Interrelating Objects

Not every museum display case groups similar objects (geodes) or juxtaposes objects (a Klan hood in a black baby carriage).

Some display interrelated objects.

(Article #3 of a four-parter on the underappreciated step of object selection.)

Interrelating objects is a strategy where you select artifacts to tell a specific tale. They all belong to the same unfolding narrative puzzle.

Imagine one case containing …

… an old photo of two soldiers, one bareheaded, rushing a beach
… a label saying one soldier gave the other his helmet
… a soldier’s helmet with a dent
… a captured German pistol, mounted in firing position
… a Purple Heart medal for death in combat

(BTW, that’s a real example. We designed all the exhibitions at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans when it first opened.)

Those objects aren’t the same type, nor generically from the same era. As interrelated objects, they are evidence that unfolds like a puzzle:

Photograph = the cast
Helmet = a life saved by friendship
Medal = a life lost
Pistol = culprit

Visitors are reconstructing a crime. The display becomes a three-dimensional documentary assembled from physical evidence.

Here’s the thing:

Interrelated objects are an unfolding narrative puzzle.

Sometimes the strongest connection between artifacts isn’t what they are — it’s what they went through together.

Warmly,
Jonathan

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MtM Word of the Day:

Artifact mount. A custom-designed support that safely holds an object for display within a museum exhibit. It stabilizes the artifact and allows the most meaningful viewing angles. For preservation, mounts are often made from inert materials.