The Concord
Museum in Concord, MA is a small history museum that celebrates the history and
importance of Concord as a center of politics, culture, and literature. The museum is a private, non-profit
institution that relies on individual contributions for 30% of its revenue ("Give to the Concord Museum," n.d.). According to the Concord Museum website, the collection of the museum numbers over
35,000 objects, ranging in time period from Native American settlements,
through the Colonial Era and the 19th Century, to the present. The composition of the collection is
extremely varied: there are books, household goods, furniture, ceramics, silver
and pewter, archaeological artifacts, photographs, documents, paintings, and
more. This collection is one of the oldest and
best-documented collection of Americana ("Collections," n.d.), and contains some important
items, including one of Paul Revere’s lantern,
Henry David Thoreau’s desk,
and the contents of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s study.
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| www.concordmuseum.org/about_us-php |
The mission
of the Concord Museum is as follows:
The Concord Museum educates visitors of all ages
about the history of Concord and its continuing influence on American
political, literary and cultural life. The Museum’s nationally significant
collection serves as a catalyst for changing exhibitions, extended classroom
learning, dynamic programs and publications relevant to an ever-changing world.
Founded in 1886, the Museum is a center of cultural enjoyment for the region
and a gateway to the town of Concord for visitors from around the world.
("About Us," n.d.)
This mission statement emphasizes
the value of the museum as an educational and cultural resource, its attention
to learners of all ages, and its international importance. The museum has several broad goals that
directly support the larger goals set forth in the mission statement. The museum strives to be more than just a
history museum, endeavors to increase attendance on a yearly basis ("Concord Museum Report," 2012, p. 4), and wants to focus on encouraging “documentary learning”, or learning from
objects ("School Programs and Outreach," n.d.).
The
Concord Museum offers many services in order to accomplish these broad goals,
and thus to support their overall mission, and some are more successful than
others. Where the Concord Museum excels is
in its educational and local programming as well as with its website. The programs available at the Concord Museum
are very impressive. The educational
programs in particular are wonderful, and range from living history experiences
to on-site classroom learning from artifacts ("Teachers, Students, and School Visits," n.d.). The museum has made connections and
partnerships with local schools in order to encourage history learning, and is
currently partnering with the town of Concord to bring History Day to Concord’s
public schools ("Concord Museum Report," 2012, p.3). Of
particular note is the museum’s Paul Revere Ride Fund, which aims to provide
trips to the museum to students from school districts that otherwise would not
be able to afford it. In 2014, the
Concord Museum partnered with Lowell Public Schools to ensure that every fifth
grader came to the museum at no charge, including transportation and all fees ("Paul Revere's Ride Fund," n.d.).
In
addition to educational programs, the Concord Museum also strives to be an
important part of the local community through many community programs. While some of them deal with history,
including many Patriots’ Day festivities, the majority of the annual events
relate more to the culture of the town.
There are garden tours, galas, holiday house tours, film screenings and
lectures ("Adult and Family Programs," n.d.). Along with the educational programming, these
programs have made the museum integral to the Concord community, and not just
as a history museum, but more as a cultural and learning institution. All of these events have also led to an
increase in attendance, something which the Director believes can be a model in
reversing the trend of declining attendance at history museums ("Concord Museum Report," 2012, p. 4)
Another
service that the Concord Museum provides that helps to support its mission is
its very informative website. The
Concord Museum’s website earned an award from the New England Museum
Association (NEMA) in 2014 for “Best Website, Budget over $500K” (New England Museum Association, 2014). The museum’s website is a valuable resource
for any visitor, educator, parent, or student that wants to learn about what
the museum has to offer. While the
museum is a gateway to Concord, their website is a great gateway to the
museum. It gives an overview of the
museum’s history and its collections, and describes all of the events (annual
and otherwise), along with a calendar.
The
social media presence of the Concord Museum is unfortunately not as
strong. While the museum has accounts on
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, it does not use either of these platforms to
its full potential. The Facebook account is just an announcement page about
upcoming events, all of which can be found on the website. There are a lot of photos of galas and
fundraising events (100+ photos in most of these event albums) that just show a
lot of older, rich people drinking and listening to people talk. There is little to no evidence of two-way communication
between the institution and its user base.
The institution’s Twitter mostly relies on retweets of people’s visits, and does not really engage the
user with information or stories behind the posts. There was only one post related to Patriots’
Day, and that a shameless plug for the museum shop. With all of the great programming in Concord
in general on Patriots’ Day, a user should expect some more enthusiasm. Ross (2012) has found that using social media tools in a humanities environment leads to strong community engagement and the development of a community of practice. A stronger social media presence is definitely something
that should be encouraged at the Concord Museum, as this would significantly
expand their community base and foster community and research connections.
The
Concord Museum also has several specific institutional priorities that further
support their mission and will enhance their collections. These priorities include implementing a
“campus master plan”, preserving the 1930’s building in which the museum
resides, further digitizing their collections, and upgrading the permanent
collection, “Why Concord?”. The Campus
Master plan is intended to create more space for the museum’s “programs,
collections, and operations”.
Preservation of the 1930’s building housing the Concord Museum is
already underway, but further repairs need to be made to the roof and masonry
of the building ("Concord Museum Report," 2012, p. 3). While
space and the quality of the space is the utmost concern, Judy, an employee of
the museum, reported that all of the collections are maintained in
temperature-controlled environments (personal communication, April 23, 2016). The museum has dedicated a large portion of
its grant money from 2012 to repairing the infrastructure of the museum
building, and is seeking funds for the Campus Master plan, estimating its need
at around $100,000 (2012, p. 3).
Continuing
to digitize the collection is a very important priority for the Concord Museum. While the museum has digitized two of its
major collections (Revolutionary War Objects and the Thoreau Collection), it
understands the need to digitize the remainder of its objects. A 2012 estimate of the costs of this
digitization project is $150,000, and the museum is seeking funding ("Concord Museum Report," 2012, p. 3). While the museum’s website is
great overall, access to the digital collections is awkward and hard to
navigate ("Search the Concord Museum Collections," n.d.).
It isn’t very clear on the website how to access the digital
collections: the user selects “Search the collections” from a drop-down menu
and is taken to a page and given options on how to search. The user can search through each collection
or the entire collection. Users can also
browse by beginning a search starting with a letter or phrase. The images themselves are blurry and
low-resolution, and the layout of the record page, while informative, is pretty
dull. The search process is clunky and
the restricted number of images is disappointing, so investment in digitization
at the Concord Museum would be much appreciated. As Rumsey (2015) notes, "digital technology can, indeed, prove to be a valuable instrument to enhance learning and extend the reach of information resources to those who seek them, wherever they are" (p. 478). An upgraded digital collection would support
the museum’s mission of being a gateway to Concord for visitors around the
world – what better way to learn about a museum’s collections remotely than by
browsing the entirety of the collections online? In addition, there are currently no finding
aids or full catalog lists of the museum’s collections, so accessibility to the
entirety of the collection is limited.
Exposing the full collection online would eliminate these “hidden
collections”, so that visitors can see more than what is on exhibit.
The
permanent exhibit at the museum, “Why Concord?” is good the way it is, but
further upgrades could see the exhibit become more interactive and more
engaging, especially for younger visitors.
The question, “Why Concord?”, helps to make the wide subject range of
the permanent exhibit more cohesive. It
asks the users to consider why the history of Concord is important to study,
and why an entire museum exists related to that history. Each gallery in the exhibit seeks to answer
this question. The exhibit begins like a
natural history museum would, with murals depicting life in pre-contact days,
with descriptions of the cultural practices of the Algonkian tribe and
artifacts from the time period. In the
next gallery, the focus is on the Colonial time period and Concord’s role in
the American Revolution. From there, the
exhibit follows chronologically through the transcendentalist movement in
Concord, and highlights the everyday life of people throughout the years. There are some engaging elements to this
exhibit, including question-and-answer activities relating to the Puritan and
Native American interactions, audio stories, sound effects, and a video about a
noted Concord cabinetmaker. While these
are all good starts, the technology could be improved. The video about the cabinetmaker, for
example, is on a loop on a small monitor with a phone handset, and the user listens to the video by picking up
the phone. This seems clunky and may be
very foreign to younger users who may not be as familiar with phone
handsets. Overall, the museum’s
investment in this permanent exhibit is welcome, and any changes will uphold
the museum’s mission of extended learning.
While these institutional priorities are a great start for the Concord Museum, there should be a greater emphasis on the role information plays in supporting its mission. According to Zorich (2008), "information is a key museum asset, on par with collections, staff, physical facilities, and finances" (p. 89). The Concord Museum has placed a great emphasis on its collections and physical facilities, which is wonderful for a museum this size. The information contained in their collections, however, needs to be addressed and managed correctly. In the future, the museum should consider writing an information policy that will govern the knowledge acquired and maintained by the institution.
The
Concord Museum is fulfilling its mission in many ways, through the services it
offers in support of its collections.
The wide range of programs offered by the museum, both educational and
community-based, encourages learning for groups of all ages, and connects users
with the museum collection. The
web-based initiatives of the museum, including its growing social media
presence, award-winning website, and digitization efforts, are a great start to
engaging a wider audience in the museum and its collections. In addition, the physical collections of the
museum are housed in safe environments, and actions are being taken to create
more space for the growing number of objects.
Overall the Concord Museum has identified its weak points and has made
plans to improve the accessibility of its collection materials, which
ultimately supports the museum’s mission.
References
About us. Retrieved from http://www.concordmuseum.org/about-us.php
Adult and family programs. Retrieved from http://www.concordmuseum.org/concord-museum-adult-and-family-programs.php
Collections. Retrieved from http://www.concordmuseum.org/collections.php
Concord Museum (2012). The Giving Common report. Retrieved from https://www.givingcommon.org/profile/1075396/concord-museum-concord-antiquarian-society/
Give to the Concord Museum. Retrieved from http://www.concordmuseum.org/give-to-the-concord-museum.php
New England Museum Association (2014). 2014 Publication awards. Retrieved from https://www.nemanet.org/nema-community/awards/publications/2014-publication-awards-winners
Paul Revere's Ride Fund. Retrieved from http://www.concordmuseum.org/paul-reveres-ride-fund.php
Ross, C. (2012). Social media for digital humanities and community engagement. In C. Warwick, M. Terras, and J. Nyhan (Eds.), Digital humanities in practice (pp. 23-45). London: Facet Publishing.
Rumsey, A. (2015). Why digitize? In M. V. Cloonan (Ed.), Preserving our heritage (pp. 471-478). Chicago: Neal-Schuman.
School programs and outreach. Retrieved from http://www.concordmuseum.org/school-programs-and-outreach.php
Search the Concord Museum collections. Retrieved from http://www.concordcollection.org
Teachers, students, and school visits. Retrieved from http://www.concordmuseum.org/concord-museum-teachers-and-students.php
Zorich, D. M. (2008). Information policy in museums. In P. F. Marty and K. B. Jones (Eds.), Museum informatics (pp. 85-106). New York: Routledge.
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