Exhibiting Dilemmas: Issues of Representation at the Smithsonian (review)

Abstract

Exhibiting Dilemmas is a selection of essays published on the occasion of the Smithsonian Institution's 150th anniversary, all written by Smithsonian staff. These essays concern a variety of issues pertinent to the presentation of artifacts and ideas in a modern museum setting. In their introduction, the editors comment that "the emergence of the idea-driven museum has forced curators, the men and women responsible for acquiring objects and mounting exhibitions, to confront a wide range of social, political, ethical, and cultural issues--issues that hardly affected their counterparts in the 'cabinet of curiosities' days" (p. 1). This observation exemplifies both the strengths and weaknesses of their book. Almost all these essays have a self-referential quality that is evidenced in the issues addressed and the tone of the writing. That it is the curator who is responsible for "mounting exhibitions" is an assumption questioned in a great many history museums but certainly not in Exhibiting Dilemmas. In his lead essay, Stephen Lubar writes that "the goal of a history exhibit is move people from the ideas and information that they bring with them to the exhibit to a more complex, problematized, and nuanced view of the past" (p. 16). This is one view of the goal of historical exhibits but certainly not a universally accepted definition of the genre.