Reviewed by John Durel

This book offers hope for history museums and historic sites. According to the authors, and based on hundreds of interviews they conducted, most Americans value the past and spend time, in one way or another, participating in past-related activities. They look at old photographs, watch historical documentaries on TV, work on their family trees, read books, collect things, keep journals, and visit museums.

The good news for museums is that Americans trust museums more than any other source when it comes to learning about the past. And second only to a family gathering, visiting a history museum or historic site is the place where they feel most connected to the past. Museums outrank Hollywood, books, and universities. When it comes to pursuing the past, Americans like museums.

So why do history museums generally attract fewer visitors than do art, science and children’s museums? In spite of widespread interest in the past, museum goers are drawn more to other kinds of museums. The answer to this vexing question lies, I believe, in our failure to understand and accept how people use the past.

The Past is Personal and Familial

The major finding of this study is that for most people the past is personal. It is the way people make sense of who they are. They are most interested in their personal pasts, the stories of their parents, grand parents, and other ancestors. Even when they encounter a national or more general past, they relate it to their personal experiences: "Aunt Mary used to have one of those;" "Uncle Joe served in that war;" "My family came to America at that time."

History museums need to provide cues, resources, and means to help visitors find their own stories in what the museum is presenting.

The Past is Immediate

The high esteem in which Americans hold history museums and historic sites is based on the authenticity of artifacts and historical settings, not on the meaning or interpretation given by the curators. The authors state that "approaching artifacts and sites on their own terms, visitors could cut through all the intervening stories, step around all the agendas that had been advanced in the meantime, and feel that they were experiencing a moment from the past almost as it had originally been experienced."

History museums must be wary of using artifacts simply to illustrate a story or thesis. Rather, let the story grow out of the artifacts. Let them speak.

The Past is Usable

Americans use their respective pasts to understand their present lives, and to prepare for the future. They feel a responsibility to make a difference in the world. They turn to the past to formulate a legacy for the future. One recovered alcoholic put it this way: "I like to use my past to help people when they get in trouble." Another watched Schindler’s List with her son "to make sure he understands... to make sure nothing like that ever happens again."

History museums need to help their visitors formulate their own legacies, to use the past to guide others into the future.

Guidelines for History Museums and Historic Sites

The findings in this book, combined with other insights, can serve as a guide for assessing current, and planning future historical exhibits and experiences. In recent years we have come to better understand how humans learn (see the works of Howard Gardner and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) and what they enjoy (Pine and Gilmore, The Experience Economy). Will Phillips’ interpretation of Aristotle adds another dimension. (See "Aristotle’s Insight" Management Briefing).

Taken together, these works yield a checklist of the qualities that comprise a meaningful historic site or history museum experience. To view the checklist, go to Management Briefing: Checklist for History Museums and Historic Sites.