A Hierarchy of Labels
This article originally appeared in Exchange,
a newsletter published by the Wisconsin Historical
Society. (Volume
24, Number 4, July/August 1982) It is the sixth in
a series of articles titled Exhibiting
Local Heritage. The series features information
about planning, designing and constructing interpretive
museum exhibits. This article was written by Tom
McKay, retired local history coordinator for the
Wisconsin Historical Society.
Interpretive exhibits have a story to tell. The exhibit that tells its story successfully does so through the effective organization of label information and historic materials. Understanding the relationships of labels to one another and to historic materials is one of the keys to good exhibit work. These relationships can be expressed through a hierarchy of labels.
Interpretive exhibits have four types of labels. An easy way to remember
the four is to use terms that indicate the nature of each type of
label. The four types of labels are: title, keyword label, detail
label, and caption.
Every interpretive exhibit should have a title. The best titles are
interesting, clear and usually brief. An exhibit title
needs punch to help attract the visitor. A title for
an exhibit on facing winter in the 1800s might be Smithville's
Long Winter.
Some exhibit titles require the clarification of a
subtitle, for example Ribbons
of Steel: The Railroad Comes to Smithville.
Keyword labels summarize with a phrase each main concept in the exhibit.
Each section of an exhibit that introduces a main concept
begins with a keyword label. These labels constitute
the most important type of written information in an
interpretive exhibit because they introduce the main ideas. Even the
most casual visitor reads the keyword labels, and they are the indispensable
guideposts for the more seriously interested visitor. The exhibit
on Smithville's
Long Winter provides
three good examples of keyword labels. "Ice and Snow for Industry" would
be a phrase introducing the Smithville logging industry
and summarizing its dependence on winter conditions
to skid logs out of the forest. On the other hand, "Surviving Winter's
Blast" would
characterize the struggle against the hardships of
winter faced by early Smithville residents. "Winter Wonderland" would
examine past wintertime recreation. These three phrases
used as key word labels represent each main concept in the exhibit.
Detail labels can be thought of almost like evidence. They are very
brief paragraphs that present the information supporting or explaining
a concept. A detail label serving as an introduction usually accompanies
the title of an exhibit. Each section of an exhibit has a keyword
label and one or two detail labels. Returning to our example, the
section "Surviving Winter's Blast" might have the following detail
label:
"Smithville's early residents used abundant local stands of oak and hickory as their chief source of heat. Even so, long winter's nights made hand-sewn quilts the standard bed covering. Business records of the Smithville general store show a brisk business in woolen garments of all kinds."
The historic materials used in an exhibit also constitute a portion,
indeed the essential portion, of the evidence supporting
concepts. As a consequence, the detail labels must
be closely coordinated with the objects, photographs and documents
in an exhibit. There is a simple rule to remember: What you say,
as written in detail labels, is
what they see, as represented by the historic materials. Following
this rule, the detail label above might be accompanied
by a cast-iron stove, an old photo of a wood pile,
a quilt, pairs of woolen mittens, and an account book from the Smithville
general store opened to an appropriate page.
Captions are a final type of label that may appear in interpretive
exhibits. Captions identify specific photographs or
artifacts. The use of captions should be restricted
to items that are unfamiliar to most visitors. Littering
an exhibit with captions disrupts the visitor's attention
to concepts; and in the case of the great majority
of recognizable materials, they are simply unnecessary.
There is no need for a caption that says "woodpile" on
a photograph of a woodpile.
Understanding the hierarchy of labels is a basic step in learning to prepare successful interpretive exhibits. It leads to the ability to introduce a topic, summarize main concepts, and provide supporting written information carefully coordinated with the historic materials that are unique to the educational process in interpretive exhibits.
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