I was going through a few of my father's Smithsonian magazines now that I'm home for Thanksgiving. I found the issue for November 2013 and it was a little different from most. The Smithsonian Institute is attempting to tell all of America's history in 101 objects. The editors of the magazines worked with curators of each of the 19 museums and research centers to choose just 101 objects out of the 137 million the institution currently owns. They then published a "special collections issue" of the magazine to showcase these 101 objects and describe their importance in United States history.
For such a huge section of history, 101 doesn't seem like a lot of objects to get the entire view of American history. From the notes in the articles, it also sounded like there was a great deal of debate amongst all the collaborators as what items should be included and why. What I really like about this undertaking is that the Smithsonian understood this debate and decided to do something about it. As soon as the magazine was released, the institution published a branch on its website that carried on the discussion of American history. They allowed the public to contribute their own articles to the website that pointed out a particular item in the Smithsonian's collections and why they think it should have been one of the 101 objects. One author even went so far as to include 50 new pieces.
I think this is a great idea for museums, even smaller museums, to get community involvement. Maybe they can publish their holdings on a particular collection and start a debate. Did the exhibition include everything that the public thought it should? It's a way to not only serve as a basis for expanding or changing current exhibits, but also to get people involved in the process of exhibition. By opening a public discourse, museums can keep exhibits relevant and interesting to the community as a whole.
If you want to take part in the Smithsonian debate the website is: smithsonian.com/101objects
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