“Windows on the Works” at the Eli Whitney Museum, Hamden, Connecticut

Abstract

“FACTORY” AT THE ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM, HAMDEN, CONNECTICUT STEPHEN K. VICTOR Several museums of technology and industry have been integrating activities into their exhibits. The Eli Whitney Museum has done so very successfully in “Factory.” It is a small exhibit, only about 2,000 square feet, but it serves several different audiences well. Its three parts deal with the processes and products of industrial production: one part exhibits historic machine tools, the second treats New Haven’s historic and contemporary industry, and the third is a participatory exhibit called the Toy Soldier Factory. A number of museums have made attempts to interpret industrial production. Some of them display a few machines, others operate historic machines in a museum gallery, still others create periodroom -like reconstructions of historic factory environments with no moving machinery, and still others replicate parts of a factory with operating machines. Of the four approaches, this last tactic seems most satisfactory. It has been used in many industrial museums, and it seems to provide a realistic experience of a historic factory setting. Nonetheless, such reconstructions cannot lead the visitor to an adequate historical understanding of the work experience for several reasons. Usually only a few machines are run, for brief periods, and often just one at a time. Furthermore, they are run not by experi­ enced factory hands but by interpreters. In such settings, visitors cannot experience many of the authentic aspects of factory life that the environments are meant to recall. They cannot feel the satisfying skill and/or boring monotony of operating a machine day after day for years on end. They cannot enjoy the pleasure of cooperation in the workplace, nor can they know the stresses of trying to satisfy a demanding foreman or manager. Given these limitations, a good simulation activity can teach certain things better than a re-created industrial scene. Such an endeavor Dr. Victor is an assistant director at tile Association of Yale Alumni and an interpretive planning consultant with a special interest in industrial history. His recent projects include educational activity centers at the Baltimore Museum of Industry and the Tsongas Industrial History Center in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was formerly director of the American Silver Museum in Meriden, Connecticut.© 1992 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/92/3302-0004J01.00 336 “Factory” at the Eli Whitney Museum, Hamden, Connecticut 337 might provide a more authentic and meaningful experience than real machinery in a re-created context in which visitors cannot operate the machines. A well-planned simulation can lead the visitor to a deeper understanding of important aspects of industrial history. In this respect, the Eli Whitney Museum’s factory exhibit emphasizes the principles of specialization and flexible mass production, topics that are difficult to see in a real factory and certainly in a re-created one. To provide a context for the simulation activity, the exhibit begins with a brief discussion of the American System of Manufactures, which the museum defines as a combination of resourceful adaptation of machines, division of labor, specialization of machines, systematic organization, and a passion for innovation. Another label on the legend of Eli Whitney places him modestly within the context of American manufacturing innovation. The historic machine tools, most borrowed from other institutions, occupy places beneath overhead line shafting (fig. 1). Museum guides set the line shafting in motion and demonstrate the machine tools, types that are fundamental to metalworking at the site and in Connecticut—lathes, milling machines, and drill presses. Small text labels provide information about the historic machine tools. By including belt-driven machine tools along with others in which hand or foot power plays a major role, the exhibit indicates that industrial production does not always require remote power provided by massive prime movers. One of the aims of the exhibit was to show the characteristics of the region’s historic and contemporary industry. Historic images of New Haven—area factories reflect the range of industry. Several large displays contain the products of some of the area’s major historic companies: clocks by Chauncey Jerome and the New Haven Clock Company; guns by Whitney, Winchester, and Marlin; educational toys and domestic...