Dominant narratives in western historical museums often evoke a nostalgia for a Western Frontier that did not actually exist in the United States. Many Western historical museums, in particular, preserve nostalgia of an imagined Western Frontier through narratives of white masculine heroism, by featuring objects and artifacts symbolizing American exceptionalism and conquest, and by developing a sensory experience in exhibits to recreate an idealized time in history. As our understandings of history evolve, it is increasingly more evident that there is a significant need for Western historical museums as knowledge producers to shift narratives in exhibits from the dominant white-settler perspective. An integration of different value systems, cultures, practices, and beliefs in exhibits is possible by incorporating a diversity of thought in the frameworks used to interpret history, through the inclusion of diverse stories, and through creating accessible exhibits to reach a broader public audience.

Computer-based multimedia offer an alternative means of providing instruction to learners in two primary, yet disparate, ways. Multimedia can be used to convey information to learners, or alternatively, learners can make use of multimedia to impart information. One example of the use of multimedia technologies at the University of South Florida is an interactive computer kiosk installed in the Anthropology Exhibit Gallery. The development of the educational program featured on the kiosk's touchscreen computer is the subject of this paper. The purpose of the kiosk's program was twofold: 1) to introduce the field of anthropology to university students and the general public who visit the Anthropology Exhibit Gallery; and 2) to incorporate training in the creation of multimedia materials into two departmental project-based courses, Museum Methods and Visual Anthropology. Designing effective educational programs that take advantage of multimedia capabilities without losing focus on the user's needs or on the content being presented is a challenging endeavor. In this paper, I present the process of designing an interactive multimedia program, and discuss the critical issues of audience, hardware and software, programming tools and other technical and design considerations. The development of the program, furthermore, must be understood within the broader context of several areas, including anthropology and museums, the role of education in museums, and exhibitions as a form of media and communication. Finally, a summary of the project is presented, including a discussion of the problems and successes encountered and suggested areas for further development.

Since its creation, the ethnographic museums have aimed to represent the other cultures. The most recent trends in museology have encouraged the ethnographic museums to go beyond the discovery and to create a space of intercultural dialogue. This thesis analyses the impact of multiculturalism and postcolonialism on the temporary exhibitions organised at the National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum ‘L. Pigorini’. The study is conducted on the African heritage and in the selected period 1994-2014. The research is carried out pinpointing three main channels through which the two ideological orientations could penetrate in the museum practices. By the evaluation of the exhibitions, this study provides a new methodology for the understanding of the influences of the most recent trends in museology within the museum contexts.

This thesis explores the history of British anthropology at the start of the twentieth century through a biographical focus on Maria Antonina Czaplicka (1884-1921). The title calls into question the marginalisation of people and processes in the history of anthropology that do not explicitly contribute to the dominant lineage of British social anthropology and offers to add depth and nuance to the narrative through analysis stemming from material sources. I use Czaplicka as a case study to demonstrate how close attention to a seemingly marginal person with an incomplete and scattered archival record, can help formulate a clearer picture of what anthropology was and what it can thus become. My research contributes to the understanding and appreciation of women's involvement in anthropology, calls into question national borders of the discipline at this point in time, highlights the networks that nurtured it, and demonstrates the potential that museum collections have for an enriched understanding of the history of anthropology. I propose that history of anthropology is better understood through a planar approach that allows multiple parallel developments to exist together rather than envisaging a linear evolution towards a single definition of social anthropology. The project lays the groundwork for further research into the role that museums can have for understanding anthropological legacy and the possibilities they may have in creating fresh understandings of the contemporary world.

Presenting a case study of an American Indian exhibit at the Funk Heritage Center, I critically examine how this museum’s ideologies and preferred pedagogies shape public discourse about Southeastern Indians in the past and present. Using the methodology of Visitor Studies, this public archaeology project illustrates the benefits of incorporating applied anthropology into museological practice through collaboration with museum staff, volunteers, visitors, and American Indians. Operating within the theoretical frameworks of Charles R. Garoian (2001) and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (1991), my results imply that inserting archaeological narratives into institutional pedagogy alters a museum’s traditional “performance” of the past by challenging its own authority; ultimately, I show how this process can increase viewer awareness about the politics of display.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 97 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Computer-based multimedia offer an alternative means of providing instruction to learners in two primary, yet disparate, ways. Multimedia can be used to convey information to learners, or alternatively, learners can make use of multimedia to impart information. One example of the use of multimedia technologies at the University of South Florida is an interactive computer kiosk installed in the Anthropology Exhibit Gallery. The development of the educational program featured on the kiosk's touchscreen computer is the subject of this paper. The purpose of the kiosk's program was twofold: 1) to introduce the field of anthropology to university students and the general public who visit the Anthropology Exhibit Gallery; and 2) to incorporate training in the creation of multimedia materials into two departmental project-based courses, Museum Methods and Visual Anthropology. / ABSTRACT: Designing effective educational programs that take advantage of multimedia capabilities without losing focus on the user's needs or on the content being presented is a challenging endeavor. In this paper, I present the process of designing an interactive multimedia program, and discuss the critical issues of audience, hardware and software, programming tools and other technical and design considerations. The development of the program, furthermore, must be understood within the broader context of several areas, including anthropology and museums, the role of education in museums, and exhibitions as a form of media and communication. Finally, a summary of the project is presented, including a discussion of the problems and successes encountered and suggested areas for further development. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The subject of this thesis is the temporary and travelling exhibition Velorios y santos vivos: comunidades negras, afrocolombianas, raizales y palenqueras [Wakes and living saints: Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal and Palenquero communities]. ‘Velorios,’ as many people involved in the project referred to it, portrayed Afro-Colombian funerals and devotions to Catholic saints, and was on display in the temporary exhibitions hall in the National Museum of Colombia, in Bogotá, from 21 August to 3 November 2008. Before it closed, a travelling version was designed that began to go around the country in 2009. When I wrote this thesis, ‘the Itinerante,’ as the travelling version was referred to at the Museum, was still available as one of the displays that its Travelling Exhibitions Programme (TEP) offered to the public. I use Velorios and the Itinerante as the main ‘characters’ in an ethnography of the National Museum of Colombia, where I explore the different instances in which this major exhibition produced visibilities and invisibilities regarding the place of Afro-Colombian people in the nation. As a museum, this institution is responsible for managing, researching and displaying its four collections (of art, history, ethnography and archaeology) but also, as one of the Ministry of Culture’s ‘special administrative units,’ it is in charge of designing and implementing policies that regulate all the other museums in Colombia. This is in keeping with national and international official legislation regarding cultural heritage, like the National Culture Plan and UNESCO’s resolutions, and in support of the development and strengthening of museums, museology and museum design in the whole country. Here I show what these responsibilities and duties translate into on the ground. The themes that the thesis explores are i) (in)visibility, ii) participatory collaboration and, also as the means to approach these themes, iii) documents and documentation. They are all components of the kind of curatorship that this museum exhibition conveyed.