Highlights Archives
Museum Object of the Week Turns 2!
The Wisconsin Historical Society's Museum Object of the Week Web feature is now two years old. This feature, along with online exhibitions and pictorial collection tours, forms a strong basis for a "virtual museum." Begun as a means to reach an ever increasing Web audience, the Museum Object of the Week has featured a wide range of artifacts from the Wisconsin Historical Museum's permanent collection and recently posted its 100th object.
Some objects featured on the Web site have been selected because they coincide with exhibits held at the Wisconsin Historical Museum in Madison. But perhaps the most important aspect of the site is that it allows the museum to share objects that are individually significant but may not meet current exhibition needs. In the past these items would have remained carefully preserved in the museum's storage rooms, but out of sight and largely inaccessible to the general public. Museum Object of the Week has allowed curators to select significant objects from the collection with fascinating stories and couple these artifacts with images and associated items from other Society programs, such as the library and archives, to produce a new "micro" exhibit online each and every week.
The process of deciding which objects are worthy of being featured on the Web is a subjective one. In determining which objects to feature on the site, museum staff have tried to select objects of diverse types, times periods and cultural affiliations to highlight the breadth of its object collections. Museum curators use a number of factors to assess the significance of artifacts. Among these are association, primacy, aesthetic quality, rarity, novelty, typicality, antiquity, symbolism, and evidential value. Below is a further explanation of these criteria with links to objects that have been featured for these very reasons.
Association (The Object as Relic)
History museums traditionally have collected objects that are affiliated with important people and events. Sometimes such mementos do not tell us much about the individuals and events with which they are associated, but people value them as relics that offer tangible links to well-known historical figures and incidents.
Aesthetic Quality (The Object as Art)
Like art museums, history museums collect visually appealing objects with the discrimination of art critics. Such artifacts demonstrate the skills, tastes, and creativity of their makers and are prized as objects of beauty and products of exemplary craftsmanship.
Rarity
Like many private collectors, museums value some objects because there are relatively few of their kind. Many people believe that scarcity makes artifacts all the more precious and extraordinary. Although unique objects sometimes do not reveal a great deal about the past, they do carry a certain degree of prestige because few people possess them.
Novelty (The Object as Curio)
Museums sometimes collect objects simply because they arouse people's curiosity, often because they are strange, unusual, bizarre, humorous, odd or exotic in some way.
Typicality (The Object as Specimen)
History museums collect some things because they are commonplace. Ordinary artifacts are valued because their pervasiveness reflects and represents the experiences of many people in a given region, culture, or socioeconomic group.
Antiquity
History museums value some objects simply because they are old. In the United States, items dating to the Colonial or Revolutionary periods are considered "antique" and are precious for their link to a distant past. In Wisconsin, objects predating the Civil War carry this distinction.
Symbolism (The Object as Icon)
Some objects are significant because they feature visual representations that symbolize the values and world views of the people that made and used them. These objects are imbued with meaning that transcends their obvious functional value. They reflect the collective imagination of the society from which they came and help to create a sense of family, community, or cultural identity.
Evidential Value (The Object as Document)
History museums value some artifacts because they serve as tangible evidence of things that happened or provide explanations about how things were done in the past.
Primacy (The Object as Milestone)
History museums treasure some objects because they were among the first of their kind. Such objects mark important milestones in technological, social, economic or stylistic development. Such items are particularly appealing to those who see history as a chronicle of progress and achievement.
Of course, many objects, including those above, are valued for multiple reasons. Tour the Museum Object of the Week archives and see if you can determine what qualities make the artifacts listed there special.
:: Posted January 12, 2007
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