This presentation provided an opening look at the topic of digital-age storytelling in museums, with an emphasis on web and social media outreach and the ways in which museums can be both storytellers as well as platforms for stories. I served as moderator for the panel discussion which featured 3 other case studies from the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History, and the Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. Journey Through Hallowed Ground The Cutting Edge of Public History: New Directions in Interpretation Symposium March 28, 2018

1. Storytelling through
Technology and Media
The Cutting Edge of Public History: New Directions in Interpretation
Symposium
March 28, 2018

2. Storytelling through Technology and Media
Exhibition Films Digital Archive of
Oral Histories
Student-Developed Vodcasts

3. About Me
Dana Allen-Greil
Chief of Web and Social Media
National Archives
Formerly:
● National Museum of American History
● National Gallery of Art
Adjunct Museum Studies faculty:
● Johns Hopkins University
● Georgetown University
@danamuses

4. Reflecting on 15 Years of Digital Stories

5. Why Storytelling in Museums?
“Storytelling works because it helps the visitor create a narrative
frame on which to hang the facts and images encountered. It’s
like a structure made of Velcro just waiting to grab facts and
images onto itself. Story structure is an innate part of human
consciousness and central to the way we organize knowledge.
The visitor does not have to create something new or external to
integrate the knowledge transmitted through story. Storytelling
takes away the stress of learning and creates receptivity and
emotional readiness.”
- Liz Warren, Kathy Eastman, Sandy Oglesby
The Docent Educator
* Museums = my shorthand
for institutions of public
history, art, culture,
heritage tourism, etc.

6. How Do Museums Tell Stories?
•Exhibits
•Objects
•Label text
•Audio
•Video
•Interactives
•Immersion in
“narrative spaces”
•Tours
•Live humans
•Audio
•Mobile
•Programs
•Discussions
•Costumed
interpretation
•Theatrical
performances
•Publications
•Books
•Websites
•Blogs
•Podcasts
•Social Media

8. Conflict
Plot

9. Character
development
Scene setting

10. Plot

11. Conflict

12. Climax

13. Resolution …?

14. Call to action /
hyperlink
Hashtag
Mention

15. Who Tells Stories?
“Everyone tells stories about themselves and uses
stories to understand the world around them.
Key storytelling techniques such as setting the
scene, building to a climax, or twist in the tale, are
familiar to most of us through books and theatre.
As everyone has the capacity to tell stories it also
helps break down the division between the expert
delivering knowledge to a passive receptive
audience.”
- David Francis and Sam Gayton in partnership
with the British Museum

19. How Can Museums Be a Platform for Stories?

23. Scene setting

30. “Over time, what digital has done is, it’s
evolved storytelling–it’s taken it away from
the hands of just authors and publishers, and
it’s brought it to everyone. So, obviously
technology made it easier for anyone to
create content ...and it also gave us
platforms that let stories spread wide and
far...methods of engagement that dwarf
everything that came before, unprecedented
ways to immerse yourself in a story, and to
offer interactive stories.”
-Samir Patel, “A Framework for Digital
Storytelling in Museums,” MuseumNext
How Is Storytelling Changing in a Digital Age?

31. Digital Age Storytelling “Superpowers”
“Digital-aged storytelling gives museums superpowers to
tell bigger and more complex stories—stories that cannot
be told through a single point of view. Within digital-age
storytelling, visitors are able to create their own
connections.”
- Philip Tiongson and Annie Polland
See digitalstory.lestm.org for more on this topic, including
helpful framing presentations by Dr. Amelia Wong.

32. Why Do Stories Matter?
“...stories have the power to
change people. That change is why
we tell stories, and we tell inclusive
stories because it’s impossible to
hate someone whose story you
know.”
- Matthew Solari, “Creating the Inclusive Museum
Through Storytelling,” Museum Next

38. The records in the
National Archives tell
the nation’s
stories...what the
public will do with
them is limitless.

39. Zora Neale Hurston
There is no agony like bearing an
untold story inside you.

40. References
● British Museum. Talking Objects: Storytelling (2014)
britishmuseum.org/PDF/storytelling_resource_changed_font_size.pdf
● Patel, S. “A Framework for Digital Storytelling in Museums.” MuseumNext (2015)
https://www.museumnext.com/insight/digital_storytelling_in_museums/
● Solari, M. “Creating the Inclusive Museum Through Storytelling.” MuseumNext. (2015)
museumnext.com/insight/creating-the-inclusive-museum-through-storytelling/
● Warren, L., Eastman, K., and Oglesby, S. “Storytelling: Invoking the Muse,” The Docent
Educator (Autumn 2003)
● Wong, A. et al. Digital Age Storytelling Toolkit (2016)
digitalstory.lestm.org