For this blog entry, I would like to do
something a little different by providing a behind-the-scenes look at some of
the work we do here at the Museum.
Particularly, I would like to take you through the process of creating
an original exhibit from scratch. As some of you may know, we have an exhibit
hall for rotating exhibits which changes every couple of months. The majority
of exhibits we present in the hall are original themes and ideas utilizing
objects we already have in our archives and storage, put together by our staff
with help from the board of directors.
The next exhibit we will be presenting is called “Behind Closed Doors”,
and it showcases aspects of late-Victorian private life. Using this exhibit as an example, I will take
you through the process of creating an interesting and accessible original
exhibit with just a small staff and limited resources.
The
first step in making any exhibit is coming up with an original idea. Usually
this is done by a combination of the Board of Directors, the staff, and outside
input. We listen to feedback from our
visitors, and the Board comes up with ideas.
The staff usually fine-tunes these ideas based on knowledge of our
collection. Our upcoming exhibit is
based on an idea by a board member, with a bit more added to the scope to
ensure that we have appropriate material in our collection to do the exhibit up
to our standards. Coming up with ideas
for an exhibit can be very challenging. The material must be interesting to our
audience, historically relevant, and possible to do.
Usually
an idea is fairly abstract, so the next step after having a general topic is to
come up with several sub-topics to research that fit the main idea. For
instance, when creating the Behind Closed Doors exhibit, we came up with
hygiene, courtship and marriage, home remedies and medications, pregnancy, as
well as undergarments as topics to research. Again, we picked these topics
based on how interesting they were and how many objects we had that would suit
them.
The
next step, arguably the most important, is to find a range of suitable objects
and archival materials to use in the display. Because the Daly House Museum is
relatively small compared to other museums, this step is somewhat easier for
us. The staff and board already have a
large working knowledge of the major items in our collection, both on display
and in storage. However, by looking
through our databases we always find something unexpected and interesting. We
try to find enough items to fill the exhibit, but not so many that the room is
crowded and difficult to navigate. We
also try to find objects that would be interesting to all possible audiences, from
children to seniors to expert local historians.
The
objects we plan to display often require a lot of background research
themselves. When the museum receives an object as a donation, we find out as
much information as we can about the item from the donor and through research. However, when we plan to put an item on
display we want to make sure we have as much knowledge about that object and
confirm that any existing information is correct. We therefore look into the
origins and purposes of every object we plan to display in a new exhibit. For this exhibit we used and researched
various medications, cosmetics, courtship items, and types of commonly used
underwear.
Most
people do not know that the Daly House Museum also has an extensive library,
mostly containing books used locally in the early days of Brandon. These books
provide excellent context for most of our exhibits, with a wealth of
socio-cultural information about our topics.
For example, for the Behind Closed Doors exhibit we used medical books
from the turn of the century as well as books of advice about manners and
marriage. These books are all primary sources;
in other words, they were written and used during the period we are
researching.
One
of the most difficult steps in the exhibit building process is deciding how to
use and display our research. Most
people would find it boring if the exhibit room simply contained pages and
pages of written information. Therefore,
after the research is complete, we carefully sift through the research to find
the most important and interesting information.
Sometimes this information is presented in the form of write-ups. Sometimes it is used as trivia or other
interactive displays. Very often, to make it more interesting and accessible,
the information is placed alongside an appropriate object which provides a visual representation of the textual facts.
After
the research has been organized, we start on one of the more fun steps in the
process: design. Each exhibit has a
different mood or feeling to it.
Therefore, we try to use different fonts and colour schemes which
properly portray the mood. For this exhibit,
we used fonts that appear formal and Victorian but also somewhat pretty and
dramatic. We typically use a fancy font
for titles and banners, and a simpler font for all blocks of text. A colour scheme is also a useful tool in
creating a mood. For Behind Closed Doors, the colour scheme involves a deep
magenta and earthy green. We created
curtains and accents in the room to match the magenta colour. As a consistent
logo throughout written displays, we have a simple magenta corset.
After
the research and design portions of the exhibit preparation are done, it is
time to start putting everything together. In order to keep the set-up process
less hectic, we usually put together a digital floor plan ahead of time. This floor plan can be vague or detailed depending
on the requirements of a specific exhibit.
For Behind Closed Doors, the digital plan was somewhat more complicated
because we had planned to make a bedroom scene, a bathroom scene, and a gallery
area between the two. A digital plan
allowed us to see how much room we would have for everything; it also allowed
us to see how things would look ahead of time so we wouldn’t have to move heavy
or complicated items more than once.
Before
putting items on display, we usually have a certain amount of cleaning to
do. We need to clean both objects
themselves that have been in storage and the space they are going to be
displayed. To prevent corrosion, we
simply dust objects with a slightly damp cloth.
Clothing items are very gently ironed.
Extremely dusty heavy fabrics are lightly vacuumed so that visitors and
staff are not exposed to allergens.
These steps are all important in the appearance and safety of any
display. Between exhibits, we also must
clean floors, walls, and display cases.
Another
important step is finding a way to mount artifacts so that they can be seen
without risking damage or theft.
However, because of the complexity of this topic, I will leave it for
another blog post.
After
preparation is complete, we proceed to collection all of the objects and
supporting documentation needed and put up our exhibit. We lay out the display cases, mount items on
the walls, and place clothing on mannequins.
It is a complicated process that hopefully ends in an attractive and
informative new exhibit for our visitors to enjoy.
