Execution on Display: Visitor Reactions to Texas’ Electric Chair

• In Event: Wanted (For Display), Dead or Alive: Interrogating the Ethics of Touring Prisons, Penal Museums and Captured Bodies

Abstract

This paper examines how controversial issues are presented in museums through the case study of the Texas Prison Museum’s display on capital punishment. The Texas Prison Museum is capable of creating a detailed narrative of the death penalty, however, the museum produces a superficial display of capital punishment in Texas that overlooks wider issues and debates. Visitor reactions to the Texas Prison Museum’s death penalty display uncover the extent of historical silences created by the museum’s “authorized heritage discourse” of capital punishment (Smith 2006: 29). Furthermore, visitor responses create an opportunity for a wider analysis of the psychological, cultural, political, and emotional reactions to the electric chair’s display.

Author

• Elizabeth Neucere, Texas Prison Museum