By: Jonathan Wanzer ORCiD 0009-0004-9275-7410
Submitted on: March 10, 2023
Submitted to: Dr. Tharp – Liberty University
Course: HIST503: Public History and Archival Methods
Chicago Citation:
Wanzer, Jonathan. “Modoc War Exhibit.” Historical Interpretations. Jonathan Wanzer, March 10, 2023. http://wanzer.org/modoc-war-exhibit/.
Notes: This assignment was to design an exhibit that “focuses on the three key components of Exhibit Design: space, objects, and visitors. This assignment is also dedicated to a physical public history exhibit most commonly found in museums or a visitor area of a historic site.”
The original design was to cover the trial aspect of the Modoc War, however, this could be easily reconfigured to be an exhibit on the Modoc War in total, or another subject.
Summary
The exhibit intends to add a spatial component to visual and textual information in existing exhibits. These elements will be combined into a new, contemporary, inclusive, culturally and contextually rich, scholarly reinterpretation that will replace existing exhibits.
The research project examines the legal systems employed and processed during the trial of four Modoc Indians, a key point in the Modoc War. This includes the events leading up to the trial, the trial itself, and the outcomes of the trial which will be a focal point of the exhibit’s overall interpretation, and its multimedia presentations as described below.
The exhibit will be segmented into four areas; the first is the Peace Commission including the circumstances around its formation up to the point the commissioners are killed ending its function. The second segment picks up from the first section and continues through the capture and incarceration of the six Modoc accused of killing the commissioners. The third picks up from the incarceration of the six Modoc and follows their trial through the guilty verdict and sentencing. The fourth picks up from the post-sentencing incarceration through to their execution with an epilog detailing the conclusion of the War and what happens to the Modoc people at its conclusion.
Space
The overall space for the exhibit is approximately 1,225 square feet with a 30 x 30 square in the center and a 2.5-foot margin around the perimeter for cases and interactive displays. The square will be oriented with one corner toward the main gallery entrance. Each corner is clipped at 45 degrees, creating a portal allowing visitors to enter or exit through each of the openings.
The entire structure is oriented to 45 degrees from parallel to the main gallery and entry gallery exposing an opening of the square to visitors entering the main gallery. This is the primary entry point for the multimedia portion of the exhibit. Visitors proceed through the entry opening around through all four segments clockwise exiting back at the entry point. Inside is a wall structure in an X configuration offset (counterclockwise) to encourage clockwise traffic as well as signage and footprints on the floor.
Each quadrant houses a multimedia presentation on a large screen mounted to the exterior wall with a countdown clock integrated into the silent intermission presentation between primary presentations. Each quadrant will have two benches along its interior walls, the X. Each quadrant will have room for visitors in wheelchairs as well as pedestrians. The presentations will be five to seven minutes long and cycle on a 10 to 15-minute schedule allowing for movement between sections and a 40 to 60-minute commitment to the full presentation which can be entered into or exited at any point allowing for interruptions.
Objects
Around the outside walls of the square, standing cases of Native American artifacts associated with the Modoc War already in the museum’s collection accompanied by new reinterpreted infographics panels on the walls, distributed and displayed in a manner that coincides with the four areas described above, will follow in the same clockwise rotation from the main entry as the interior multimedia presentations.
Along with the artifacts and new infographics, the perimeter of the exhibit will contain interactive displays to provide more detailed graphics, text, moving maps, people movements, and enhanced reality video to provide visual and spatial context to the narrative of each section of the exhibit. These interactive displays will be activated and or manipulated by either a touchscreen or a control panel allowing visitors to select elements to display and to interact with them.
Audience
The visitors of the museum presently consist primarily of school tours and local amateur historians with occasional scholarly academic activity in the archives. The curator of this exhibit hopes to continue to draw school tour groups, expanding the grade base of 7-12 to include the college level through a multi-layer approach with interactive elements, and to expand public interest through interactive and multimedia content that appeals to wider audiences.
Through community engagement and early participation in the planning phases of the exhibit, the curator will engage with the local Native American population in the reinterpretation of the history and artifacts surrounding the Modoc War. It is important to ensure that the local tribes have representation and that their perspective is included in the overall interpretation. It is also important to maintain scholarly standards in the reinterpretation of the narrative.