1. Public Memory and the Fate of Objects from a Racist Past
Paula DuPont
pdupon3@lsu.edu
School of Library and Information Science, Louisiana State University
Introduction
In the aftermath of the Charleston, SC, shooting in
June 2015, there was a call to remove the
Confederate battle flag that flew over the South
Carolina Capitol.
Many political figures have said that these symbols
will be preserved in museums or at other cultural
history sites. I wanted to investigate how similarly
culturally sensitive symbols and objects are
preserved.
Materials and methods
• Target population
• Public history professionals at sites that
house culturally sensitive objects
• Data collection method
• Participants were emailed interview
questions and were encouraged to expand on
the questions.
• Data analysis
• Content analysis using an inductive approach
Research Questions
1. Is it necessary and appropriate to preserve these symbols in museums or other cultural heritage sites?
2. If these symbols are preserved so that they may be viewed by the public, what is the context in which they should
be presented?
3. If these symbols are removed and not made available to be viewed by the public, should they be preserved at all
(i.e. placed in long-term storage at an archive/museum or destroyed)?
Results
Accessions Policy
• Objects are only accessioned if they fit the mission of the museum.
• Of the four respondents, two indicated that accessioned objects are kept permanently. The other two respondents
indicated that objects may be deaccessioned if they will never be displayed. Deaccessioning may result in
destruction of the object if it cannot be housed elsewhere.
Curatorial Policy
• Of the four respondents, only one indicated that their institution had a curatorial policy about the treatment and
exhibition of culturally sensitive artifacts. This policy, however, pertained only to Native American remains.
• Of the four respondents, only one indicated that their institution employs review panels before displaying
culturally sensitive artifacts. The respondent noted that the review panel would include at least one representative
from the affected stakeholders. It was unclear how this representative would be chosen and what authority they
have on the topic.
• Though the interview questions were not about the Confederate battle flag specifically, three respondents
indicated that their institutions do not have any Confederate battle flags in their collections. Two respondents
wrote at length about the difference between the Confederate battle flag and the Confederate national flag, and,
unprompted, defended the decision to display the Confederate national flag.
Conclusions
Though the interview questions were about the
display and housing of culturally sensitive objects,
the respondents made a point to address the
Confederate battle flag. This indicates that the
respondents were already concerned about the
continuing question of the display of the flag.
Only four members of my target audience
responded, of about ten emails sent, but I still
received a broad range of responses. One
respondent was almost apologetic about their
institution’s inappropriate interpretations of
culturally sensitive objects. Another respondent
excused inappropriate or offensive interpretations
by saying that it was the only information
available.
The data indicated that public history professionals
are concerned about displaying culturally sensitive
objects, but they are working without the net of
appropriate accessions and curatorial policies that
address the issue.
Public history sites create public memory, and it is
vital that professionals have the training and tools
to appropriately interpret objects that address the
history of racism. Because of a tendency in the
United States to depoliticize traditions for the sake
of homogeneity, public memory may be the victim
of collective amnesia.1
Literature cited
1. Atwater, Deborah F., and Sandra L. Herndon.
"Cultural Space and Race: The National Civil
Rights Museum and MuseumAfrica." Howard
Journal Of Communications 14 (2015): 15.
Further information
This poster and the accompanying paper will be
made available at http://pauladupont.com/papers
after September 1, 2016.
Fig. 1: Frequent themes in interview responses.