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Essentials in
History
What does it take to make a museum?
Find out what it takes to make a museum
Updated: 10/1/2002 2:09:00 PM
What does it take to make a museum?
by Ruth Blazina-Joyce, Former Curator/Archivist
The Museum opened in April of 1988 as part of the Society’s 50th-anniversary celebrations, with an exhibit area, an office/workshop, and some storage space. Since then, we’ve added an exhibit hall for revolving exhibits, opened a small video theater, expanded and upgraded collections storage, made access to exhibits and collections easier than ever and established a funding program. Let’s take a closer look at the Museum’s developing role in encouraging and preserving barbershop harmony.
We collect and preserve
Recordings and photographs, souvenirs and scrapbooks, oral histories, documents, artworks and memorabilia—these are the pieces of our barbershopping heritage. They are the backbone of the Museum. These items, and the information they contain about barbershopping, help us preserve our past for the future, and let us enjoy it today.
Part of our responsibility, to both the past and the future, lies in managing and maintaining all these items. Most of them weren’t designed to last forever, and they need a little help if they’re going to be there for future generations. We repair and stabilize any damaged items. We use stable, acid-free paper, padding, photo sleeves, boxes, shelving and cabinets in our storage area. Controlled temperature, humidity, and light levels create a protective environment.
But it’s not enough just to preserve the artifact. We also need to preserve its story. That’s why each artifact is given its own indentification number—it’s the link between artifact and meaning. The number ties into a file containing background information on each item.
We inform
Many of the things we do are aimed at making the information in the Museum easier for people to use and enjoy. We’ve had foreign-language research on barbershop translated into English. We transcribe and edit our oral history tapes into print form.
We also spend a lot of time organizing our information. Many of the separate bits of information from our various resouces are rounded up and grouped by topics in our general archives files, which are updated and expanded each year. And we maintain databases on special topics, such as Society medalist choruses and quartets.
Our mission is still unfulfilled if we can’t share it with others, so we make the Museum’s resources available to Barbershoppers (and the general public) through four main venues: our exhibits, our research service, our web site—and, of course, our Harmonizer articles.
We show and tell
Our interpretative exhibits explore the many aspects of barbershopping. Long-term exhibits give Museum visitors a basic orientation to barbershop—the origin and development of the style; its unique combination of hard work, fun, and performance; conventions and contests. Temporary exhibits explore the highways and byways of barbershop—celebrate our quartet champs’ 50th anniversaries; follow trends in costuming; salute barbershop’s role in military service.
The Museum hits the road through our travelling exhibit. A new display premieres each year at the international convention, then travels to Harmony College and the midwinter convention.
Our research service uses the Museum’s resources to aid all kinds of projects. Over the years, we’ve dug into the archives to answer all sorts of questions, from “Who was the champion quartet in 1972?” to “Has there ever been a barbershop opera?” We also help writers and researchers with material for articles, books and academic papers.
Our new web site makes the Museum even more accessible. Without leaving home, users can browse the collections, visit exhibits, access our research service or lose themselves in our compilation of fun barbershop facts ’n’ stats.
And sometimes we undertake special projects—things we do just because they’re a good chance to bring the Museum to more Barbershoppers. (Well, okay, they also sounded like fun.) Two of our most recent have been Close Harmony Pioneers, a cassette of songs from turn-of-the-century quartets, and A Walk Through Harmony Hall, a video tour of the Society’s headquarters in the beautiful and historic Alford House in Kenosha.
Our ongoing mission
The Museum was founded to collect, preserve, and share the rich and varied heritage of barbershop and the Society. Over the years, we have grown into an integrated resource, offering archives and collections, exhibits and research services. As we continue our efforts to create a Museum that will capture the essence of our world-class singing organization, we wish to thank our many supporters who have taken an extra interest in “the Encouragement and Preservation of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America.”
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