Does perfectly restored equipment all neatly arranged pay a dividend in attendance, or is the public more interested in your restoration shop and in getting access to the inside of those immaculately restored locomotives and cars that all have perfectly lettered "do not climb on the equipment" signs on them? Does equipment displayed as cutaways or components attract more attention at your museum than equipment displayed complete?

Your views appreciated as always.

PC

Wouldn't the best scheme be to have both?

Having gone from no proper equipment display to a dedicated exhibit hall at our Museum, I'd say the public is not sure what it wants.

Prior to the move we hosted a fall "Open House" where folks could go "behind the scenes" to see cars in our maintance barn. The event was a big hit. We would display one or two cars at the doors and provide step boxes for boarding. The reality was that folks were not seeing things much differently than a regular day, but the event worked from a PR point of view.

Now that we are offering tours of Street Car Hall we are experiencing a variety of responses from "oh, that's nice" to folks who want to stay and read every display panel in detail. There is no one size fits all. Some appreciate the as-is display of the three unrestored Washington cars as a contrast to the general service condiction of the four European trams on adjacent tracks, and others want to know "when will the car be restored".

Until we moved the car to the shop for inspection, the Blackpool boat car served as seating for a short talk explaining the overall collection on display. Patrons seemed to like the effect of sitting on the car. A closed car does not work as well for this purpose and the boat car will return to this use after the fall season.

Having said all of this, our real draw continues to be the experience of riding the cars. The improved Exhibit Hall and the tour of Street Car Hall provide depth to our educational mission and resulted in an extended visit time, but the ride still remains key in the minds of most visitors.

Wesley

At Branford Electric Railway, a lot of the public does like to climb on the cars. The children love to ring the bells. For a real racket, have a pack of Cub Scouts visit! The restoration shop showing how the old cars get to look so good is interesting to many visitors. Adults who have some knowledge of antique autos or stuffy museums pleasantly marvel that we allow visitors to touch and see the precious artifacts. Others are just here for the ride.

the public "doesnt have a clue" until you start explaining it to them, its an education, a mystery to unravel and so on.

Based on our experiences at Pennsylvania Trolley Museum I'd say the best approach is to have some pristine exhibits alongside some basket cases--and also be ready to show visitors how one becomes the other. The visitors we appreciate the most, and no doubt those who similarly appreciate the museum's efforts the most, are those who want to see the process in action. We recently created a safe viewing area in our restoration shop for just that purpose.

The variety of conditions of display cars in our separate Trolley Display Building also seems to intrigue many visitors.

If we had only clean shiny examples, or only basket cases, I don't think our tours would be nearly as effective.

We might be able to take a lesson from the Seattle Museum of Flight.

When they first opened, they built the great hall (or whatever they call it) with a large collection of planes in a glass roofed room. The collection of planes was vast, and the only common factor in some case was "they're both planes", though taken as a whole, the collection shows the progress of aircraft design quite well.

The more recent addition deals with planes of war. It's a more conventional building (turns out fancy glass roofs leak) and does not have direct sunlight (fades paint and damages artifacts). Instead, the artificial lighting is closely controlled for dramatic effect, and each plane is set into a small diorama of sort, with a bit of runway, field or carrier deck underneath, and many have a photo backdrop. Obviously this takes more room, but the results are much better and the response has been great.

All planes are immaculately restored, at least as far as I can recall.

You can see some photos from a random sight I found via Google here:
http://home.comcast.net/~bzee1a/MuseumO ... light.html

We have both, and also allow visitors into the machine shop when its safe to do so. I've met several "old-school" machinists who make their living with today's computer controlled machines, but like visiting a more traditional shop. We usually make a comment about not being able to go to NAPA or Home Depot to get parts to fix our streetcars and locomotives. One day we had a streetcar truck that had been rolled out from under the car in one of our carbarns, which gave me chance to explain trolley technology to visiting families. Although hazardous areas are cordoned off, much of our repair and restoration work is out where it can been seen by our guests. It's fun to see the steam locomotive chuffing up and down the tracks, but it's educational to see it with the smokebox door open and the cab removed. One of our barns has some beatifully restored (and running) cars in the front, and some "projects" and a carbody on shop trucks in the back. All of these displays represent opportunities to educate the children of the 21st Century about how we got around before "two cars in every garage" became more than a political slogan.

In my experience, learners process information in many different ways. Psychologist Howard Gardner posed his theory of multiple intelligences. The basis of this theory was that learners process newly received information in differing ways. As the name implies there are many intelligences. Some examples of intelligences are: Spatial, linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, and bodily/kinesthetic. What this means to us as educators and interpreters is that there is no one perfect way to introduce new learning material.
Consider this: If you only taught a group of students only one way to approach a mathematical concept or a work of music or art, would all of your students grasp that concept? Of course they would not. By differentiating or modifying our instruction based on student needs we can help all of our learners succeed in understating a concept.
While disputed by some psychologists, most educators have accepted the theory and have modified their curriculum and teaching to their students benefit.
While everyone has mentioned exhibits which have been particularly successful, you might note that there is not really a common theme which connects them. This is because every group of learners will find a different type of exhibit to their liking. Some visitors will prefer an interpretive ride or an interactive exhibit (bodily/kinesthetic), while others will enjoy learning about the engineering, construction, and repair of locomotives and cars (spatial). Still others my enjoy hearing stories from retired railroaders or enjoy time speaking with the operating/restoration crew (intrapersonal) or listening to and learning about folksongs and folklore relating to railroads (musical/artistic).
People enjoy these different ways of learning because it is the fastest and most efficient way they can process the information which is given to them.
On a related note, after visiting many museums, railroad related or not, one thing remains consistent: equipment which is deteriorating, neglected, and improperly preserved is a turn off. It is acceptable to have projects which are waiting to be completed. However, it is another to let pieces in a collection continue to deteriorate. To me, that represents a lack of priority and professionalism, and in most peoples mind would likely leave a very bad impression of the museum.
I'm sure that addressing the following would have a positive benefit on the attendance to any museum

A bit off-topic here, but when I saw the title, I thought it was some weird "dating advice" post.

I do agree though, why can't you have the best of both worlds, or at least a little bit of both to tide you over..?

I agree with you on this as people's interests vary. When you have many different people visiting your museum you want the diversity in your displays to attact, captivate and create interest in those viewing it.

I don't see 'one size fits all' here when trying to interest the public.


The other plus is making some of the people realize how much effort it takes to take a basket case and turn it into a show piece. Another great thing I personally like is pics documenting the work done on a piece so when it's finished it can show the amount of work that was done, whether in a photo album, display board or even on a website. It helps people appreciate what you have done and I have been doing this as I restore cars too. Even things that aren't basket cases can require alot of work that people would have no idea of the scope involved behind it.