Museum of London ~ 16 July 2007

The Museum of London was established in 1976, and it is considered to be the largest urban history museum in the world. Some of its funding comes from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the City of London, the Heritage Lottery, as well as donations from the Friends of the Museum community. There are about 150 staff members working at the main site and 150 staff members at the London Archaeological Archives Center. The Senior Curator of Prehistory, Jon Cotton, was our tour guide, and he explained to us how the design team and the curatorial staff work alongside each other to create new exhibits. They maintain a database as an internal record system in order to keep track of objects. There are computer terminals located throughout the museum which visitors may use to access the online catalog. They can search for items by keyword, time period, and subject. And the results indicate where the items are on display. I thought this was an extremely helpful feature!

The exhibits included: Pre-historical London; the Great Fire of London; Roman London (focusing on homes and life); Medieval London; and Tudor and Stuart London. I loved the models and dioramas that are frequently used in the exhibits. They provide visitors with a big-picture perspective while offering so many interesting, intricate details. I took note of the museum's vision as it made the museum come alive to me as more than just an institution; it is a moving force within the community: "Inspire a passion for London;" "London only has one museum." The goal is to create a dialogue with the visitors, instead of simply passing down facts. This is evident, for example, when the captions pose questions to the visitors, causing them to stop and think about the relevance of the item on display.
I became fascinated with learning about the issues and challenges that the museum staff faces. Our tour guide, Jon Cotton, let us into their world of decisions that I had no idea existed. One challenge is that England's National History Curriculum does not include pre-history (it begins with the Roman invasion). So, the pre-historical London exhibit carries a heavy responsibility to present new information in a way that provides sufficient context to an audience that is generally unfamiliar with the time period. Similarly, the staff must make sure to avoid the use of historical jargon when creating the labels and captions, keeping in mind what the audience will be familiar with. A related issue is the amount of text included in the displays; Jon Cotton believes that reading should not distract the visitor from the objects. I completely agree! It seems that the visitors' needs, knowledge, and interests must be central during the design process. One final aspect of design, which I'm sure leaves room for constant debate, involves the ethical issues surrounding the display of human remains. The human skulls that were part of the pre-historical exhibit were displayed because of their cultural context. But I understand the director's hesitancy to put everything on display without respect and some solemnity.