Oral Histories & Museum Education

Last week, after our class discussed numerous readings relating to Oral History, we got to conduct one of our own. In order to relate to our larger class project, our discussion consisted of public health concerns. I spoke with my classmate, John Smith. My oral history with John covered a lot of ground. We talked about health insurance, going to the doctor’s office, and writing end-of-the-semester historiography papers. However, one of the most interesting things John mentioned was how his awareness of health concerns has really changed since moving to a larger city like Philadelphia:

I come from the suburbs, you know, the Poconos Mountains where it’s really rural and spread out. So, we don’t really talk about health concerns. But, now that I’ve moved to the city – I moved here a few weeks ago, like at the beginning of the semester – I’m constantly thinking about where my hands are, what I’m touching, viruses and diseases. You know, flu season is coming up. It’s always in the back of my mind that I should be more conscious about health concerns.

I later asked followed up on this response and asked if being in an urban environment has changed his health concerns:

I don’t think my health concerns have changed, but I’m maybe more aware. Like I said earlier, just always being in a large group of people, I’m always thinking, ‘what’s their health like?’ ‘I just saw them touching this and now, I’m touching this.’ So, it’s a sense of awareness.

John’s comments really shed light on the ways that the environments that one finds themselves in can affect health concerns. This knowledge is quite useful in considering ways to approach a public history project that seeks to cultivate a broader conversation around public health concerns within an urban environment.

Also, this week, we read numerous works relating to museum education. Many of the works stressed the importance of making exhibits accessible to family members of all ages. The Museum Educator’s Manual stressed the use of family activities that used hands-on learning in exhibits as a way involve visitors of all learning abilities.[1] On this subject, I found Judy Rand’s article “Write and Design with the Family in Mind” most helpful.

Rand’s work focuses on making exhibits accessible to children in a way that stimulates learning and takes developing cognitive abilities into account. This article encourages curators to create labels that communicate main points in a minimalistic fashion.[2]  I was particularly impressed with the label relating to Chicago’s industrial past aimed at connecting with children. The exhibit label evokes the way that industrial Chicago smelled, catching the eye with evocative statement “History Stinks!” The label also personalizes this story by asking the visitor, “What does Chicago Smell Like To You?”[3] This is a question that both adults and children can answer and connect the industrial city’s past to their present experiences within it. Such a question makes historical analysis approachable to a wide range of experiences and learning abilities.

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[1] Anna Johnson et al., The Museum Educator’s Manual: Educators Share Successful Techniques (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2009), 79.

[2] Judy Rand, “Write and Design with Family in Mind,” in Connecting Kids to History with Museum Exhibitions, ed. D. Lynn McRainey et al. (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2010),258.

[3] Ibid, 262.