Atlantic Slavery and Traumatic Representation in Museums: The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum as a Test Case

Abstract

This article uses the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, as a context for thinking about the success and failure of British institutional attempts to commemorate the traumatic memory of Atlantic slavery in 2007. The analysis opens with a contextualising history of the development and philosophy of Elmer and Joanne Martin, the co-founders of the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. Three special exhibits – namely, ‘100 Greatest Black Inventions’, ‘The Middle Passage’ and ‘Lynching’ – are then considered in detail. The discussion makes extensive use of interviews conducted with artists and museum staff responsible for creating and displaying the exhibits.