Exhibit Review 1
Introduction
The air is cold and damp, one can hardly discern the forms of men in the dimly lit shaft, the silence is almost deafening, yet the silence speaks of hard labor, sweat, dirt, and fear. This is a sampling of what visitors might experience at the Arizona Historical Society’s (AHS) Arizona History Museum’s Arizona Mining Hall exhibit in Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to the University of Arizona campus. According to the AHS website, the society was “established by an Act of the First Territorial Legislature on November 7, 1864” (arizonahistoriclsociety.org). It goes on to state that those who drafted the code of laws governing the Arizona Territory understood the importance of preserving these original documents and future historic records. “Today, AHS serves as the steward of state history, fulfilling its mission to collect, preserve, interpret, and disseminate the history of Arizona and the West” (arizonahistoricalsociety.org). The society’s collections are important tools for fostering public awareness of such contemporary issues as “water availability, immigration, free trade, mining, ranching and agribusiness, the defense industry, cultural diversity, and urban development and revitalization” …show more content…
This juxtaposition of objects and stories, the harshness and the beauty, compelled me to think of Schwarzer’s tenth touchstone exhibit, Mining the Museum, in which a similar technique was utilized to promote thoughtfulness where “the production of one was made possible by the subjugation enforced by the other,” or the exploitation of the other, as in this case (2006, p.
Introduction
The air is cold and damp, one can hardly discern the forms of men in the dimly lit shaft, the silence is almost deafening, yet the silence speaks of hard labor, sweat, dirt, and fear. This is a sampling of what visitors might experience at the Arizona Historical Society’s (AHS) Arizona History Museum’s Arizona Mining Hall exhibit in Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to the University of Arizona campus. According to the AHS website, the society was “established by an Act of the First Territorial Legislature on November 7, 1864” (arizonahistoriclsociety.org). It goes on to state that those who drafted the code of laws governing the Arizona Territory understood the importance of preserving these original documents and future historic records. “Today, AHS serves as the steward of state history, fulfilling its mission to collect, preserve, interpret, and disseminate the history of Arizona and the West” (arizonahistoricalsociety.org). The society’s collections are important tools for fostering public awareness of such contemporary issues as “water availability, immigration, free trade, mining, ranching and agribusiness, the defense industry, cultural diversity, and urban development and revitalization” …show more content…
This juxtaposition of objects and stories, the harshness and the beauty, compelled me to think of Schwarzer’s tenth touchstone exhibit, Mining the Museum, in which a similar technique was utilized to promote thoughtfulness where “the production of one was made possible by the subjugation enforced by the other,” or the exploitation of the other, as in this case (2006, p.