What's this? A Post Without Pictures?

What Public History and Digital Media has meant to me...
by Jeff Stewart

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to summarize my thoughts regarding my first and only experience in a public history class. First of all, I had never really heard of public history prior to entering the history program at U.C.F., and had never given a moment’s thought to museums and how they were created. I have visited museums all of my life and have gone to educational web-sites ever since there have been educational web-sites and again, had never for a moment thought about what went into the development of those physical and virtual exhibits. Public History and Digital Media changed all of that for me.


While my career thus far has put me to work primarily in the hospitality industry, both in the hotel/lodging, and in the food and beverage aspects of that industry, I have never really enjoyed what I did for a living. What I did enjoy, was when I was able to design a new business, a new product line, a new service, etc.


When I decided to go back to graduate school and become a historian, I saw myself as giving up on all that I had done in my previous career and donning a tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows. I would stride among the ivy covered buildings with a pipe in my mouth and little round glasses down on the tip of my nose; occasionally dispensing wisdom to wide-eyed undergrads who would eagerly eat up every word that came from my mouth. Then of course, I would periodically have to take off my tweed jacket, replace it with a leather one, grab my bull-whip and hat, and have to run off to some exotic location to take part in some dusty, spider-web covered, history oriented adventure. And of course, in the end I get the girl. This is the life of a historian, right?


So where am I going with all of this? Well, Public History and Digital Media has changed all of this for me. I now see the nebulous, fog shrouded outline of a new career for myself. I don’t know specifically what shape it will ultimately take, but I now see that I can meld the aspects of my former career that I enjoyed and was good at, with the study of history. I can find a way to teach history without walking around in a tweed jacket with little round glasses on the tip of my nose. I have nearly perfect eye-sight, so that never really made much sense anyway. And besides, I hate pipe smoking and am afraid of mouth cancer, so this new direction really should work out better for me in the long run.


While Public History and Digital Media has primarily dealt with, obviously, digital media, it seems to me that telling a historical narrative can take a thousand forms. I think that Dr. Walter’s digital re-creation of the 1964 World’s Fair is going to be fascinating. I also think that traditional museum displays can be brought up to date with new technologies and as such can be made far more interesting and informative. The ideas that we have discussed in this class can also be adapted to educational vehicles such as documentary films as well. The concept of the “virtuous circle” is one that I believe will be useful in whatever aspect(s) of narrative presentation that I will ultimately pursue as a career.


The “virtuous circle” it seems to me, has its roots firmly in the repetition of information notion that advertising/marketing professionals have practiced ever since there have been advertising/marketing professionals. It also uses aspects of communication research such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model or ELM that academics in that field have been investigating for the past twenty or so years. People remember information that they have seen over and over again. They are then persuaded by that information when they internally elaborate on that information and make it their own. The virtuous circle concept accomplishes both of these tasks. One stroll through a museum will result in very little information being retained, much less internalized. When the same information is seen, for example, on a web-site after the museum visit, then that information begins to find purchase in the mind of the museum visitor. They can then internally elaborate on that information, making it into their own, and enjoy their subsequent visits to the museum even more.


So in summary, what has this class meant to me? Well for one, I am not looking at the career of a historian in nearly the same way. I still have a hankering to write books, but I now want to do more. I want to design and build things; web-sites, museum exhibits, non-museum exhibits, and perhaps even make documentary films. I don’t really know specifically how I am going to do this yet, but every journey starts with that first step. Public History and Digital Media has given me that first step. We’ll just have to wait and see where that journey will eventually go.

Well, it ain't the Louvre, but...

While walking up to the Orange County Regional History Center, it is hard to not be impressed. The old courthouse that was converted into a museum has been beautifully restored and truly adds to the beauty of downtown Orlando. Not only is the building striking, but the grounds that the visitor walks through on the way to the main entrance are not only attractive but also a highly appropriate representation of central Florida. The fountain surrounded by cypress trees and bronze alligators creates an ambiance that is uniquely central Florida and this is to say nothing of the bronze Florida “cracker” wrestling an alligator.

As I walked through the large front doors and into the rather impressive atrium, I could not help but be a little excited about my museum visit. I gladly handed over my $9.00 (oh wait, I have a student ID, make that $7.00) and followed the cashiers advice by proceeding to the 4th floor to begin my tour.

When I arrived at the base of the “Grand Staircase”, which incidentally is pretty grand, I noticed what could be perceived as a Mercury space capsule next to the men’s room door. I wanted to conduct my visit in the manner recommended by the cashier, but could not resist investigating this oddity. The space capsule was a crudely fashioned fiberglass mock-up of a Mercury space vehicle. When I say “crudely fashioned”, I am being as generous as I can be. The reason that I know that it was supposed to be a Mercury capsule is the plaque labeling it as such. The plaque identified it as Freedom 7, the capsule that carried Alan Shepard on America’s first flight into space.

While I can only assume that the general shape and dimensions are the same as Freedom 7, but aside from that, it had very little in common with the real thing. Besides being placed next to a bathroom, the display (for lack of a better term) seemed to be designed as an interactive way to experience being in a Mercury capsule. There is a hole in the side allowing visitors to sit on a plywood bench in the spaceship. Once seated, the visitor can flip two or three toggle switches that do nothing, and stare at a piece of paper with instruments printed on it that I assume is supposed to represent an instrument panel.

Hoping that this mock-up was little more than an afterthought, I proceeded up the grand staircase (did I mention that it really is fairly grand) to the fourth floor to begin my visit. The first exhibit, “Discovering a Paradise” is a fairly immersive environment that shows the visitor a few artifacts and some displays representing pre-Columbian indigenous life. There is also a little bit about the geography and geology of Florida. Well, it’s not the Smithsonian, but it’s not too bad. They play some environmental sounds that help with the immersion, but I kept thinking that maybe some smells might help as well. Maybe the odor of a cypress swamp and a campfire smell when the visitor gets to the indigenous couple? There really is nothing in this exhibit that could be considered as interactive, but it is not a bad start to my visit. I like the outdoor sounds.

The next exhibit deals with life in Florida for both the Seminole Indians and the European settlers. Again, there is not much in the way of interactive activities, but the displays like the log cabin and the orange orchard were somewhat interesting and a decent way to display the artifacts that were dispersed throughout the exhibit.

Rather than continue this play by play of my museum visit, I think that I will point out some of my overall impressions of the OCRHC. First off all, there is virtually no interactive activities of any kind. Those few push buttons that start video screens or light up lights on a map should not be considered as interactive. The displays are well designed and built, but are for the most part pretty boring. Something as simple as adding odor to the more obvious places (orange orchard, cabin, swamp, etc.) would add an awful lot to the immersion aspect of these displays. One display attempts to replicate the inside of a train. The visitors have the ability to change the view out the windows of the train. This would be a perfect spot for video screens and other interactive technologies, but instead buttons just turn wood panels around to change the views.

Another problem I have with the OCRHC is its choice of material and its allocation of space. First of all, I roughly calculated the total space allocated to the exhibits and determined that about 28.7% of the total space in the building is exhibits. Another 4.2% of the space is taken up by a full size court room that offers little in the way of information about why it is there. The rest of the space in the building is public areas such as restrooms, hallways, a large meeting room, and areas that are off limits. Lest anyone think that I am exaggerating my figures here, I didn’t even include the first floor which has no exhibits except the “Mercury capsule”. If one were to add in the first floor, that percentage of space given to exhibits goes down even further.

The allocation of the small percentage of the building tasked to exhibit space is even divided up strangely. A large amount of space is used for a display about the Orlando Predators arena football team. From what I have heard, the league went out of business due to lack of interest on the part of paying customers. Why should so much space in an Orange County history museum be allocated to a failed business that had only a minimal impact on the people of Orange County. Disney on the other hand has had, shall we say, a more significant impact on the area but has virtually the same amount of space and pathetically few artifacts in its display.

I was impressed however with the live actors that the museum employs. One could view this as the ultimate in old school interactivity. The museum uses people dressed up as specific historical characters and talks to groups of school kids about their characters place in history. The group of kids that I watched, really seemed to enjoy the presentation and were highly engaged; frequently asking questions and making observations.

Well, as I stated in the title, the Orange County Regional History Center is not one of the worlds great museums. It might not even be one of Florida's great museums, however, the students that I saw visiting while on a field trip did seem to be enjoying their time there. They seemed to respond especially well to the in-charachter presenters. While it is easy for an adult to be critical of the history center, I suppose that the real intended audience will have the final say.