ON THE ‘PUBLIC’

A recent discussion with a colleague raised the question as to who the ‘public’ actually are when referring to Public History. Almost immediately, individuals considered to be the ‘public’ imagine Public History as plaques on buildings and museum exhibits. But Public History is far more than just catering to people outside of the scholarly realm. In fact, the ‘public’ are professors, employers, employees, doctors, and so on. To examine this idea even further, Public History can be even more than just history for public consumption. There are many instances where Public History is produced for private individuals, and is kept as such.

In class today we had a lengthy debate about the use of a single word within a text panel for an exhibit. As public historians, we must appeal to the greatest amount of individuals when creating public history. Is there a way of presenting material acquired through scholarly methods in a way that can be consumed and understood by the greatest amount of people?

First, it is important to develop a thesis...and stick to it. It is inevitable that multiple ideas will work their way into a single text panel, and the ability to tie all of these back into the thesis is vital. Otherwise, the message can become skewed, leading to confusing and misinterpretation.

The ability to keep the language simple also ensures that the message is understood by the majority of individuals who examine text panels. To saturate text with advanced vocabulary will alienate the very public that a public historian is trying to cater to. Not everyone who examines public history will have a university degree, and even if they do, there is no guarantee that they will be able to interpret the text the way the writer intends. In the worst case, the individual reading the text quickly loses interest after becoming ensnared in ‘wordy’ paragraphs.

Less is more. According to Archives & Museum Informatics, the average attention span in a museum is approximately 45 seconds to 1 minute. This includes the amount of time spent looking at the exhibit itself, leaving very little time to read text panels. Looking back at the question of language, do public historians want individuals to spend a significant amount of time trying to understand the language used? A safe bet would be ‘no’.