Library Catalog

Extinct Monsters to Deep Time : Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian's Fossil Halls /

Marsh, Diana E.

Extinct Monsters to Deep Time : Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian's Fossil Halls / Diana E. Marsh. - 1 online resource (334 p.) - Museums and Collections ; 11 .

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations and Tables -- Foreword -- Prologue: Fieldnotes from the Badlands -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Abbreviations -- Chronology A Lists of Relevant Leadership -- Chronology B Geologic Time Scale -- Chronology C Fossil Exhibits Timeline -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Increase and Diffusion: Early Fossil Exhibits and a History of Institutional Culture -- Chapter 2 Group Dynamics: Exhibit Meetings and Expertise -- Chapter 3 Group Dynamics: The Roots of Team Frictions and Complementarities -- Chapter 4 Content Development Debates about Interconnected Processes and Static Things -- Chapter 5 Content Development: The Roots of Interpretive Frictions and Complementarities -- Chapter 6 Diffusion and Increase: Shifts in Institutional Culture from Modernization to Now -- Chapter 7 Conclusion -- Coda The Nation’s T. rex -- Appendix A Consent Form -- Appendix B Interview Questionnaires -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Extinct Monsters to Deep Time is an ethnography that documents the growing friction between the research and outreach functions of the museum in the 21st century. Marsh describes participant observation and historical research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History as it prepared for its largest-ever exhibit renovation, Deep Time.  As a museum ethnography, the book provides a grounded perspective on the inner-workings of the world’s largest natural history museum and the social processes of communicating science to the public.


Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


In English.

9781789201222 9781789201239

10.1515/9781789201239 doi


Museum outreach programs--United States.
Museum techniques--United States.
ART / Museum Studies.

Museum Ethnography, Smithsonian, Natural History, National Museum of Natural History, Deep Time Exhibit, Curation.

QH70.U62

069/.68