Open Forum

At art museums visitors know not to touch (but yes, they still do). At science centers visitors know they can touch anything that is not completely encased (but yes, they still try). Natural History Museums have both high touch and no touch exhibits; our displays can be confusing.  

I want to make some minor changes in our galleries to protect a few of our mounted specimens without enclosing them entirely or by building more substantial barriers.  Our floor staff are great at redirecting visitors and engaging them with on-floor touchables and other activities.  But, they aren't always in every gallery.  

I wonder if you might share some of the signage or other methods you've developed to deter specimen damage without plastering "DO NOT TOUCH" labels everywhere.  Humorous examples are highly desirable.

 Thanks!

------------------------------
Rebecca Shreckengast
Director of Exhibit Experience
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Pittsburgh PA
------------------------------

HI Rebecca,

Just did a response to a post referencing your post.  I suggest you look at road signs online for falling rock dangers. lots of humor, make the point. You can adapt for your museum environment. 

------------------------------
Shirley Confino-Rehder
Docent
------------------------------

At our museum we have a green  symbol of a hand making an ok sign for touch and a red symbol with a line across it for don't touch. It only works sometimes (ha ha), but it's a good place to start... you can point them out right at the admissions desk, at the beginning of tours and programs, etc. These were created in-house by Jane Bowers, our exhibits curator.

------------------------------
Mary McDonald
Audience Engagement Specialist
Wenham Museum
Wenham MA
------------------------------

It is human nature to touch, so exhibit design is the best tool to protect something on display. (It's not unlike the need to collect a rock at a park - that illegal but essential tactile souvenir.)

One technique you might try is to pull items similar to those on exhibit that have been "loved to death" and display them near the admissions desk: "This is why we ask you not to touch our exhibits." Part of visitor educational experience could include information that while museums do their best to preserve items, displaying them can affect their longevity and touching (or flash photography) dramatically reduces an specimen or artifact's condition.

Use one or more symbols at the "poor-condition" display and throughout the gallery. I say "or more" because repetitive use of the same sign will dull the senses so that they become part of the background clutter. (Kind of like speed limit signs. Every driver knows the limit, but almost no one obeys them.) Consider alternating the "do not touch" graphic from gallery to gallery would be like hitting the mental "refresh" button.

Having a sacrificial "please touch me" item out when staff are absent may help, too.

------------------------------
Alan Goldstein
Interpretive Naturalist
Falls of The Ohio State Park Interpretive Center
Clarksville IN
------------------------------

Hi Becca,

I think humorous is the way to go.  A few fun signs as well as placing touchable materials near exhibits or on rails.  You might brand your label campaign with the headline of this post:  Touch This Not That. Most natural history materials, at least the old ones, are highly toxic with arsenic and other heavy metals used in preparing taxidermy and even skeletal materials.  In fact, I believe it was one of the collection managers at the Carnegie that did some of the first research that showed how arsenic used on the hide migrated to the outside of the pelt through the hair.  You can probably find it in the archives of Collection Forum published by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections.  I'll see if I still have a copy of the paper to scan.

So it is important to explain to visitors--especially parents--that the no touching is not just to protect the objects, but to protect the visitors.  I've found that many visitors want to know 1) how a specimen got to the museum (since they usually don't walk in the doors) and 2) how was it "made."  Providing answers to this second question is a perfect lead in to explaining the don't touch rule. I've also observed, although never tested, that exhibits devoted exclusively to the topic of preparation are usually a bit of a yawn, and I've always thought that it was because visitors want to know the answers to the above questions when they are standing in front of a diorama, not when they are in a separate gallery.  So perhaps you could integrate your THNT signs with fun facts about preparation.

 You are doing great work!

------------------------------
Carol Bossert
Principal
CB Services
Rockville MD
------------------------------