An Exercise in Exhibit Design

Background

            When designing an exhibit for a public audience, there are many aspects one must address in order to create not just an interesting experience for the visitor, but one that challenges their perspective on a specific topic. From the organization and layout to the captions, each decision is vital in designing a successful exhibit. One challenge with our specific exhibit—which will take place in Drexel’s new Historic Costume Collection gallery space—is the size of the display. Because of restrictions in space, the objects will be separated into two interlocking exhibits. In deciding how best to choose the objects for each exhibit, I pondered what type of audience each object, and the theme we choose to represent through that object, would attract. The space restrictions—only three of the six gowns can be displayed properly at one time—forced me to consider the exhibit in a very specific way.

            With the help of Clare Sauro and a lively discussion, our class came up with several possible themes for the two exhibits. I believe that by linking the two exhibits closely with a common theme, visitors to the first exhibit are likely to return for the second exhibit. The theme that appealed most to me was the idea of social mobility and the performances involved with high society. When considering the collection, I believe this theme can be applied to each object. With this theme and my favorite of each object caption in mind, I divided the collection into two.

The Layout

            When entering the gallery space, visitors will begin on the far right side of the glass case. Besides our captions, which will be displayed next to each object, each student will record a brief history of their object which visitors will be able to access through their phones. This type of multimedia presentation of the information is both budget and user friendly. Each visitor will be given the opportunity to get to know the objects on a higher level by listening to more detailed information than space and budget would otherwise permit. Besides this audio tour, the wall opposite the display will include a large map displaying the locations each object is known to have been. On the map, which will include Philadelphia and its outlying areas (Reading and Lancaster are important to some of our objects!), numbers assigned to each object will reflect where that object belonged on the map. Next to this map will be the list of numbers with a photograph of both the objects and the sites each member of our class visited to learn more about the object. The objects from both exhibits will be included in this portion of the exhibit, allowing visitors to identify the larger theme and get a “peek” at what the second exhibit will include. If space permits, a larger explanation of Philadelphia’s Centennial celebration will be provided. This is an aspect of the exhibit that will likely interest all local visitors, and applies to at least two of the objects. Additionally, again if space permits, a more in depth (but still brief) explanation of the different bustle periods should be included. This is information that could be helpful for visitors to learn more about almost half of the objects, and is difficult to capture in a single caption. Another choice for one of the displays is a more detailed look at the crazy quilt, through enlarged details explained with captions.

Exhibit #1

            Now comes the difficult part—the separating of the objects. In the first exhibit, I chose to place the assembly gown first, as it is aesthetically appealing and the caption includes information that could appeal to a diverse audience. First, it states the workmanship and high status of its owners, followed by information about the company that made it, and finally includes details about the Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. Next to the gown, I chose to display the shoes. The shoes are specifically related to the gown through their involvement in Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition. Next comes Rosalie’s dolman, which also includes a specific location or event in Philadelphia with its performance at the Academy of Music. Either in the audio recording or via headphones directly in front of the dolman, song selections from the opera Rosalie attended while wearing her dolman should be played for visitors. This will allow for a more emotional response from visitors. To the left of the dolman is the nineteenth-century waistcoat, which is amusing with its pink polka dots, and continues the theme of high society performances involving our objects.

            In the center of the exhibit space, the crazy quilt will be mounted on the wall. Because the exhibit space is not extremely deep, visitors will be able to view the details. Because of the limited space and the large size of the crazy quilt, some of its outer edges may be somewhat obstructed. Next to the crazy quilt, the exhibit continues with the wedding portion of the first exhibit. The 1837 and 1845 wedding gowns will be displayed with the corset suspended in between them. The corset shows visitors what women wore beneath their dresses to shape their body according to high society standards on their wedding day. Like in front of the dolman, the corset audio clip will include the wedding marches played at Emma’s wedding.

Exhibit #2:

            The second exhibit will be set up similarly to the first. First, the smoking jacket will draw visitors in with its flamboyant look. Next to the smoking jacket, the top hat will be displayed on glass cubes at eye level. On the other side of the top hat will be Captain Brown’s waistcoat. The placement of these three objects will cause visitors to consider the contrast between the upper-class men in his home versus the upper class man performing in public for society. Next to the waistcoat, the mourning card case will be displayed, evoking the idea of a public ritualistic performance.

            The crazy quilt could possibly be displayed in both exhibits, particularly if part of the display boards on the opposite wall is a closer look at some of the quilt’s details. On the other side of the quilt will be the day dress, the trousseau gown, and the 1856 wedding gown. Placing these three very different dresses, worn at very specific times, near each other will allow visitors to recognize the differences between each.

Some Last Words

            I believe this division of objects, and the specific groupings of certain objects, will provide the visitors with an interesting and thought-provoking experience. The display on the wall opposite and our audio clips will be crucial in presenting our theme. 

Senses in the World of Material Culture

            Mark M. Smith’s Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History offers an important aspect in the study of material culture by providing a study of the five senses through history. Smith separates the five senses into five chapters, each describing the history of that specific sense. Though each chapter is dedicated to a particular sense, common themes arise in each section, including the senses’ affect on ideas of class, gender, race, identity, modernization, and religion. Smith is careful to provide a global history of each sense, including many examples of how the senses affected these common themes in non-Western civilizations.

            Following our class discussions, and because of the details offered by The Reading Eagle in describing Emma’s wedding, I found the theme of class development through the senses appealing. Even in the sense that seems the most obvious way to identify someone’s class—vision—Smith provided an interesting take on not so obvious aspects of seeing, including the affects of installing electric and gas powered streetlights on various cities around the world. In the newspaper articles I have found that offer a glimpse of Emma’s wedding, the only day I am positive the corset was worn, the visual aspects dominated the descriptions. The authors, however, also included three other senses. By describing the selection of songs played, and the instrument that played them (the organ), the delightful aroma coming from the elaborate display of flowers decorating the alter, and the three-hundred pounds of fruit and several different flavors of wedding cake, those assigned to describe Emma’s wedding proved the importance of at least four out of the five senses that day. The sound of various wedding songs on an organ, smell of flowers, and taste of exotic fruits and cakes, all help to display Emma’s high position on society. Interestingly though, as a historian, I experienced these descriptions visually, through the written word. As Smith described the deep divide between the sounds, smells, and even tastes between the elite and working classes, I applied his observations through history to Emma’s own life.

Smith’s specific discussion about the question of touch within museums interested me. The one sense I have not been able to experience in any way during my study of Emma’s corset, is touch. As many material culturists agree, touch is important in understanding an object and the person or people who have interacted with that object in the past. To be able to hold, lace, or even try on our objects, would allow each of us to experience them in a completely new way. Alas, the proper care and maintenance of these objects is much more important than emotional experiences, and thus we must continue our relationships with our objects free from the sense of touch—at least directly. 

Prosthesis and a Bottle of Shampoo

            This week’s readings offered slightly different views on the idea of studying material culture. The Prosthetic Impulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future, a collection of essays edited by Marquard Smith and Joanne Morra, offered a series of interpretations on medical prosthetics and their affect on various parts of human life. The collection of essays aimed to examine relationships between the ideas of human and posthuman, organic and mechanic, evolutionary and postevolutionary, and flesh and the accompanying technologies. The Prosthetic Impulse remains, in my opinion, the most challenging reading we have been assigned thus far. While extremely thought-provoking, I did not find the collection of essays necessarily enjoyable, but rather I struggled to apply the work to other readings, as well as directly to thoughts about Emma’s corset. The introductory essay, by Vivian Sobchack, who herself has a prosthesis, proved the most beneficial for me. Sobchack argues against the contemporary notion of prosthetics as seductive and the prosthetic metaphor.  She discusses her personal thoughts towards her artificial leg, claiming she does not want her limb to be extraordinary, but rather hopes is will allow her to live her life as normally as possible.

This argument differs from every other essay, as several other authors discuss the sensuality (and fetishizing) of prosthesis. After reading Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary last week, and our class discussion, the notion of yearning to be “ordinary” and to blend in remained in my mind. Perhaps this is why Sobchack’s argument appealed to me more than the others—she seemed the most “real” of any other authors and allowed me to begin to understand the idea of prosthesis on a personal level. Of the essays included in The Prosthetic Impulse, David Serlin’s “Disability, Masculinity, and the Prosthetics of War, 1945 to 2005” proved the most problematic for me. I am not entirely comfortable with his notion that the United States military both exploited and reinforced “conceptions of both able-bodiedness and hetero-sexual masculinity” and his application of soldiers with prosthesis. Specifically, the idea of gender-transgressive behavior as a component of the military’s concept of able-bodied heterosexuality seemed exaggerated or generalized, at least in the more contemporary military. What may have worked better with his argument concerning the modern military is female soldiers, and their expectation for gender-transgressive behavior within the military.

Our second reading, Dan Rose’s “Active Ingredients” offered an analysis and study in material culture of a bottle of Head and Shoulders shampoo. Rose claims through the article, he intended to “emphasize the fabricated quality of contemporary things.” His article proves successful in this goal, as he essentially deconstructs the language behind the bottle of Head and Shoulders, to gain insight into the world of corporations. His study includes the physical ingredients in the shampoo, the physical bottle itself, and the written words placed on the bottle. His article seemed a sophisticated study in material culture, but the emphasis on text and language caused me to struggle to apply it to my research on Emma’s corset. I hope when I dive deeper into primary sources, text will help me understand more generally the corset within its contemporary culture. 

Blue Jeans vs. Corsets: Examining Relationships with Material Culture

Daniel Miller and Sophie Woodward’s work Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary examined a simple, every day item—blue jeans—and discovered just how much one article of “ordinary” clothing is capable of telling us. As the authors explained in the conclusion of their final chapter, the book was broken into three sections. The first several chapters of the book were chiefly descriptive, providing the reader with specific examples of how people in their study relate to their blue jeans, in terms of social relationships, personal history, and their perception of fashion and brands.[1] In the second section of Blue Jeans, Miller and Woodward analyzed the information they provided in the first sections, specifically terms frequently used by participants, and tried to find significance in them.[2] Miller and Woodward used the final section of their work to address the question of theory in anthropology and sociology.[3]

As the authors found, wearers can consider jeans in endless ways: as stability, as signaling a turning point in their life, as helping maintain a certain body image, as conformity, impersonal or generic and a way of blending in, or as a way of staying in fashion, standing out, as comfortable and easy, and more. This book is certainly an intriguing study in material culture, and the author’s conclusion shows that jeans are genuinely transcendent and pose no possibility of inequality.[4] Each way jeans can be considered, and especially their conclusion, caused me to consider the objects we are each studying.

As we worked to identify a larger theme that can be applied to our objects during the exhibit, we returned to the idea of social change, class, and hierarchy numerous times. For most, if not all of our objects, they signified a high status in society or an entrance into high society for their owners. Unlike blue jeans, which can be considered void of all inequalities, our objects existed in part to prove their owners’ high standing in society. 

Another idea that struck me was Miller and Woodward’s point that everyone has a different relationship to jeans. I thought about Emma and her relationship to her wedding corset. For women of Emma's social standing, a corset, like blue jeans today, was every day wear. But because this wedding corset signified an extremely important day in her life and was worn solely for that event, she probably had a more special relationship with this corset than her every day corsets. But, did the women who owned the wedding dresses in our class have different thoughts about their wedding corsets? Did they have different relationships towards their every day corsets? Did some consider them a burden, while others accepted them as socially mandatory? Blue jeans are certainly a unique piece of clothing in that they represent many different things to many different people, and this work caused me to consider the relationship Emma had with her wedding corset in a more serious way.

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[1] Daniel Miller and Sophie Woodward, Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 152.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid 119.