The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Looking to the Future Requires Reflecting on the Past

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    This week, Isabel, Drake, and I finalized our case selections and saw all of our work in the archives coming together into a cohesive final product. Over the past few weeks, we worked hard to collect various media types to make our case eye-catching and dynamic. We wanted to tell a story with our artifacts, and seeing it all together I am proud of how we accomplished that. My favorite piece in the case is a photo of a young woman and Dean Crozier at the construction site for the new women's coordinate college. The women are looking to the distance, which I believe can be interpreted in our case as them looking towards the future of Kenyon; a future that involves women. This photo immerses the viewer in history by showcasing a true starting point at Kenyon; furthermore, it invites the viewer to reflect upon the future and the progress that has been made since the first female students descended upon Kenyon. Our decision to place this image on the left side of the case, which is where the viewer would look first if they were to read through our case like a book, was intentional. We wanted to emphasize that this trailblazing student may have been one of the first women at Kenyon, but she was certainly not the last. This will become obvious to viewers as they look through the rest of the case and see a selection of accomplishments of women at Kenyon over the years. I feel a connection with the young woman in this photo, for she forged a path for me and other women to find their place at Kenyon. I hope that our case succeeds in making viewers, especially female viewers, feel the same connection with this student of the past and invites them to question how they can continue her legacy.

         In her essay, "The Political Economy of Memory: The Challenges of Representing National Conflict at Identity-Driven Museums," Robyn Autry investigates how museum curators grapple with how to display sensitive subject matter in ways that are accurate and thought-provoking. Furthermore, Autry reveals that museum operators must navigate a tense political landscape as they search for funding to maintain their stature. Black history museums have an especially difficult time with this, for they highlight content that reveals a collective memory of a minority group. As Autry states, "the politics of race and memory converge as representations of America’s racist past are concentrated within a network of “identity-driven” museums" (58). White people are uncomfortable facing the history of race and accepting that it still impacts the lives of Black people today; on the other hand, Black Americans can gain a sense of pride and collective consciousness when they view exhibits that highlight Black people who came before them. In her essay, Autry argues that exhibits that target Black youth by attempting to spark pride are the most successful in creating a sense of continuity and reality. 

    Similarly to the Black history museums described in Autry's essay, our display case serves to create a sense of continuity with the past, spark a sense of pride in viewers, and highlight the collective memory of a minority group. My group has chosen to include hopeful imagery, like that of the young woman at the construction site, alongside less positive rhetoric, like the newspaper articles that paint women as "intruders" to ensure that we provide an accurate view of the obstacles that female students faced when they arrived at Kenyon. When our audience sees the artifacts that describe women very negatively, they may feel some discomfort around witnessing this negative aspect of Kenyon's past. After all, the bicentennial is supposed to be a celebration.  As shown in Autry's essay, however, these negative, occasionally mundane, aspects are important for audiences to feel pride and connection to the material. Just as Black youth felt pride in how Black people of the past fought for their freedom and their rights, Kenyon students will be proud to see how far our institution has come since the 1960s and 70s. 


Autry, Robyn. 2012. "The Political Economy of Memory: The Challenges of Representing National Conflict at Identity-Driven Museums." Springer Science and Business Media 42: 57-80. doi:10.1007/s11186-012-9185-5.

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