3/14: Reading: The Inclusive Historian's Handbook

    For my Blogpost this week, I was assigned a collection of articles focused on Museum collections from the Inclusive Historian’s Handbook along with one article of my choice. The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook is a collection of articles designed to foster more inclusivity and diversity in the field of public history. The Handbook started development in 2016 with 3 co-editors, Modupe Labode (National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution) William S. Walker (Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY Oneonta) Robert Weible (State Historian of New York Emeritus), along with a dozen additional members on the advisory committee. Being co-sponsored by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) and the National Council on Public History (NCPH), the Handbook still receives updates, such as the post about disability history in 2024. The Handbook features a variety of authors who bring their own definitions about inclusion and diversity to further open up the conversation.

           Since all of my articles tie into museums and how they should utilize their collections. I found it best to explain two of them together. The first article I read focuses on Material Culture. Historians did not originally focus on the study of objects. Back in the day, Historians focused their efforts on the study of written primary sources and only preserved the objects of the elite. Starting in the 1960s, historians began to take an interest in the lives of ordinary people. The problem historians ran into was that ordinary people did not leave a pleather of written sources behind about their lives. To remedy this, historians turned to the objects they left behind and used to tell their stories. The use of objects allows historians to put the audience into the shoes of people from the past. Material Culture cannot work by itself however, historians need to use a wide variety of sources to get the full story. The article mentions how the foil milk caps from Polk’s Dairy in Indianapolis, Indiana were originally viewed as unimportant as they only showed that the African American community drank milk. After interviewing members of the community, the historians were informed that the milk caps allowed African-Americans admission to the Riverside Amusement Park, open only to whites, on one day of the year. The article highlights how Material Culture can involve a large collection of objects that tell a wide range of stories of people from all backgrounds   

Moving past the objects, my next article focused on Exhibitions. The first thing the article notes is how these exhibitions are meant to be a visual story, rather than a textbook article or an essay. The article then focuses on how museums should collect based on their exhibitions, rather than basing their exhibitions on their collections. Instead of using a lack of objects as an excuse to not feature diverse exhibitions, the author says that the museums should take the opportunity to reach out and ask for stories and objects from the community to display. The museum can supplement their existing collection with the new donations to tell stories about things that affect all people like weddings. Another way to frame exhibitions is to use seemingly mundane objects to tell a much deeper story. The article cites an example of an ornate chair that can be used to show the stories of slavery, dangerous occupations, and deforestation in the Caribbean that it took to make the chair. Lastly, the article asks for museums to create rapid response teams designed to collect objects that would be easily lost if left for too long, such as political paraphernalia. The article cites the Orange County Regional History Center and its ability to quickly create an exhibition about the Pulse Night Club shooting. Through proper exhibition and collection efforts, museums can create presentations that reach out to the community and earn its place there.

After reading these articles, I came to better understand how museums can better foster inclusivity and diversity in their walls. I had not thought about expanding the collection to create new exhibitions, as I had viewed museums as institutions limited to caring for the objects they have been given.