Exhibit Review: Leo C. Thorne Collection at the Uintah County Heritage Museum
By LeeAnn Denzer

Not long ago a Ute Tribal member exclaimed, “it feels alive!”  She was talking about our Fremont Indian and early Ute exhibit. What a perfect indicator that our project is a success. 

In 2014 we had a monumental task looming before us: we were moving to a new location. Our biggest fear was how we were going to move the Ute and Fremont Collection. The donors of the collection left the artifacts with a contractual agreement that the whole collection would be on display for 25 years without rotation. It also stipulated that the museum would be open year round. One last restriction was that it would not be handled except for dusting, and then only if the museum director supervised.

Thanks to our director, Sam Passey, a plan was created and then proposed to the donor. It was to be a joint project organized through the Utah Humanities Field Services Initiative. The museum staff would work with museum consultants. It was a two part plan. The first part was to secure the collection for moving. The second part was to stabilize the collection for exhibit. The donor agreed and so it began.

In 2014, the consultants came for a three-day workshop. We learned how to condition report, handle objects, and package artifacts for the move. The artifacts are incredibly valuable and need best museum practices when being handled. In 2015 the consultants and staff participated in 2 workshops. The consultants taught us how to develop safe exhibit strategies for each individual artifact. This included manufacturing mounts that would safely support the artifact and yet look nice on display. We found a pest problem which necessitated freezing the leather artifacts and a second workshop to clean and then prepare each item for display. The consultants spent a total of 11 days working with our museum staff.

We were interested in the practice of keeping all debris with the artifacts for research purposes. The leather project was also very interesting. Staff learned that leather has a memory and can be taught to take their original shapes. There were several artifacts that only the consultants handled because of the type of care they needed.

Our staff has benefited in so many ways from this project. Networking with museum professionals has been paramount to our success. “Artifacts that were dead,” the tribal member commented, “are now alive.” Having access to museum professionals through knowledge gained from participating in UMA has been a huge benefit to our museum. We formed friendships and our museum has truly gained a new appeal to the public.

Special thanks to Kimberleigh Collins-Peynaud, Laurel Casjens, Glenna Nielsen-Grimm, Megan van Frank; and to staff members Lana Fullbright, Sam Passey, and Linda Wilson.

• The Uintah County Heritage Museum is located at 155 East Main in Vernal, Utah. Hours vary by season, but the museum is open year-round, Monday through Saturday (excluding holidays). 435-789-7399. http://www.uintahmuseum.org

I found a small history museum that I felt was doing this very successfully. First, I must admit that my personal passion for museums somehow has not been transmitted to my children. But I am working on the next generation and am having more success there. While visiting my daughter and her family in Illinois last summer, I took the opportunity to take my grandchildren - 4 year old girl and 3 year old boy - to the Museum of the Grand Prairie while their mother got her hair done. http://www.museumofthegrandprairie.org/  This small history museum is in Mahomet, Illinois - a place I would guess you have not heard of. It is a small rural town not far from Champaign, but far enough off the beaten track. Yet, they have a wonderful museum that I almost had to drag these preschoolers out of (actually bribed with candy from the gift shop). They loved it! I thought they had as much fun there as they did at the renowned Indianapolis Children’s Museum which we also visited.

This museum has a large Discovery Room dedicated to children. It had tables and chairs for structured activities for groups. There were dress-up clothes and play food for use in the very realistic hearth. There was a Native American Wigwam to explore as well as a ‘river boat’.

Activities for children were not limited to that one area, however. Throughout the museum almost every exhibit had accompanying take-home information sheets with pictures to color, questions to answer or simple activities and information to reinforce the exhibit. Many exhibits had interactive elements. My grandchildren’s favorite was the blacksmith forge where they could use real tools to learn the trade. Pumping the bellows turned on a red light and fan to make fire. Every museum in Illinois has a Lincoln exhibit (it must be a requirement) and this one also had a great exhibit with numerous artifacts and lots of information. Since this area was part of the ‘circuit’ that Lincoln rode as a traveling judge, this was experienced through a carriage ride with Lincoln with a scenic video and narration.

This museum is not unique in using interactive exhibits. We have some small museums in Utah doing similar things. I was fortunate to be able to work at the Brigham City Museum where they have successfully incorporated hands-on activities into their history exhibits without great expense or staff time.

Creating these kinds of experiences requires more creativity than money or resources and can be done in even the smallest museums. Incorporate into the exhibit planning process some discussion and exploration of potential interactive elements which could be used to enhance the stories. Before adding interactives to existing exhibits, I might suggest observing what kinds of things children of all ages (adults still like to play with things, too!) naturally want to handle or explore. Then look for items - actual antiques that could be purchased or insignificant objects in your collection which could be re-designated for hands-on educational use. Or find replica items or someone who can construct objects or sets. All of these objects need to be repairable and/or replaceable with signage or some obvious way to let visitors know they are OK to handle. While exploring the telegraph at the Grand Prairie Museum, my grandson managed to dislodge the spring from the transmitter. When I told the staff person, she replied “That’s why they are hands-on, that happens. Thanks for letting me know so we can fix it.”

Hands-on items should not be added simply for the sake of having hands-on or to create a play area for parents to drop off their children so they can enjoy the museum. The idea is to incorporate activities which enhance the exhibits - activities that individuals, groups, or families can do which help them step into the past to gain a greater understanding of the stories being told. Some activities can best be done together as families with discussion and sharing. Activities that keep children occupied also allow accompanying adults time to study and appreciate the visits. I was able to read many interesting exhibit labels while my grandchildren played blacksmith and still was able to keep an eye on them.

A great benefit of interactive elements is the potential for new experiences every time which encourage visitors to return again and again. Small children love to play with favorites over and over again, but even with the same objects the experience is not the same every time. Understanding of concepts, ideas, experiences and stories deepens through repeated contact as children grow. Group interaction also creates new experiences with repeated exposure to the same activities. Interactives can be an easy, inexpensive way to make visits to your small history museum fresh, new and fun.

Karen Stark works with the Utah Humanities Council as the Museum on Main Street Program Assistant. Karen is a member of the UMA Board and is a passionate advocate for small museums incorporating engaging and professional museum practices.

Located across from the BYU football stadium, the BYU Museum of Paleontology often goes overlooked among the swarms of Cougar fans tailgating and cheering their way through the fall. But make no mistake, while this museum may seem unassuming from the outside, it offers excellent and authentic experiences with creatures from another time.

I stumbled into this museum with my nephews in tow after we realized the Bean Museum was temporarily shut down, and they wanted to get inside away from the summer heat. Knowing it was free (and close), we decided that small might be just the thing for the short attention spans of a 3-year old and a 7-year old. What we didn’t realize that it would be as fun for the adults as for the kids! To be sure, as we walked from room to room there were squeals of delight and sighs of awe from our entire group. There were full skeletal representations, a visible working paleontology lab, and touch areas where we could have a more tactile experience with fossils.

As we left the young boys asked if they could make a donation into the dinosaur’s mouth at the front, and talked about the visit for the rest of the day. I made a note to return again soon by myself so I could take in more of the information and history they had presented. Boasting one of the largest Jurassic Period collections in the world and an ongoing commitment to research and discovery, this Museum is one that warrants a closer look.

If you want to go:

BYU Museum of Paleontology
1683 N. Canyon Road
Provo, Utah 84602-3300

(801)-422-3680

Hours

Mon: 9:00 am-9:00 pm

Tue-Fri: 9:00 am-5:00 pm

Sat: 10:00 am-3:00 pm

Website: http://cpms.byu.edu/ESM/index.html

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BYUPaleo