Are all the great museums dead?

Jere H. Lipps wrote a wonderful editorial in the latest issue of Palaeontologia Electronica on museum exhibits. Dr. Lipps laments the loss of those ancient exhibits from the Victorian age, when museums were an eclectic assortment of thousands of specimens- all displayed with little educational material (fancy computers, long text, interactive demonstrations etc...).

I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Lipps. Museums must be a place of wonderment.

Sadly, too many kids (and adults) view the world as if all the great mysteries have been solved, all the species described, and the frontiers of science left to the molecular biologists to work out. Museums have done a great job in educating the public, but museum must also inspire the public to solve the remaining mysteries of life.

So how would I design the museum of my dreams? Here I make some suggests on what I've seen work and not work in museums.

I would install flat panel computer screens next to each display with an image of the display items. Visitors can simply touch the picture on the screen to access information about the figure item. No visible text until the visitor selects an object. I've seen this work very well in the new Ocean Life Exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York.

Enclose dioramas in glass. Open dioramas tempt vandalism with trash and pennies getting into the display.

Eliminate movement in dioramas. Dioramas are a frozen moment in time, adding running water or moving lights makes the animals in the display appear fake, because they are not moving as well. (if you do make the animals move, do it subtlety)

Have simple buttons at the bottom of each display trigger a light of a mini-display below the display case for younger kids to explore. The button could also trigger sounds, words and small guessing games. They could also be developed into scavenging hunts. My daughter finds the buttons at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science too irresistible not to press.

Most important! Lots and Lots of stuff. Heck, that is what museums are all about. Fill every space in the wall with items! Good quality casts as well as real specimens. Even the broken or fragmentary fossils tell a good story.

Throughout the museum highlight what we don't know, and urge visitors to join the quest for the answers. Mysteries lurk everywhere in museums.