Extinct Monsters to Deep Time: Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian's Fossil Halls (Museums and Collections Book 11)

__Extinct Monsters to Deep Time__ is an ethnography that documents the growing friction between the research and outreach functions of the museum in the 21st century. Marsh describes participant observation and historical research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History as it prepared for its largest-ever exhibit renovation, Deep Time. As a museum ethnography, the book provides a grounded perspective on the inner-workings of the world’s largest natural history museum and the social processes of communicating science to the public. Via the Smithsonian Institution, an exploration of the growing friction between the research and outreach functions of museums in the 21st century. Describing participant observation and historical research at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History as it prepared for its largest-ever exhibit renovation, Deep Time, the author provides a grounded perspective on the inner-workings of the world's largest natural history museum and the social processes of communicating science to the public. From the introduction: In exhibit projects, the tension plays out between curatorial staff—academic, research, or scientific staff charged with content—and exhibitions, public engagement, or educational staff—which I broadly group together as “audience advocates” charged with translating content for a broader public. I have heard Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the NMNH, say many times that if you look at dinosaur halls at different museums across the country, you can see whether the curators or the exhibits staff has “won.” At the American Museum of Natural History in New York, it was the curators. The hall is stark white and organized by phylogeny—or the evolutionary relationships of species—with simple, albeit long, text panels. At the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Johnson will tell you, it was the “exhibits people.” The hall is story driven and chronologically organized, full of big graphic prints, bold fonts, immersive and interactive spaces, and touchscreens. At the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, where Johnson had previously been vice president and chief curator, “we actually fought to a draw.” That, he says, is the best outcome; a win on either side skews the final product too extremely in one direction or the other. This creative tension, when based on mutual respect, is often what makes good exhibitions. Contents Illustrations and Tables Foreword Prologue: Fieldnotes from the Badlands ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Abbreviations Chronology A Lists of Relevant Leadership Chronology B Geologic Time Scale Chronology C Fossil Exhibits Timeline Introduction Chapter 1 Increase and Diffusion: Early Fossil Exhibits and a History of Institutional Culture Chapter 2 Group Dynamics: Exhibit Meetings and Expertise Chapter 3 Group Dynamics: The Roots of Team Frictions and Complementarities Chapter 4 Content Development Debates about Interconnected Processes and Static Things Chapter 5 Content Development: The Roots of Interpretive Frictions and Complementarities Chapter 6 Diffusion and Increase: Shifts in Institutional Culture from Modernization to Now Chapter 7 Conclusion Coda The Nation’s T. rex Appendix A Consent Form Appendix B Interview Questionnaires Bibliography Index ''Extinct Monsters to Deep Time is an ethnography that documents the growing friction between the research and outreach functions of the museum in the 21st century. Marsh describes participant observation and historical research at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History as it prepared for its largest-ever exhibit renovation, Deep Time.' As a museum ethnography, the book provides a grounded perspective on the inner-workings of the world's largest natural history museum and the social processes of communicating science to the public.''-- Fourni par l'éditeur From Extinct Monsters to Deep Time is an ethnography that documents the growing friction between the research and outreach functions of the museum in the 21st century. Marsh describes participant observation and historical research at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History as it prepared for its largest-ever exhibit renovation, Deep Time. As a museum ethnography, the book provides a grounded perspective on the inner-workings of the world's largest natural history museum and the social processes of communicating science to the public