Author: Lucy Eickelberg
My Spring 2024 internship at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History was led by Gretchen Anderson, Head of Conservation, and began in the stages of assembling an exhibition.
The exhibition ‘The Stories We Keep’ centers around conservation, the life of objects, and the stories they tell. As the museum's vision changed, some of the Walton Hall artifacts have begun to be taken off view. Walton Hall housed a substantial amount of the Egyptian artifacts of the CMNH’s collection. As the exhibit is permanently removed, Gretchen’s team (among others) have begun checking, cataloging, and documenting them anew. This is how the idea for a new exhibit came to fruition: to show a new life breathed into neglected artifacts and highlight the importance of conservation. Repeat museumgoers might recognize objects from the Walton Hall, such as the bead makers. The life-sized models were one of the centerpieces of the old exhibit and are given similar treatment in the new exhibit.
Having familiar objects framed in a new exhibit gives the visitors a completely new experience. One of the largest projects currently is the conservation of the ‘Dashur Boat,’ a funerary boat of which only 4 exist in the world. It sustained significant damage in its earlier display, in which museum goers were encouraged to step inside this ancient artifact. To observe the work done on the boat, you can walk up to the walls of the Visible Lab.
A vital part of the ‘stories we keep’ exhibit is the visible Lab. This sector if the exhibit is an actual workplace of conservation staff at work- able to observe through panes of glass. This mirrors the visible Paleontology laboratory in the dinosaur exhibit. The open lab at SWK has multiple daily slots, where visitors can approach the glass and ask the conservators on staff questions. As the staff works on the ‘Chantress of Amun’ coffin, one of the first objects ever acquired by the museum, visitors can observe closely the care with how inanimate objects are treated.
As a central theme of the exhibit, the vision is focused around the life and stories of individual objects. They aim to contrast how ancient history is not just stories of bygone eras, but is very closely linked to us in the objects we leave behind.
Seeing The Stories We Keep assemble itself was truly magnificent. It encourages attention to the traces we leave and our daily interactions with the world. It leaves me often with a question that I’d like to leave to you, too: ‘What object would tell a story about your life?’
The comparative displays of the SWK exhibit