Timelines in Exhibitions

Abstract

Abstract Timelines serve as the organizing structure for many exhibitions. This essay explores the use of the timeline in museums in an attempt to understand its appeal and its meaning. The article considers the nature of narrative, and of chronology specifically, as well as the history of the timeline and of its use in museum exhibitions. Raising questions about the message sent by chronological ordering, the essay encourages exhibition developers to consider how exhibits might move beyond the timeline to provide visitors with a more nuanced historical understanding and a more active relationship to the past. If we stop taking the timeline for granted, we might find ways to complicate chronology while still taking advantage of its power.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 22 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.