Defining Memory: Local Museums and the Construction of History in America's Changing Communities

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Overview

Defining Memory uses case studies of exhibits from around the country to examine how local museums, defined as museums whose collections are local in scope or whose audiences are primarily local, have both shaped and been shaped by evolving community values and sense of history. Levin and her contributors argue that these small institutions play a key role in defining America's self-identity and should be studied as seriously as more national institutions like the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Overview

Defining Memory uses case studies of exhibits from around the country to examine how local museums, defined as museums whose collections are local in scope or whose audiences are primarily local, have both shaped and been shaped by evolving community values and sense of history. Levin and her contributors argue that these small institutions play a key role in defining America's self-identity and should be studied as seriously as more national institutions like the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Meet the Author

Amy K. Levin is director of women's studies and a professor of English at Northern Illinois University, where she is also a member of the faculty of the museum studies graduate certificate program.

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments     vii
Foreword   David E. Kyvig     1
Frameworks     7
Why Local Museums Matter   Amy K. Levin     9
Local History, "Old Things to Look At," and a Sculptor's Vision: Exploring Local Museums through Curriculum Theory   Elizabeth Vallance     27
The Rebirth of a Nation     43
Public History, Private Memory: Notes from the Ethnography of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.A   Eric Gable   Richard Handler     47
The House of the Seven Gables: A House Museum's Adaptation to Changing Societal Expectations since 1910   Tami Christopher     63
Louisiana's Old State Capitol Museum: Castle on the Mississippi   J. Daniel d'Oney     77
Nostalgia as Epistemology     93
The Small Town We Never Were: Old Cowtown Museum Faces an Urban Past   Jay Price     97
"The Dream Then and Now": Democratic Nostalgia and the Living Museum at Arthurdale, West Virginia   Stuart Patterson     109
History Lessons: Selling the John Dillinger Museum   Heather R. Perry     127
Museums at Risk: Changing Publics     143
The Politics of Prehistory: Conflict and Resolution at Dickson Mounds Museum   Donna Langford     147
"Such isOur Heritage": Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museums   Jessie L. Embry   Mauri Liljenquist Nelson     161
"A Repository for Bottled Monsters and Medical Curiosities": The Evolution of the Army Medical Museum   Michael G. Rhode   James T. H. Connor     177
Challenging the Major Museum     197
Objects of Dis/Order: Articulating Curiosities and Engaging People at the Freakatorium   Lucian Gomoll     201
Cities, Museums, and City Museums   Eric Sandweiss     217
No Business Like Show Business     231
Business as Usual: Can Museums Be Bought?   Amy K. Levin     235
Conclusion: Museums and the American Imagination   Amy K. Levin     253
Selected Bibliography     265
Index     269
About the Contributors     285
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