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用于开始如何定义国家工业和技术遗产的历史。理解这一遗产的核心手段是它是如何在科技、工业和科学博物馆中呈现的，特别是通过记忆和真实性的表现，这是遗产和身份形成的关键术语。更具体地说，本研究将研究历史和物品本身如何通过博物馆的物质文化，即文物，文物的安排，文物的语境化，建筑，位置，所有这些都标志着对如何描绘“真实”过去的理解，以及哪些文物被视为“真实”的东西。虽然更大的项目包括其他博物馆，但由国家科学基金会资助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，这两个地方都将成为了解联邦和国家遗产和博物馆历史“层面”的焦点。研究将集中于寻找在发展国家的创造性、创新、技术实力或物质能力方面发挥形成作用的文物和展品，特别是与飞行、工业制造和军事有关的文物和展品，以及收集有关这些文物和展品的辩论、通信和讨论的信息。作为政策指南，本论文试图概述一种保护哲学，并建立一个框架，将有关历史和遗产的公共和学术话语联系起来。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。这些项目将把过去的工业转化为旅游收入，振兴经济停滞的城镇，这事关重大。由于对未来的命运有如此明显的影响，过去可能会过度屈服于现在。遗产遗址或地区的文物不仅涉及大企业，也涉及大政治。在纽约世界贸易中心遭受袭击之后，人们对纪念这一事件有了很多想法。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有意识地、系统地思考历史和遗产的分离，以及对过去表现的政治区分的后果。该项目的一个重要组成部分包括构建一种遗产和保护理念，不仅为博物馆的实践提供信息，还为更广泛的公共和学术领域之间的对话提供信息。本文建议将这种哲学建立在对真实性的理解之上，即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.