Museum Studies Commons^™

Human Rights And Cultural Heritage: Protecting Museum Professionals During Armed Conflict, Jennifer Lee Reilly

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The purpose of this thesis is to address the issue of protecting museum professionals in areas of armed conflict. Recent conflicts have increased public awareness of cultural heritage sites in danger. Organizations such as UNESCO condemned the destruction of Palmyra and the desecration of the Mosul Museum. Despite the public outrage, there is little consideration given to professionals who work at these institutions and who care for the collections. Examining the historical accounts of museum professionals in conflict zones provides the context to the suggestions made in this text. Possible solutions and methods proposed throughout the text include the expansion …

The University Museum In Times Of Fiscal Uncertainty: Fisk University And The Alfred Stieglitz Collection Of Modern Art, Jessica Pochesci

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study of the travails of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Modern Art at Fisk University reveals the unique issues facing college and university museums and galleries, as they balance their responsibility to their donors, the public and their parent institution. In this thesis, I will argue that Fisk University made choices that directly violated generally accepted museum ethics, while simultaneously finding creative solutions to its parent institution’s financial stability and honor charitable intentions. I will examine the legal process of breaching donor restrictions, dissect the role and position of the university museum, and analyze the precedent the Fisk case …

Multi-Sensory Museum Experiences: Balancing Objects’ Preservation And Visitors’ Learning, Anna Baccaglini

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In the late twentieth century, museums moved from a near exclusive focus on researching, collecting and preserving objects to an increased interest in visitors’ experiences and learning. Consequently, today’s museums are re-focused on facilitating engaging connections between visitors and collections. Nonetheless, many current-day museum visitors are dissatisfied with their primarily visual experiences. In order to enhance visitors’ intellectual, emotional and physical connections with objects, this paper argues museums should introduce new ways of visitor interaction with objects through narrative and multi-sensory experiences. By combining discursive and immersive exhibition models, museums can create narratives that emotionally and intellectually involve visitors.

While …

Acknowledging The Colonial Past: Display Methods Of Ethnographic Objects, Sarah Kraft

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Today, the word ‘colonialism’ brings to mind a dark page in Western history. In the nineteenth century, it was justified as a civilizing mission of the West, aimed at bringing culture, religion, and prosperity to the ‘primitive’ people of non-Western countries.

Many Western colonizers took objects from colonized peoples, bringing them back, first as curiosities, then as objects of study and wonder to be displayed in ethnographic museums. Ethnographic museums today exist in a post-colonial world, where people recognize that taking these objects in many cases was wrong and, in some cases, criminal. This raises the question of whether museums …

Rescuing Records: Safeguarding Vital Museum Records, Brianna Losardo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Every activity undertaken by museums relies in some way on records and information. As technology becomes more and more integrated into museum operations, these records are increasingly being created, used, and stored in electronic format. The rapid proliferation of electronic records has left many institutions unprepared to safeguard electronic records that are vital to their operations from disaster, both natural and man-made. In addition, a historical focus on collection records has siloed records management concerns into registration and collections management departments, an approach that no longer suffices in today’s museum. In this thesis, I argue that museums should empower staff …