Dissertation Research: Exhibiting Real America: History and Heritage in Museums of Science, Technology and Industry

国家科学基金会博士论文研究改进补助金将被用来开始一段如何定义国家工业和技术遗产的历史。理解这一遗产的主要手段是它是如何在技术、工业和科学博物馆中展示的，特别是通过记忆和真实性的表现，这是形成遗产和身份的关键术语。更具体地说，这项研究将考察历史和文物本身对真实事物的过去表现是如何通过博物馆的物质文化改变的，即文物、文物的布置，试图将文物、建筑、位置联系起来，所有这些都标志着对如何描绘一个“真实”的过去以及什么文物被算作“真实”事物的理解。尽管这个更大的项目包括其他博物馆，但由NSF拨款支持的研究将仅限于两个地点，史密森学会和芝加哥科学与工业博物馆，这两个博物馆都将成为了解联邦和国家遗产和博物馆历史的焦点。研究将集中在寻找在国家发明、创新、技术能力或物质能力的发展中发挥形成作用的文物和展品，特别是当它们与飞行、工业制造和军事有关时，并收集负责将它们组合在一起的人之间的辩论、通信和讨论的信息。作为一种政策指导，本文试图勾勒出一种保护的哲学，以及一个连接公共和学术话语的框架，这些话语涉及历史和遗产。长期以来，遗产一直是保护工作的试金石，人们越来越多地将注意力转向过去的工业和工程遗址，作为潜在的遗产区。这些项目将工业历史转化为旅游收入，重振经济停滞不前的城镇，这事关重大。在对未来命运产生如此明显影响的情况下，过去可能会过于曲折，不能为现在服务。遗址或区域的文物不仅涉及大商业，还涉及大政治。在纽约市世贸中心遭到袭击后，人们对纪念这一事件进行了大量思考。显然，遗产和纪念活动是政治资本的巨大来源。因此，博物馆历史的一个主要目标是刻意和系统地考虑分离历史和遗产，以及区别对过去表现的政治的影响。该项目的一个重要部分包括建立一种遗产和保护的哲学，不仅为博物馆实践提供信息，而且更广泛地为公众和学术领域之间的对话提供信息。这篇论文建议将这种哲学建立在对真实性的理解上，即理解过去是如何被描绘成真实的。

A National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant will be used to begin a history of how the nation's industrial and technological heritage has been defined. The central means of understanding this heritage is how it has been presented in museums of technology, industry, and science, particularly through representations of memory and authenticity, key terms by which heritage and identity are forged. More specifically, this study will examine how past representations of what is authentic, both in terms of history and the objects themselves, change through the material culture of the museum, that is, the artifacts, arrangement of the artifacts, attempts to contextualize artifacts, the architecture, the location, all of which mark an understanding of how to portray a "real" past and what artifacts are counted as the "real" thing. Although the larger project includes other museums, research supported by a NSF grant will be limited to two sites, the Smithsonian Institution and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, both of which will serve as focal points for understanding federal and national "layers" of heritage and museum history. Research will concentrate on locating artifacts and exhibits that played a formative role in the development a national sense of inventiveness, innovation, technological prowess, or material capabilities, particularly as they relate to flight, industrial manufacturing, and the military, and on collecting information on the debates, correspondence, and discussions between those responsible for putting them together. As a policy guide, this dissertation seeks to outline a philosophy of preservation and a framework for making connections between public and academic discourses about history and heritage. Heritage has long functioned as a touchstone for preservation efforts, and attention is increasingly turning to sites of past industry and engineering as potential heritage zones. There is much at stake with these projects to turn industrial pasts into tourist dollars, revitalizing economically stagnant cities and towns. With such a clear impact on the prospective fortunes, the past may bend too much to serve the present. The artifacts of heritage sites or zones not only involve big business but big politics. In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City much thought has been given to memorializing the event. Clearly, heritage and commemoration are a tremendous source of political capital. Thus a primary goal in this history of museums is to think deliberately and systematically about uncoupling history and heritage, and the ramifications of the distinction on the politics of representations of the past. An essential part of this project includes constructing a philosophy of heritage and preservation to inform not only museum practice, but dialogue between public and academic domains more broadly. This dissertation proposes to ground such a philosophy in an understanding of authenticity, of how the past is portrayed as real.