Feeling History, Thinking History

• In Event: Emotional Truths? Oral History and Museums

Abstract

Can emotional engagement lead to meaningful historical understanding? Does the question get answered in a museum gallery than in more academic realms? Filene will explore the relationships between emotion, evidence, and interpretation in museum through two exhibitions that relied on oral history. In “Where Is Tobe? Unfolding Stories of Childhood, Race, and Rural Life” (North Carolina Collection Gallery, UNC-Chapel Hill) used oral interviews to capture community perspectives on a 1939 children’s book that used photographs of that community to tell a generic story of African American life. “Open House: If These Walls Could Talk” (Minnesota History Center) uses interview excerpts to help visitors envision themselves as historical actors and intuit how historians construct the past.

Author

• Benjamin Filene, UNC Greensboro