Displaying museum history — Museums and Galleries History Group

The Museums and Galleries History Group are pleased to host the third and final blog post by the one of the runners up of our recent competition, Dr Anna Tulliach, Research Fellow at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester.

I have always been fascinated by history and how this has shaped the society we live in. My work as a museum researcher reflects this interest: I can define myself as a museum historian, for having always focused my attention on the history of museums (more precisely, on their history during wartime periods). When I visit a museum, I am fascinated in understanding its history by capturing the information that curators, in one way or another, have decided to provide visitors on this matter. This blog post arises from my considerations on the modalities how museums today are exhibiting their history, gathered during my visits at museums and exhibitions.

Ever more frequently, over the past decade museums have reflected on their own history and on the modalities of representing it within museum spaces, with the purpose of making museum history more accessible to a wider public. It is possible to recognise several approaches to the displaying of museum history: the organisation of entire sections dedicated to the history of the museum; a frequent reference to the collections’ history throughout the museum itinerary; the use of original display cases ‘modernised’; a faithful reconstruction of former exhibition displays; and the organisation of temporary exhibitions.

Outstanding examples of museums that have successfully addressed museum history within their exhibition spaces are the Archaeological Museum of Bologna and the Egyptian Museum in Turin (Italy). These museums have a similar history, but their ways of exhibiting it differ. Both museums were born in the second half of the 19th century, conceived as ‘modern’ museums open not only to researchers but to the public. Moreover, their collections originated from the ensemble of private collections and findings from archaeological digs. Nevertheless, museum curators adopted two different approaches to the representation of their respective museums’ histories.

The Archaeological Museum of Bologna

At the Archaeological Museum of Bologna, curators both maintained original 19th-century displays (such as in the so-called Foundry of San Francesco, fig. 1) and employed old showcases modernised according to contemporary museographic standards (as for the Greek collection, fig. 2). Furthermore, visitors can appreciate the Archaeological Museum’s history because the museum itself is still located in its original building, where the old exhibition rooms’ architecture and past design choices are still in place (e.g., the pictorial cycle of the 19th century, reproducing Etruscan and Egyptian paintings, fig. 3). Consequently, visitors experience a constant dialogue between ancient and modern museographic practices.

Fig. 2. A section of the room VI of the Archaeological Museum of Bologna, housing a portion of the Greek collection. There, museum curators have decided to use old display cases modernised according to contemporary museographic standards (Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna).

Fig. 3. Overview of the Archaeological Museum’s room X, displaying the Etruscan collection. The picture shows part of the pictorial cycle of the 19th century, reproducing Etruscan funerary paintings, made by Luigi Busi with an educational purpose (Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna).

In addition to this, in 2018 museum history was chosen as the topic of a temporary exhibition (Ritratti di Famiglia. Personaggi, Oggetti, Storie del Museo Civico fra Bologna, l’Italia e l’Europa, 10 March – 19 August 2018). It was centred around the history of the Archaeological Museum’s collections and the men who, during the centuries, developed the museum to the point where it became one of the most important archaeological museums in Italy.

As suggested by the title of the exhibition (Ritratti di Famiglia/Family Portraits), the history of the Archaeological Museum’s collections was narrated through the personalities of collectors, archaeologists and museum directors who are considered the ‘fathers’ of the museum (fig. 4). Objects and archival documents told the story of a particular period in the history of the museum, intertwined with the history of museums and archaeology in general. With this exhibition, curators successfully explained the complex nature of the Archaeological Museum’s collections and the processes that contributed to the museum’s foundation. There, visitors had the opportunity to get to know the Archaeological Museum’s collections more intimately, to investigate the historical evolution of the ways of looking at antiquities and of preserving them, and, above all, to expand on the subject of the birth of modern museums.

Fig. 4. Exhibition ‘Ritratti di Famiglia/Family Portraits’ (Archaeological Museum of Bologna), section dedicated to Pericle Ducati, museum director between 1921 and 1944. During his direction, the museum notably incremented its collections and established relationships with other Italian and European museums thanks to loans and donations (Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna).

The Egyptian Museum of Turin

In 2015, the Egyptian Museum of Turin opened again after a major reorganisation project. Curators decided to arrange the first museum section as an introduction for the visitors to the history of the museum itself and of its collections. The history of the museum was narrated through objects, archival documents, photographs, the use of old display cases, and by the collectors and Egyptologists who assembled its prestigious collection throughout the centuries (e.g., Bernardino Drovetti, Jean François Champollion, and Ernesto Schiaparelli). The section was conceived as an introduction to the museum collections displayed in the subsequent exhibition rooms.

Moreover, throughout the whole museum itinerary there is a constant reference to the history of the museum collections, with the recurrent use of photographs and documents related to the discovery of the archaeological objects exhibited and of the excavations conducted (fig. 5). Therefore, besides representing the history of the museum itself, this approach provides a comprehensive view of the history of archaeology and of museum history in general.

Fig. 5. A portion of a display case in the room 6 of the Egyptian Museum of Turin, showing the information provided by museum curators on the history of the archaeological digs at Deir El-Medina, where the museum objects displayed in the room were discovered (Museo Egizio, Torino).

The first section dedicated to museum history was reorganised in 2019. The new arrangement sees five exhibition rooms entirely dedicated to the history of the museum, again recounted through the main personalities who founded the museum collections. Video installations support the exhibition which is composed mainly of objects, archival documents, and historic photographs. This time, great emphasis is on the faithful reconstruction of an 18th-century museum room, made of original display cases, where the objects are exhibited following 18th-century museographic practices (e.g., without the use of labels) – an immersive experience for museum visitors.

As we have seen, in recent years, museums have often been investigating their histories through the organisation of exhibitions and the rearrangement of museum rooms, in order to expand the knowledge on these topics by museum visitors. The examples proposed here suggest that in displaying museum history there is not an approach that prevails over the others, but every practice is effective in its own way. Museums today should reflect on their history and address a critical dialogue about the past as way to enhance the understanding of their collections, aiming to guarantee their safeguarding and valorisation for future generations.

The Archaeological Museum of Bologna

The Egyptian Museum of Turin

Further reading