Museum Do museums over do weapons?

[Nathan Stuart]

It depends on what the museum endeavors to represent.

A dedicated 'Civil War Museum' would be expected to largely display military-related items, including the implements of war (e.g. weapons).

In contrast, a 'General History Museum' would normally show a cross-section of objects covering the wider aspects (social, industrial, military etc.) of society.

 

[PrivateBrooke]

Perhaps a hands on display of some sort with reproduction gear where the public could safely interact with actual Civil War equipage. For me it was these sorts of exhibits that did it. Looking at a dozen rifles that all look the same through a glass pane never really did it for me.

Agree. That's one of the big draws of reenactments, you can usually find a reenactor willing to let you at least touch their gear.

 

[major bill]

Agree. That's one of the big draws of reenactments, you can usually find a reenactor willing to let you at least touch their gear.

The Michigan History Museum does have four children size sack coats, overcoats, haversacks, packs and blankets. I was thought that maybe these could be moved from the 'prop' room to the gallery. We would have to take the tin plates, cups, silverware, and fake hardtack out of the haversacks due to safety concerns (kids love to use the metal plates as Frisbees, and I am so tired of getting a ladder to get hardtack of the top of the display cases). School children love to put on the sack coats and it does fit in to the state teaching standards for the Civil War. The down side is that we are still short of docents due to COVID and if I am there alone and two or more school classes are there at the same time, I would be away from the Civil War gallery much of the day and wonder what the children can find to use the Civil War gear for. Lately I have been mostly hang out on the 20th Century floor so do not bring out props for the 17th to 19th Century for the students to look at and play with.

 

[Old Soldier]

War means the use of weapons so any museum, even one that was far from the action but supplied troops, should show the weapons. They also need to show the photos, drawings or paintings of those who went, uniforms, real or repro, the equipment they had to carry and extracts of the letters or writings of those who went to war too. It was the making of the modern USA, so it is a VERY important period of your history. BUT (there is always a 'but', isn't there) it needs to be factual without any bias of any sort - or current interpretations.

 

[major bill]

The State of Michigan would probably not provide money for new high tech display cases and the 30 year old display cases were not designed to display real Civil War uniforms or flags with out damaging them. We do have a couple of real caps and cloth items on display and at this point they appear to show limited damage. The risk of further damage to real Civil War uiforms and caps is an issue for the Dircector and curators to decide. The same can be said about the Custer flags.

Visitor love the flags, but over time the display cases will cause damage to the flags despite the best efforts to protect them. New high tech display cases would be the real answer, but would be costly and require a major redesign of the Civil War gallery. This would take a great deal of money and the gallery would be closed for considerable time. A new display board is one thing, but installing new wiring, lighting, and a new ventilation system is something different. The dust and such might even cause the entire floor to close for a few months.

The Michigan History Museum is charged by the State with protecting important historical objects, so proper protection of the objects is important, but I do not see the State providing the funds needed to make that kind of redesign of the Civil War gallery. Any redesign would be a good time to see what kind of damage is being done to the objects currently on display and take steps to better protect them. All museums face the issue of damage to items on display, but museum over 20 years old were simply not designed with the newest tech in mind.

 

[debwallsmith]

It is obviously up to the museum professionals to decide what will go into the exhibit and the story that is being told.

I'd leave the weapons on display since you are targeting a younger audience. Weapons were influential in sparking my interest in military history when I was young and many children are attracted to things that go bang, slash, stab, etc. Seeing what the soldiers used in battle grabbed my attention and later as I matured I wanted to learn more about all of the other aspects of the Civil War period.

Speaking from experience, the absolute worst CW exhibits are those that display every weapon in the collection. Regardless of your experience that "many children are attracted to things that go bang, slash, stab, etc.", kids aren't interested in dozens of them especially if they're behind glass. Note that there are 3 types of museum visitors: streakers, strollers and students. Only about 5% of visitors are students while a whopping 75% are streakers who whiz through exhibits only stopping for a few seconds when artifacts catch their eye.

 

[debwallsmith]

It depends on what the museum endeavors to represent.

A dedicated 'Civil War Museum' would be expected to largely display military-related items, including the implements of war (weapons).

In contrast, a 'General History Museum' would normally show a cross-section of objects covering the wider aspects (social, industrial, military etc.) of society.

It is the state history museum so the story is about Michigan and the Civil War.

 

[Old Soldier]

The Michigan History Museum is charged by the State with protecting important historical objects, so proper protection of the objects is important, but I do not see the State providing the funds needed to make that kind of redesign of the Civil War gallery. Any redesign would be a good time to see what kind of damage is being done to the objects currently on display and take steps to better protect them. All museums face the issue of damage to items on display, but museum over 20 years old were simply not designed with the newest tech in mind.

The British Museum does that for historical items in the UK, BUT, it displays very few. Many are in storage - carefully hidden away, but available for those who wish to study further. BTW - if the State will not supply the funds, why don't the Civil War enthusiasts, State historians and reenactors contribute to it?

 

[GwilymT]

I do find it distracting when looking at an exhibit or in a museum when there is just an explosion of artifacts. Unless the point of the display is Civil War Arms, less is more. I know some will disagree with me but for the average person looking at thirty eight different types of rifled musket or two hundred an twenty different shell fragments/examples is meaningless. Unless you are one of the few in the very narrow range that collects such things it's overkill.

 

[major bill]

I wonder if the number of weapons displayed was cut in half and the space gained used to tie the remaining weapons to Micigan units or Michigan soldiers.

I will use our artillery sword as an example. A sign that says 'Artilery Sword', neither tells a Civil War story nor does much to tie the artillery sword to Michigan. So let's say a new sign said 'Artillery Sword like the swords carried by the pre War Coldwater Light Artillery. These swords with their white belts soon proved impractical and after the Coldwater Light Artillery became the Loomis Battery, these swords were soon put in to storage.' The new sign would the put the sword in to context and connected this type of sword to a famous Michigan unit. The new sign might get a student to ask why artillery sword were impractical or ask who the Loomis Battery was.

 

[Lakertaker1]

Why do you feel there needs to be more expansion in this museum explaining the story of slavery? If there is a need or lack of this in that particular museum then by all means there should be such a display. I believe every good Civil War display must have a good representation of the most prevalent weapons that were used during the war. It helps people understand better how the war was fought and how bloody the conflict really was.

Arguably, the ACW is the culmination of perhaps an equally interesting period of American history. Namely, the politics involved and the different visions regarding a young developing nation. How would it be displayed in a museum? The splintered cane that pummeled Sumner? A first edition copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin? A John Brown pike? A bill of sale regarding a slave purchase?

 

[debwallsmith]

The British Museum does that for historical items in the UK, BUT, it displays very few. Many are in storage - carefully hidden away, but available for those who wish to study further. BTW - if the State will not supply the funds, why don't the Civil War enthusiasts, State historians and reenactors contribute to it?

It is much easier to study artifacts that are not on exhibit.

 

[carptrash]

BTW - if the State will not supply the funds, why don't the Civil War enthusiasts, State historians and reenactors contribute to it?

For starters, many of us a very cheap.

 

[major bill]

I guess it comes down to what forum members think a museum should do. Should a museum tell the story of the Civil War or should a museum show artifacts from the Civil War? Trying to do both could make it hard to do either well.

 

[Kurt G]

It's been many years since I've been there , but there were several items related to Michigan soldiers and I didn't think there were too many weapons displayed . I don't know if these are still displayed . I was especially interested in the Tiffany import 1840 saber because I have one "alleged " to have been carried by a Michigan Cavalry Brigade trooper .

 

[major bill]

Those are still on display. They are in the rear of the Civil War gallery and in my view they have fairly good signage. Things like the muskets only have the name of what they are. Some pistols also are connected to particular people. Then you have this wonderful cap which years ago had a small sign but now is not explained. I think it said the cap was from Illinois.

 

[major bill]

I have yet to hear when they plan to redo the Civil War War gallery. A few years back they filled the tempory display room with Civil War items that are normally kept in storage. There were some nice Civil War items that had never been displayed before. Some of the non displayed Civil War items were very nice. Perhaps they will use some of them on the redesigned gallery.

My hope is that they somehow include some 'safe' hands on activities for the students. Before COVID they discussed with me my thoughts about hanging their four children size sack coats on the wall outside of the Civil War gallery. For about a month I set the four sack coats on a cart by the gallery. The kids loved to put on the sack coats. The d iij won side was many groups try to do the Museum in 45 minutes to an hour and allowing students to put on the sack coats ate up too much of the 45 minutes. This left some classes 5 or 10 minutes to do the entire 20th Century floor.

They have yet to have a session where the plans are shown to the docents. Regardless of the plans it will be nice to have the gallery updated.

 

[Albert Sailhorst]

In SOME cases, "State Guidance" reflects a curriculum with an "agenda" of some type.
In my opinion, a museum should disregard the agenda and, instead, display and TEACH history as it was from the perspective of that particular time period. To do so will help 21st century people better understand 19th century thought/perspective, motivations, etc.

 

[major bill]

In SOME cases, "State Guidance" reflects a curriculum with an "agenda" of some type.
In my opinion, a museum should disregard the agenda and, instead, display and TEACH history as it was from the perspective of that particular time period. To do so will help 21st century people better understand 19th century thought/perspective, motivations, etc.

The Michigan History Museum is a State owned facility and financed by the State. If the Museum Director disregarded the State Education Guidance she would likely lose her job. Disregarding the State Guidance would also probably reduce or end the money provided by the State Legislature. All the museum staff are State employees. As a docent I do not get paid so I would not be overly effected if the State ended all funding for the Michigan History Museum. To be honest, many places would let me work for free. I would no longer be in the Docent Guild.

The Museum covers from the 1600s to the 1980s. Some of the historic perspectives and thoughts from those years would not be appropriate for 21st Century children. For example the views about First American in 1700 is far different from out view today.

 

[PrivateBrooke]

I do find it distracting when looking at an exhibit or in a museum when there is just an explosion of artifacts. Unless the point of the display is Civil War Arms, less is more. I know some will disagree with me but for the average person looking at thirty eight different types of rifled musket or two hundred an twenty different shell fragments/examples is meaningless. Unless you are one of the few in the very narrow range that collects such things it's overkill.

This. I would love a display with all kinds of different weapons. But if I were on a family trip, I'd get there and be oogling it. "Hey that's a Suhl Contract Musket! And a Philadelphia Pomeroy conversion!" My mom and everyone else would be like "What's the difference, they're all muskets" and not really appreciate the collection as I would.