The diorama: a place of dreams?
October 8th, 2008 by Wendy Pollock
Joel Bloom, longtime director of the Franklin Institute and ASTC’s first president, died on September 23. As many of us recall, Joel used to speak movingly of his childhood memories of dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History. An obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted one of his speeches: “One of my favorite exhibits was a magnificent Haida war canoe from the Northwest Coast. I would stand beside this canoe and think and dream…I don’t know if I would have become a scientist and then a museum director if that canoe had not inspired me.” The museum was a “place of dreams,” Joel said.
Dioramas are one of the puzzles of contemporary museum planning. If you have quiet halls and beautiful, old dioramas, what do you do with them? ExhibitFiles member Colin Purrington points out that the diorama in his photo, shown here, is even toxic. What do you think?
If you’re going to the ASTC Annual Conference in Philadelphia next week, there’s an opportunity to pay a call on some venerable dioramas, like this one from the Academy of Natural Sciences. You can find out more about the Academy’s dioramas here.
October 8th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I’m a big fan of how the team at the Field Museum in Chicago added interactive and interpretive elements to the dioramas there.
The power of “classic” dioramas certainly continues to inspire visitors!
October 10th, 2008 at 9:29 am
I am currently helping the Oakland Museum of California rethink their Natural Sciences Gallery, which is comprised almost entirely of large and small habitat group dioramas. In reviewing the literature and talking to colleagues across the country, we are not finding much research on the effects of dioramas on visitors (although anecdotally colleagues say they know visitors “LOVE” them. We also know that a number of museums have torn out their dioramas to make room for more “modern” exhibitions. But not many of these projects have been written about.
We are currently in the process of distributing a survey to museum professionals about the dioramas in their museums. Would you like to be added to the survey list? Do any of you have interesting diorama stories of your own?
December 5th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Hi Kathy,
I’m bad about keeping up with these blog things, but just posted this morning about a summative study we did here that involved our immersion dioramas (walk-through full-scale environments) that you may find interesting. I’ve not published the results but would be happy to talk more about it with you. Just holler.
Best, Darcie
April 14th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Hi Darcie,
I am an exhibit preparator at the Oakland Museum that Kathy mentioned above. I am collecting research on natural history dioramas to inform the renovation of our natural science gallery. We aren’t finding much on what visitors get out of traditional dioramas. I would love to look at your summative study, and any other information you might have.
Thanks!
Gail