“The living owe it to those who no longer can speak...

to tell their story for them.” Czesław Miłosz, 'The Issa Valley'

One of the few things that I truly enjoy is looking out on social media for new ways museums are partnering with speciality companies to create amazing interactive exhibits.

In our Digital Public History class, we got into a brief discussion of what makes a good tour. It is certainly a difficult question to answer. What some view as the best tour ever may be only based on interest; the topic is something they enjoy hearing about from someone who is more knowledgeable in it. Other individuals on the tour may struggle to connect to the topic being discussed and become lost in the words of an “expert in the field”.

The big question is how do we bridge that gap when giving a tour? Is it showing you are passionate and human? If I give a tour in the most enthusiastic voice I can muster, will a 56-year-old woman care about the specifics of rural wagon production? If I throw in a witty anecdote about the family, will that capture a 7-year-old’s attention?  

I’ve had plenty of time over the past four years to try to connect with individuals of varying interests. One favorite of mine was a tour given to an, of all specialties, an anvil expert. He insisted on only visiting the blacksmith shop. I told him I’d give him a brief tour of the entire wagon works since he paid full admission, but upon passing the blacksmith shop, he inhaled deeply and proclaimed, “Ah, I can smell the iron from here!” Needless to say, we were in the blacksmith shop for close to two hours where I learned the fine details of identifying the composition, serial number, and place of origin of an anvil.

That was someone who was outlandishly excited about a topic. But how do you handle a tour with a middle aged woman who has no interest in woodworking unlike her husband? Or a school group of first graders (who are always interesting to say the least)? 

I personally try to consider the six principles put into place by Freeman Tilden and adopted by many interpretive associations including the National Parks Service. These include:

1. Relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor.
2. Information is not interpretation.
3. Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts.
4. The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation.
5. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part, and must address itself to the whole person rather than any phase.
6. Interpretation addressed to children should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults
   (Brochu, Lisa, and Tim Merriman. Personal Interpretation: Connecting Your Audience to Heritage Resources. InterpPress, 2008.)

So these deep thoughts into how to interpret topics leads me to a recent social media post from one of my favorite museums: The Mütter Museum of Philadelphia (part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia).

Besides being a collection of bizarre medical conditions as a source of understanding of how humans have handled abnormalities in the past and how far we have yet to come in understanding the diseases that plague us. 

The museum made this post on instagram:

View this post on Instagram

#TBT to when @BlastTheory visited us here in Philadelphia. Check out these behind the scenes images featuring their continued work on the Spit Spreads Death parade. ⠀ . ⠀ . ⠀ . ⠀ . ⠀ . ⠀ #throwbackthursday #spitspreadsdeath #muttermuseum #blasttheory #medicalmuseum #parade #philadelphia #philly #philadelphiaevent #nextfab #thecrossingchoir #influenzapandemic #1918influenza #flu #flupandemic #influenza

A post shared by Mütter Museum (@muttermuseum) on Sep 19, 2019 at 10:09am PDT

Curious, I searched the company Blast Theory and found their mission is: "a pioneering artist group creating interactive art to explore social and political questions, placing audience members at the centre of our work.” It turns out, they were commissioned by the Mütter Museum to create a memorial parade for the 20,000 people who died within six months of the 1918 influenza pandemic in Philadelphia. 

The way the parade works is that phones provide light and music and prior to attending the event, parade goers are encouraged to choose a victim of the disease to represent. They are then given a unique object that represents the individual the day of the event.

This is just another amazing example of engaging the public in a history that may not be as well known. It applies creativity, understanding, humanity, and maybe most important, togetherness, to get the mission of the Mütter Museum across:

The mission of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is to advance the cause of health while upholding the ideals and heritage of medicine.

Just a bit of thought when it comes to forms of interpretation. There’s a lot of different ways to go about it. Sometimes, it just takes some time to narrow down the best option for your program.

I encourage you to have a look at the parade website, Spit Spreads Death. I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous that I won’t be able to attend, but I will certainly be looking out for the outcome of the event!

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As always,

Festina Lente my friends,

--Jess--