Exhibits History

In its almost 200-year history, the Museum of Science has hosted hundreds of exhibits, art shows, special demonstrations, and other displays meant to create accessible, engaging learning opportunities for the public. Exhibits range from small art displays to large interactive events, with a combination of purchased, loaned, and custom-built elements. The history of these efforts has been documented in an extensive set of files that include photographs, correspondence, drawings and design images, budget and legal information, and other records.

The Archives Department works closely with Exhibits staff to review legacy materials as well as process new records, in order to separate items with archival value and help with overall organization. Guidelines and a retention schedule help identify which records should to be transferred to the Archives and which records may be discarded. Archival records from Exhibits staff include content planning notes, budgets, project timelines, floor plans, component designs, and more in physical and digital formats.

As the Boston Society of Natural History, founded in 1830, the first exhibits were held in a rented hall on Tremont Street in Boston, with glass cases for the public to view the Society’s specimen collection. These early displays consisted of animal skins, skeletons, and natural history specimens; curators specializing in entomology, ornithology, and other disciplines created static displays of artifacts set against neutral backgrounds. Detailed labels with species information usually accompanied these displays.

As the Society developed partnerships with local schools and teachers, groups would be brought in to tour the galleries, now in a grand building in the Back Bay. Led by a curator, these classes would sometime involve hands-on specimen in addition to viewing the artifacts on display. Over the 19^th century, the Society sometimes embraced the trend of displaying taxidermy animal mounts in dioramas with painted or otherwise dressed environments, but many specimen were simply hung from the ceiling or mounted in frames. These exhibits were supported by a huge collection of thousands of specimens, as well as an enormous library with a fine art collection.

In the 1940s, the Society decided to transform itself into a more comprehensive Museum of Science, rather than just a museum of natural history. This involved selling off a huge portion of the art and artifact collections, as well as closing its gallery in the Back Bay and seeking out a new building. The new museum would be designed with prominent exhibit halls as well as classrooms and workshops, prioritizing large, flexible spaces for displaying a wide variety of artifacts and works representing all of the sciences, not just natural history.

The new Museum of Science opened its first building on March 12, 1951, and began to develop new methods of creating exhibits on a variety of science topics, including technology, engineering, biology, chemistry, and more. As the Museum established itself, staff had to design exhibits with engaging, informative content using a much reduced collection. The commercial industry of exhibit design and sales had not yet developed; there weren’t touring exhibits or partnerships with content producers like movie studios to supply museums with temporary exhibits. Instead, the Museum of Science looked to its allies in local industry and technology to borrow artifacts and to provide suggestions about cutting-edge science that should be shared with the public. This included working with government, military, and industrial partners such as NASA, Boeing, General Electric, and IBM, as well as continuing to collaborate with partners at Harvard, MIT, and other schools and museums.

Best practices around exhibit design, subject, and style have developed over the last 70+ years at Science Park. As wayfinding standards became established, the Museum affirmed its image and tone in exhibits that inspired visitors to engage with the materials and with one another. The Museum has always featured a balance of exhibits about technology (such as Space Age Communications, 1961) with other topics such as cultural discovery shows (like the blockbuster Ramesses the Great, 1988) and classic science topics (including Atomic Energy in 1953, Endangered Species in 1974, and Human Brain in 1982). Perennial favorites like dinosaurs, space, and animals are highlighted in permanent and temporary exhibits, using an array of technology, artwork and models, and interactive components. The installation of a triceratops skeleton nicknamed “Cliff”, in 2008, complimented the Museum’s long tradition of exhibits about dinosaurs, archaeology, and the prehistoric world. Some of these include Dinosaur Footprints (1956), Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park (1994), and two different large-scale T. rex models (1972 and 2001).

A common trend for Museum exhibits is the practice of using both real artifacts and replica models or facsimiles, providing a mix of historical accuracy and accessibility. A display of meteorites entitled Visitors from Space opened in 1958, which included a 295-pound specimen from Arizona that is still on display today. A more comprehensive exhibit hall dedicated to space exploration opened in 1964, and included a number of smaller-scale rocket models (some of which remain on exhibit at the Museum) as well as full-size models of a Gemini spacecraft and a Mercury spacecraft. These large-scale installations were exhibited alongside real and facsimile artifacts and tools that demonstrated new technologies.

Another common tactic in early exhibit development was repurposing an artifact, component, or activity in multiple exhibits in various locations around the building. This can make it difficult to trace the lineage of a single artifact or component. For example, one of the earliest space-related exhibits at the Museum was an interactive piece called Your Weight on the Moon, which was installed in 1955 and later refurbished to include scales for other planets, including Jupiter, and retitled Your Weight on Other Worlds.

Guidelines for accessibility in regards to content and component design didn’t exist in the 1950s and 1960s; research about universal design had yet to emerge as an important aspect of exhibit design. Real-time development and research occurred as the Museum installed exhibits and surveyed visitors about their experiences. Creating accessible learning spaces was a concern of many museums, and the Museum of Science partnered with colleagues at other institutions to develop best practices. As federal and institutional rules developed through the 20^th century, the Museum of Science has been a leader in incorporating universal design considerations throughout its education and exhibit areas.

Alongside permanent exhibits, the Museum integrates temporary displays that include an array of topics and formats. Some speak to contemporary social issues, such as Vietnam: A Child’s View (1969), What About AIDS (1997), and Many Faces of Our Mental Health (2017), while others draw on the science and industry of New England to create shows such as Charles River Basin Dam (1964), New England Textile Mills (1976), and New England Caterpillars (Sam Jaffe Photographs) (2017). Local photographers and painters have frequently been featured in solo and group shows, sometimes in partnership with local organizations like the Boston Camera Club or student groups. Temporary exhibits are also a place for the Museum to feature artwork, unique technology, or topics that appeal to a more specific audience, such as Maps of Switzerland (1958), Art of the Space Age (1970), Acupuncture (1973), and Bonsai: Creating Art with Nature (2012).

Through the 1980s and 1990s, the Museum established itself as a center of pioneering design and education, pursuing major exhibits while establishing collaborative networks with other science centers. Blockbuster exhibits such as China: 7000 Years of Discovery (1985) and Ramesses the Great (1988) demonstrated the Museum’s capacity to host elaborate installations that drew enormous audiences. These huge successes encouraged the Museum to develop its own traveling exhibits, which have been immensely popular with museums nationally and internationally. From Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination (2005) to The Science Behind Pixar (2015), these traveling exhibits extend the reputation and values of the Museum of Science to institutions around the world.

The Exhibits division continues to research emerging science topics, trends in education and research, and the needs of today’s visitors in order to create dynamic learning opportunities. Working with local, national, and international partners, the Museum of Science uses its renowned exhibits to create accessible educational moments for learners of all ages and abilities.