of Modern-Day Slavery in Houston, Texas, with photographs of rooms, entrances, and storage spaces in brothels following raids, including artifacts of the trade found at the scenes are documented. Photographs include brothels, bars, and strip clubs where Korean women and Mexican women were exploited. Photographs from the Mexican-American border document the violence the victims are subjected to during their journey.

Looking Through The Trees: An Anthropologist, A Museum, And The Sasquatch, Carissa Kepner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Sasquatch is incredibly popular in American society. This project explores the impact of the Sasquatch phenomenon on those that live in and visit Bailey, Colorado. It focuses on how the Sasquatch Outpost museum contributes to this impact, especially through outdoor activities, visiting the museum, visiting the Outpost general store, and the sharing of sighting stories. This work takes an in-depth look at the concept of the amateur museum, or micromuseum, and how it can contribute to the larger museum world, particularly through the ideas of Outsider Art and serious leisure. By evaluating the processes, exhibits, and procedures of the …

Critical Peace Pedagogies At The American Center For Civil And Human Rights And The Canadian Museum For Human Rights: A Comparative Case Study, Ion Vlad

Doctoral Dissertations

The struggle for racial equity in the United States and Canada is ongoing. Troubled historical legacies in both countries have present-day implications. African Americans and Indigenous Canadians are still two of the most marginalized populations from the standpoint of socioeconomics and political representation (Giroux, 2013; Vickers, 2012). In order to redress these problems, human rights and peace education have to pose structural questions and expose systemic unbalances. In the recent past, neoliberalism has had a major influence on the organization and content of American and Canadian formal education, obscuring some of these structural questions (Ravitch, 2013). In this context, human …

Resist: A Controversial Display And Reflections On The Academic Library’S Role In Promoting Discourse And Engagement, Stephanie Beene, Cindy Pierard

Urban Library Journal

Libraries engage communities in a variety of ways, including through exhibitions and displays. However, librarians may not always know how to promote critical discourse if controversy arises surrounding exhibits or displays. This article reflects on one academic library’s experience hosting a controversial display during a divisive political time for the library’s parent institution, its broader urban community, and the United States as a whole. The authors contextualize the display, created by a local art collective, against the backdrop of creative activism, and consider implications for library displays and exhibits within similar environments. Rather than retreating from controversy, libraries have an …

Ua1c6/8 Exhibit Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of exhibits at Western Kentucky University.

The Effects Of Common Methods Of Soft Tissue Removal On Skeletal Remains: A Comparative Analysis, Emily Silverman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The removal of soft tissue from skeletal remains is a process familiar to a wide array of scientific fields and the methods used to perform it are likewise numerous yet inconsistent. In forensic investigations and crime labs across the country, there lacks a standardization for this process. This lack of standardization pairs with a distinct lack of literature on the potential benefits and risks associated with each method as well as basic information on the proper amount of additives, temperatures, or time estimations. In a forensic context, human remains may be the only evidence available, which makes any damage or …

A Zooarchaeological Analysis Of Hole-In-The-Wall Canyon (45kt12) And French Rapids (45kt13) Sites: Ginkgo State Park, Washington, Matt Johnson

All Master's Theses

A taxonomic and taphonomic faunal analysis was completed for the entire zooarchaeological collection (n=5,354) for two prehistoric archaeological housepit sites, Hole-in-the-Wall Canyon (45KT12) and French Rapids (45KT13). Both sites are located near Vantage, Washington, within the inundated area of the Wanapum Reservoir. Work focused on compiling site records, projectile point analysis, and radiocarbon dating in order to study site chronology, as well as the faunal analysis itself. Site 45KT12 includes at least two occupations; one occurring around 2000 cal B.P., and one beginning around 1100 cal B.P. and continuing at least through 650 cal B.P. A single analytical unit was …

The Effects Of Common Methods Of Soft Tissue Removal On Skeletal Remains: A Comparative Analysis, Emily Silverman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The removal of soft tissue from skeletal remains is a process familiar to a wide array of scientific fields and the methods used to perform it are likewise numerous yet inconsistent. In forensic investigations and crime labs across the country, there lacks a standardization for this process. This lack of standardization pairs with a distinct lack of literature on the potential benefits and risks associated with each method as well as basic information on the proper amount of additives, temperatures, or time estimations. In a forensic context, human remains may be the only evidence available, which makes any damage or …