Slides of my talk at the Eisenbibliothek conference on museums of the history of technology

1. Steven Lubar
Brown University
November 2010

2. SOME MOMENTS IN A NEW
HISTORY
RECENT CHALLENGES AND
NEW APPROACHES

4. Many ancestors to the technical museum:
anthropology, art, commercial, cultural,
design, educational, historical, natural
history, patriotic, scientific, technical...
We have simplified our history and need to
look to the past for a broader perspective

7. A representation of the nation as orderly,
progressive, part of natural order of things.
National
Popular

8. Organized mechanics exhibitions so that
inventors and manufacturers could show off
their products and learn from each other. These
were both technical and commercial events
Commercial
Scientific

9. Patent models on display; a democracy of
learning. Science and invention in the service
of entrepreneurship and business.

10. National
Popular
Commercial

12. The popular museum, hoaxes and humbug as
well as nature and technology. Interactive in a
very modern way; Visitors engage with curators
to decide what’s real, what’s true
Popular

13. Educational
Historical
Cultural
Popular

14. “The museum of the past must be set aside, reconstructed, transformed from a
cemetery of bric-a-brac into a nursery of living thoughts.”
—George Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889

15. Maritime exhibit, from most primitive to most
advanced

17. Textile technology from throughout the world,
across time, organized by degree of
sophistication

18. Educational
Commercial
Community
The first task of every museum is “adding to the
happiness, wisdom, and comfort of members of
the community.”
—John Cotton Dana, 1917

19. Industrial museums in service to industry;
informing employers of new safety apparatus.
Educational
Commercial

20. To collect and display machinery, and as a
school for apprentices. “Life had been better in
the old days and it had been getting better ever
since” - - a corporate employer's vision of
history; “a static utopia,”
Historical
National

21. Inspired by Deutsches Museum. A teaching
museum, popular, providing a large audience
with notions of progress.
Educational
Popular

22. Educational
Commercial

23. To show the wonders of modern industry and
the value of engineers. One of several similar
schemes of the 1920s, including Museum of
the Peaceful Arts, New York
Educational

24. Popular
Commercial

25. “A fetishized history, focusing on technological
developments and ignoring social relations of
production, to say nothing of class struggle.”
--Michael Wallace, 1981
 Boeing: Museum of History and
Industry, Seattle, 1952
 The American Iron and Steel
Institute: Restored 17th-century
ironworks in Saugus, MA, 1954
 .R.J. Reynolds, Inc.: helped
restore Miksch Tobacco Shop
(1957) in Old Salem, 1950s
 Textile industry: Merrimack
Valley Textile Museum, 1950s-
’60s
Commercial

26. Textile Machinery and Fiber Exhibit,
Smithsonian Institution, 1960
Educational

27. Exhibits of machinery, machine relics, models
of machineries, with a good bit of “how it works”
text.
Educational

29.  Putting people back in the story; articulating
the relationship of people and technology
(technology as part of cultural and social
history)
 Putting technology back in culture; beyond
autonomous technology
 Overcoming notions of “progress”: How to
make technology part of history, but not
simply tell a progress story?

30. Using objects, but not making the show
about objects
Telling stories without obvious artifacts
Moving beyond “how it works”

31. Increasingly, a public that doesn’t have a
personal connection to the subject
More interest in very recent technology
How to involve the audience and the
subjects in the museum in appropriate
ways?

32.  Museums should foster “the ability to live
productively in a pluralist society and … contribute
to the resolution of the challenges we face as
global citizens…... [include] a broader spectrum of
our diverse society... [have] respect for the many
cultural and intellectual viewpoints that museum
collections stand for and stimulate.” —Excellence
and Equity, 1992
 Museums as tourist hubs and economic engines
 Museums as schools or replacement for schools

34. Old Sturbridge Village, 2009

40. Tool chests as symbols of pride and indicators
of skill

43. Moving from a parking lot of old cars...

44. ...to an exhibit that addresses infrastructure,
immigration and migration, travel, trade and
commerce. Mass transit mixed with the
individual cars.

49.  Museum as site for hobbyists
 Museum as economic engine
 Museum as educational institution /
supplement to schools/job training site
 Museum as tourist attraction
 Technology and industry as a small part of a
larger story

50. Volunteer, Do-it-yourself, collections and
workshops
Hobbyist

51. After-school arts and engineering programs;
teach students to make things.
Hobbyist
Education

52. “The Institute has become a dynamic agent of
change through its rich array of internationally
recognized exhibitions and programs, lectures
and discussions themed to illuminate issues in
contemporary science, community outreach
initiatives particularly targeted to girls and to
urban youth, and its series of innovative
partnerships in public education. “
Tourist Attraction
Education

53. “Encounter ideas that change the world, travel
through America’s past, embark on America’s
greatest factory tour and more. It all comes
together at The Henry Ford, America’s greatest
history attraction”
Tourist attraction
Education
Commercial

54. “...providing learning experiences that support
students and teachers making meaningful and
tangible connections between what they learn
in school with what they value in the world
beyond classroom walls through Design
Challenges.
School

55. Under development now by the BNYDC, an
organization whose goal is to promote local
economic development, this exhibit will share
space with a Job Training Center whose
participants will take inspiration from the stories
of hard work and invention told in the exhibition
half of the building.
Job Training
Development

56. Complete renovation; moving from rows of
historic machine tools to an interpretive center.
“The guiding principle for the next five years is
to blend old and new to tell how the history
preserved in the museum and its collections is
connected with precision manufacturing and
the world of today. “
Education
Job Training
Development

57. Increase science literacy in the general public
Encourage young people to develop and maintain their
natural interest in science and innovation while learning
to apply these skills to real life problems
Help people understand scientific and business
principles and the associated career opportunities.
Job training
Economic development

58. History of industry and technology subsumed under the
history of business and innovation.
Education
National Identity

59. New technology, new techniques
New stories to tell
New audiences
New goals
New challenges!